How to Keep Your Staff from Shopping from the Office

Since eCommerce has experienced a surge in popularity, your employees might be tempted to get their holiday shopping out of the way as soon as possible by doing a little bit of browsing during your hours of operation. Depending on your business’s policies regarding personal Internet usage during office hours, you may need to take action against those who abuse the privilege.

Since eCommerce has experienced a surge in popularity, your employees might be tempted to get their holiday shopping out of the way as soon as possible by doing a little bit of browsing during your hours of operation. Depending on your business’s policies regarding personal Internet usage during office hours, you may need to take action against those who abuse the privilege.

Here are some numbers surrounding online shopping at work:

• 53 percent of employees are using time at work to shop online, an increase from last year.
• 49 percent of employees use their personal smart phones or tablets to shop at work, an increase from 42 percent last year.

To help you limit the use of excessive online shopping during work hours, here are some tips to consider:

• Implement Internet and email usage policies that clearly dictate how you, as the employer, expect your employees to use these services during their personal time at work. Better yet, reinforce these practices by following through on enforcement when necessary.
• Train your managers and supervisors about the telltale signs of Internet abuse, and educate them on the expectations and policies that are put into place in your organization.
• Give your employees “me time” during the day so that they can get the personal usage of the Internet out of the way so that it doesn’t affect their ability to work. Be sure to mention that those who don’t comply with these rules will lose the privilege completely.
• A more aggressive approach to online content management comes in the form of a web content filter. A web filter can provide the tools needed to keep your team off of time-wasting websites and it can improve productivity as a whole. You can even set specific permissions by the user so that the problem employee doesn’t ruin the privilege for all.

We know that not all companies are the same, so we can work with you to ensure that your business’s Internet permissions policy works specifically for your needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (202) 640-2737.