Time is Money

In the age of the Internet, instant information, social media, smart phones, tablets and much more, the business world has seen great leaps and strides in the ability to reach an audience, clients and customers, but at what cost? Well, it turns out that cost may come in the form of productivity in the work place, as recent research has shown that a majority of employees with access to the Internet are wasting between 1-3  hours surfing the web or checking their social media. Along with the crunch this can bring to your bottom line, it also has an effect that reaches beyond that. When employees are wasting valuable work hours on the Internet, they are hindering their progress on their own work, slowing the completion of any collaborative efforts on projects and eating up bandwidth and slowing Internet speeds for work related needs.

In order to reduce and eliminate the time wasting temptation of the Internet, businesses should take these suggested steps:

Lock and Key Rules

The first step is implementing software that will help to manage who has access to what websites. This is key in today’s age as many businesses use social media and job posting sites for their own needs. In order to ensure that these sites are being used in a productive manner, you need to ensure the right administrators have access. This means setting up secure access to social media strictly for your internal marketing team, and reserving access to job posting sites for your human resources department. It boils down to a simple rule, “If you don’t belong, move along.”

Check the Numbers

In order to address and correct the problem of unnecessary Internet usage, you need to first know the source of the problem and the extent of the lost time. This requires the installation and monitoring of an Internet activity reporting system. This will allow you to observe what employees are doing while accessing the internet and measure how much of the work day is being lost to useless Internet surfing. The simple implementation of this ability should greatly reduce lost productivity as employees know they are being monitored.

Put Up a Filter and Block

For both productivity, security and legal purposes, be sure to install a filtering system in your company’s network. This is often as simple as the installation of a piece of hardware to filter out and block any specific websites, key words or categories. The keeps employees from accessing websites and content that could contain unprofessional materials and also downloading apps or software that could contain damaging viruses or malware. This proactive process will improve employee efficiency, while also saving your business from costly recovery costs if a virus or malware program gains access to your network.