July 17, 2002—A quarter of UK companies have dismissed employees for Internet misconduct, with the majority of dismissals for online pornography, according to a new survey from Websense International and Personnel Today magazine.
The survey, conducted among 544 human resources (HR) managers and officers from some of Britain’s largest corporations, employing an average of 2,500 people, found that 72% of UK firms have dealt with Internet misuse in the workplace. In addition, 69% of all dismissals were associated with online pornography.
After pornography, Web chat rooms (26%) and personal e-mail browsing (23%) were the second and third most-frequent complaints brought to the attention of the HR department, respectively. Forty percent of HR departments have received complaints by coworkers unhappy with their colleagues wasting time on the Internet.
While Internet misuse within British companies is a common problem, it is an issue rarely discussed publicly. According to the survey, HR managers get involved with an average of one complaint per month, yet most prefer to deal with the problem by having a quiet word with the person in question (56%), followed by a verbal warning (29%). Nearly a quarter (23%) resort to dismissing the employee.
According to the survey, HR managers and officers believe that 20 minutes a day for personal Internet surfing is a fair and acceptable amount of time, particularly in today’s work environment in which the Internet is an integral part. The average time employees spend doing personal surfing is actually closer to 30 minutes a day. Most HR personnel believe employees with their own offices do more personal surfing.
A study in 2001 by IDS Brief found that the costs of replacing key staff could be as much as 150% of the employee’s annual salary, including the obvious costs of advertising for new hires, recruitment, training, and supervision, plus additional financial and emotional burdens caused by interruption to work patterns, damage to morale, and negative publicity to the organization as a result of the dismissal. In addition, if the dismissal process is handled poorly by the employer, the organization could also face Employment Tribunal proceedings, stated the report.
In order to address the problem, many companies are using employee Internet management (EIM) software (content filter software) as a way to automatically enforce its existing Internet access policy. According to Websense, “Companies are increasingly looking to protect themselves and their employees from the legal implications from viewing pornography or downloading illegal software. EIM software supports an organization’s efforts to improve employee productivity, conserve network bandwidth, and save storage costs.”
A free Internet and e-mail policy is available from OUT-LAW.COM that can be downloaded and amended for a particular business.
