How Should HR Address Excessive Personal Internet Use at Work? Seeking Advice on Notice Language

Hello,

In my company, many employees are frequently using the internet excessively for personal purposes such as downloading movies and album songs. As an HR executive, I want to issue a notice to these employees. Please advise on the appropriate official language for the notice.

Thanks & Regards,
Sapna Saini

Dear Sapna,

You need to execute the following steps for your query:

A. Intimate your IT Department to block those sites, including the proxy ones.

B. Disable services like GTalk, Yahoo Chat, Orkut, YouTube, or any time-consuming social service websites.

C. Keep tabs on the log of the user IDs of your employees. Circulate the log data to every employee.

Sapna, please do inform me of any further IT-related issues. I have some quick and effective methods to monitor employees.

Thank you.

Dear,

Firstly, thank you. Please help me understand the leave policy of an IT company. My company allows only 15 earned leaves in a year. Could you please guide me on how to calculate earned leave in a month? I mean, what is the limit of earned leave or paid leave in a month for salary calculation? Kindly assist me.

Thanks & Regards,

Sapna Saini
HR Executive

Hi Sapna,

On 15/12, you will get 1.25. You should multiply 1.25 by the number of months the employee has served in the current leave year. Typically, most IT companies deduct Leave Without Pay (LOP) only if the employee exceeds their annual quota or if they resign midway through the year. If needed, you can also seek assistance from your payroll department.

Sree

Even I am interested in this. I am working with a consulting firm of about 500 engineers where I have found people misusing the internet facility to a great extent. The system administrators have been asked to block certain websites, but it has not yielded the desired results. Can someone suggest some measures?

Thanks in advance.

In the absence of any facts and figures, it is difficult to decide whether or not internet usage is actually in excess. There are studies that indicate that surfing the web for personal interests can boost productivity without adversely affecting production levels, provided employees do not spend more than 20% of work hours on such activities.

When formulating policies on this subject, employers must take care not to create a workplace that is too stifling and suffocating for creativity to flourish.

Dear Sapna,

Develop an IT policy for your organization, which is the need of the hour for controlling the usage rate of the internet. Introduce authenticated entry to the internet where the history of an individual is available.

Regards

I do feel that the internet is the best stress reliever, especially when you work continuously with formulas, calculations, etc. Surfing the net is a better way than going out for a smoke or spending time in the canteen. Of course, downloading movies and songs is not a good idea. Restricting access to those sites can solve the problem in a better way.

Few organizations have also blocked matrimonial websites. Internet Usage Tracker is generally used to keep vigilance and monitor the usage and websites accessed.

I agree with Navjotgill & Jayshree. Surfing the net plays a role as a stress reliever at times. To constantly monitor is not a good idea. However, sites that are considered useless and lead to time wastage should be blocked.

First, please define 'excess'.

An employee may use office internet (for 10 mins max) to book his movie tickets. But would you rather give him 2 hours off to go and buy a ticket? Some companies have very strict internet policies which simply add to employees' frustration. Please be reasonable in whatever you do. Of course, block certain sites, but don't be too strict.

I feel you should design the policy to activate the Social Networking websites for certain hours in a day, say 1-2 hours daily per login ID.

Thank you.

I do not know for sure, but sometimes, posting a simple comment can fall under the category of an intense, uncontrollable desire. Therefore, it may be a better idea if we understand the biology behind what is commonly referred to as mood.

I have not understood why the HR would experience such an intense desire to control every action of employees. How does the HR know that employees are wasting time? If a person is efficient enough to complete his task in half the time, can't he just relax or network? Don't you think this also sharpens his proverbial axe? Be bothered only when the task is not completed as and when desired. Don't act as a police.

Issue an interoffice memo to ensure all employees understand the company's need to install internet for business development purposes, not for personal use.

Thank you.

It is indeed not a simple task to prevent employees from accessing the internet during office hours. As many have suggested, consider implementing the following measures:

A) Request the IT department to enforce strong filters on key keywords.
B) Disable access to all messaging platforms.
C) Many multinational corporations adhere to Zero Trust Policy. Consequently, you may also consider adopting the same approach.

It's a bit of a strange situation here. Look, for me, it's not an easy task, but this should be on an individual level. Mood will simply make you efficient, and productivity increases, but overdoing it will lower productivity due to overindulgence and distractions. If you force them not to use it, it's compulsion that will eventually lower productivity. People need them because they cut themselves off from the outside world. So the better approach is not to overlook personal needs and overactivity as well. Hence, the solution is not to equivocate.

Dear Sapna,

It's best to maintain a proxy that can prevent these types of websites, like movie downloading sites. Additionally, you can track individual internet usage and website visit details. Please check the same with your networking department.

There are several points to consider before forming any policy:

1. How many PC users are connected to the internet?
2. What type of work are they doing with the internet connection?
3. How many of them only need the internet to send and receive emails?
4. How many have to visit different sites?
5. What will happen if you block all websites except the company website?

You can divide the users into different categories:

1. Users who only send and receive emails.
2. Users who only send and receive emails and can visit specified websites.
3. Users who only send and receive emails and can visit all websites.
4. Users with all access.

Hi,

I suggest that you consider blocking certain sites (music, video) for the users. There are ways on the internet to restrict access to specific sites. Another solution for authentication issues is to implement a notice stating that only 1GB of internet data can be used for one week. I propose these two options because even after issuing a notice, problems may still persist. We can monitor how much data is being used for work-related and personal purposes. If needed, you can seek guidance from a computer administrator.

My Dear Sapna,

Since I am working as an Administrative Officer in an Engineering College, I have also faced a similar problem like yours. I have dealt with this problem tactfully. First of all, I brought this matter to the notice of management. I discussed with our System Administrator, who applied his knowledge, and a large number of PCs were blocked from downloading. Where permission was granted, irrelevant sites were also blocked. In this way, I managed to save 80% of the expenditure provisioned for networking charges.

Thanks & Regards.

(RP Saini)

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Good suggestion. It can be implemented as and when needed. Blocking the sites is the easiest way to get rid of this problem.