IT Week: Online staff face controls
Andrew Charlesworth
Employee misuse of Internet access and email has reached epidemic proportions in UK companies In an online poll of IT Week readers, 43 percent revealed that disciplinary action had been taken against employees for contravening company email or Internet access policy. While reasonable personal Internet and email use is tolerated in most firms, the survey highlights employers' fears that staff are wasting time online or, worse, will land their employers in court by downloading illegal material or casually sending defamatory emails. Leaking confidential company information in emails is also a concern. The survey was conducted during January and February by IT Week, MORI and software security firm Elron.
The findings supported those of MORI and Elron's more general survey of Internet users, which was also conducted in January. The two surveys suggest that the problem is exacerbated by companies not communicating what is expected of staff. About two-thirds of companies said they have a published policy on email use and Web access, but 39 percent did not think employees were aware of its existence or contents. Only 18 percent said staff were very aware of the policy. Less than half of respondents to the general survey said their company has a policy. "This has fundamental consequences for every firm and affects all employees with a connected PC," said Linda Farrell, head of the employment rights and benefits group at law firm Bristows. "No employee should be let loose on a PC without knowing the [email and Web access] policy."
Roughly two-thirds of both sets of respondents think it is acceptable for employers to monitor employees' online activities, provided staff know about it. A minority of IT Week readers (eight percent) think monitoring of employees is unacceptable under any circumstances. "The survey clearly indicates employers need to implement both an acceptable usage policy to combat potential misuse of the Internet, and content filtering software to guard against malicious or accidental breaches of the policy," said Pat Dunne, Elron's director of international sales. The majority of IT Week readers said the IT department, human resources, board-level management, or a combination of these, were responsible for formulating access and email policy.
