Staff misusing the internet could cost UK businesses billions of pounds annually in lost productivity, according to the employee internet management (EIM) service Websense.
Of the 13.6 million workers in the UK who have daily internet access, 44% spend an average of three hours per week surfing personal websites. Based on this percentage, Websense believes a “conservative” estimate of the amount of money lost annually would be £9.6bn.
“Typically, the majority of workers use the web for shopping and e-commerce. The other areas are sports-related sites, gambling and pornography. Gambling on the net is now legal in the UK, so the problem will get worse,” said Websense chief financial officer, Douglas Wride.
Websense develops EIM solutions for companies and has created an application that can screen employees access to the web. “We have created a catalogue of 75 categories, listing half a billion webpages. We can identify, and then eliminate, the high-risk websites, such as gambling and porn, from the company's internet service,” said Wride.
He said this application would help employers when facing any legal action from an employee.
“It is too early for insurers to offer a discount on employers' liability. The market has to mature further, but this system has been received very favourably by insurance companies,” said Wride.
The system could also help cut costs in a hostile lawsuit by saving time during an investigation into an employee's conduct.
“Much of the time, employers go to their lawyers and have to present evidence against the employee – it is very much after-the-fact. With this system, you know what they can and can't do,” he said.
For companies worried that responsible employees may feel they are being treated unfairly, a quota system can be installed where 30 minutes of personal surf time can be taken during lunch breaks or after office hours.
St Pauls Insurance's general manager of sales and marketing, David Bevan, said his company encouraged employees to experiment on the web. “We hope our staff are responsible enough to know what is a reasonable length of time to spend using the web for personal use.
“If it is during lunchtime or after hours, we don't have a problem,” he said.
