Can Web use policies really drive employees away?
August 10, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: HR Tech, In this week's e-newsletter - Tech, Latest News & Views
With more people who “grew up online” entering the workforce every day, employers have more difficult decisions to make about how to handle technology use in the office.
Young workers expect access to the technology they want at work, according to a recent Associated Press article.
Some may even factor technology access into their career decisions. If all other factors are similar, some employees may decide to work for a company that’s more flexible when it comes to Internet use and other technology policies.
Have managers who aren’t sure how to enforce those policies? Here’s some advice experts recommend:
- Trust employees - Having access to the Internet doesn’t mean every employee is wasting time. It’s often more productive to wait until performance problems develop and employees aren’t getting their work done – after all, that’s what really matters.
- Don’t forget about the really bad stuff - When companies take a softer line against personal Internet use, it’s important they don’t forget to maintain a zero-tolerance stance against any use of technology that’s illegal, could be construed as harassment or puts confidential information at risk of being stolen.
- Let them know you know - Most companies have the capability to monitor employees’ computer use – though monitoring everything everyone does is impossible. But knowing you have to power to monitor is often enough to keep bad behavior in check. Make sure every employee knows.
Tags: policies, Web use, younger workers
August 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Healthy employees increase business productivity so both employers and employees have something to win from here.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Sorry for the previous comment:
Regarding the web use policy, there are plenty of reasons to control the access to internet. Here are a few reasons why certain file downloads must be blocked at work.
As for driving employees away, they shouldn’t be there anyway if they are that kind of employees.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:50 am
“Young workers expect access to the technology they want at work.” Is this what business has come to? Having to cater to all the “wants” of the younger generation just to keep them happy so they won’t leave. This is absurd. Obviously they haven’t ever learned what the word no means. I am 31 years old and I’m not going to leave my employer just because I can’t have everything I “want”. I’ve seen a lot of different articles on this website dealing with this line of thought and it troubles me that even businesses are expected to give in to the “wants” of the Gen Yers. It’s ridiculous.
To add, the reality is you can give these people anything they want but they end up leaving anyway.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
DWM, it’s not a matter of catering to a bunch of spoiled kids… it’s about changing with the times.
Internet use at work is similiar to using the phone at work to make personal calls. Sure you can have a rule forbidding it, but it’s hard to enforce and your employees will probably roll their eyes and groan if you make a stink about it. So you allow your employees to make a personal phone call here and there as long as it doesn’t interfere with their work. That’s pretty reasonable.
So what’s the difference if you have an employee who wants to check his email or send a tweet? Like the article says, don’t worry about it unless it becomes a problem. If internet usage become a problem for an employee, then let him/her ago (the internet usage is probably just a manifestation of a greater problem anyway).
If letting an employee send the occasional tweet makes them content, what’s the harm? Happy employees lead to happy customers, which leads to more revenue.
Besides, sending a tweet takes less time than making a personal phone call, so that tech savvy person might be more productive than the person yapping on the phone.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I am a very conciencious employee who does not waste time online, but I would almost look at internet access as a litmus test on the employer: if they don’t give me internet access, are they micromanagers and control freaks? I want an employer who treats me like an adult, not a child.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
An incredible number of “adults” do not know what tech behavior is a threat to their employers. Tweets and Instant Messages are sent with so little thought that they can cause real problems.
Whether employer montor their employees use, there should be a clear policy on the personal use of company resources, stating what is and is not acceptable. Granted you can’t stop employees using technology, but you need to have a defense when the company is sued for an employees unathorized blathering. This news feed is full of such.
August 18th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I am on the fence here, but lets all take notice as to the times these comments are being posted…
Looks like we are ALL guilty of using technology during our “work day.” I don’t imagine that any of our managers have required us to spend time commenting to the work relevant articles we are reading.
Time wasted is time wasted, whether making comments to articles, shooting a quick personal e-mail, or sending a tweet. S, I agree with you… my very short and sweet personal e-mails take much less time than a personal call. A one line e-mail letting my husband know I’ll be running errand takes all of 30 seconds to complete.
August 18th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Well put JCE.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I don’t think that reading and posting on this type of subject is wasting time. I want to know what others are doing and I want to keep current.
But come on and get with it! It’s called work for a reason. Our people have access to the internet but with restrictions and it is monitored. I’m the IT manager and I have the same restrictions as the rest of the employees. I have no issues with folks checking weather, catching up on the news, etc. We block many sites as do most companies. We do not permit social networking sites, external emails, etc.
I’m considering at this point of putting a couple of public internet kiosks in the break room for those that want to check their home emails , go to facebook, etc. We also have a few that are in college and having a wireless access point to public internet would help them. The public internet is separate from our LAN so there is no security risk and I think the cost is small.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:34 am
Wow…are we turning into a police state? Before you say anything..remember countries that take that approach with their governments and where it’s gotten them.
Many companies make grave mistakes in trying to POLICE everything that employees are doing. This is a waste of time and really goes against the way humans function. Personal use of company time is something we ALL DO one way or another. Of course, increasingly, companies take advantage of an employee’s personal time in some situations too. We all need to be reasonable. If there’s a problem with an employee not getting his/her work done, then deal with that problem. Before you point fingers, check workloads! Are you being reasonable and fair in workloads based on the job title/level? If you aren’t, you may be charged in court with discrimination!
If you have a legitimate issue with an employee, then take action. You can remove phones, internet, etc. and still have employees wasting time. Deal with problems, don’t slap everyone! Having access to read the news online or send a personal email is not a big deal. Luckily, most of the email sites (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, windows live) have virus scanners that automatically scan incoming and outgoing attachments so there is increasingly less need to panic about network security.
The times are changing and we all need to adjust.