The Downside of Internet Access

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the Internet is barely 20 years old. But, in fact, the World Wide Web only came into existence in 1995. Before then, people actually visited the bank to do their personal banking, they read newspapers or watched television news programs to get caught up on current events, they visited stores or malls to do their shopping, they paid bills by making out checks and sending them through “snail mail,” and Facebook and other social media sites were still years off in the future. Today, we use the Internet for so many purposes, both personal and business related. Most of us do a good deal of personal banking online, for example, as well as paying bills. We read news Web sites to find out what’s happening in the world. And we can finish our holiday shopping without ever stepping foot in a crowded mall. On the business side of things, the Internet allows us to track product shipments quickly and easily, market our goods and services through online advertisements and Web sites, keep track of our competition, and communicate “instantly” with coworkers, vendors and customers.

With all the benefits that Internet access has brought, it also has a downside. Over the past few years, business owners and managers have faced a growing problem involving their employees who have access to the World Wide Web. Rather than spending their work hours engaged in productive, business-related activity, many workers are wasting time doing personal tasks on the Internet. In fact, some studies suggest that employees spend as much as 20% of their work day wasting time online. Needless to say, this can have a tremendously negative impact on a company.

In an effort to resolve the problem, many managers have chosen to use Internet tracking software to find out which of their workers are being nonproductive and which Web sites they’re visiting. While there’s no doubt that employee Internet monitoring software will provide you with that information, it won’t do anything beyond that. It won’t give you a means of motivating your employees to do a better job. It also won’t tell you how much time each person is spending doing legitimate, business-related tasks each day. And it won’t work on your employees’ smart phones or notepad computers. In fact, Internet tracking software – often called “spyware” for obvious reasons – sometimes makes the problem even worse. Once your workers find out that you’re using employee Internet monitoring software to keep track of their online activity, they’ll probably resent being “spied” on. And that kind of resentment won’t motivate them to do a better job. In fact, it will probably have just the opposite effect.

The Internet may have a downside, but it doesn’t have to have a negative impact on your company. Rather than “spying” on employees, develop ways to motivate them to work harder. The key to resolving this issue isn’t monitoring, it’s motivating!