Is the Internet working at work?

MANILA, Philippines – Internet connectivity has already become the standard in many work settings, and technology has been proven to enhance productivity and growth.

However, just like information placed in the hands of a misguided person, unlimited, unrestricted, and unsupervised Internet access can be misused and abused by employees.

As the Internet age has altered the way we conduct business, it has also changed work activities and practices in the organization. Although the Internet can help employees accomplish more, organizations today are having a more difficult time directing and monitoring employee productivity and behavior because more and more work activities are becoming virtual.

As such, Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development wanted to find out, how exactly is the Internet used in the workplace?

A survey was conducted to see what activities were done in the Internet while at work. Out of the 150 respondents who participated, 92 percent said that they had Internet access at work while only a minimal 8 percent said they had none.

On average, respondents used the Internet for 3.6 hours a day. They used 76 percent of their Internet time for work-related activities. The remaining 24 percent of Internet use is on non-work-related activities.

Non-work-related activities included personal instant messaging (35 percent) such as Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, and MSN messenger; listening to the radio or music via the Internet (19 percent); downloading music, movies, and software (13 percent); playing Internet computer games (9 percent); and others, such as checking personal e-mail, reading the news, completing banking transactions, researching and blogging.

Downtime

Although Internet at work has mostly been put to good use—updating clients on their accounts, researching on market information, sending business e-mails, communicating with partners locally or abroad, buying and selling through the company website—it has also been the cause of downtime at work.

Downtime is used to refer to time lost by the organization when an employee engages in activities not directed towards his/her job and overall company productivity as opposed to activities that could have benefited the company. Simply put, downtime means the organization did not get what it had supposedly paid for.

From the survey results, on average, downtime is a little less than 1 hour per day (51 minutes to be exact) as employees spend 24 percent of their Internet time at work doing non-work-related activities. This amounts to a little less than 5 to 6 hours per week. The implication: Three-fourths of one day a week is wasted due to downtime.

Policies and privileges

Companies have taken steps to address these issues by providing Internet usage policies. Having policies for Internet use is helpful for both management and employees to clarify the do’s and don’ts, acceptable and unacceptable practices on Internet use at work.

According to the survey, 70 percent of companies have Internet policies in place. Most companies employ and implement a right to access e-mails, documents, and any other transactions done through the company computers.

Although this may be seen as a violation of one’s privacy, companies have the right to monitor and control the resources and technology they provide employees. As some companies extend the privilege for employees to use the Internet for personal purposes, it is good practice for management to clarify, communicate and publish rules, monitor Internet usage, and correct inappropriate Internet practices and behaviors.

On the other hand, it is best that employees respect company resources and contribute to overall productivity, and business health by using Internet at work for its intended purpose.

(This article is an abridged version of a study published in Ateneo CORD’s book, “Pinoy @ Work” [ORP, Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University, 2008]. To know more on issues pertaining to technology in the workplace, attend Ateneo CORD’s Trendwatcher series on Oct. 2. For inquires and reservation, please e-mail ateneocord@admu.edu.ph) –Janice Gotamco, Gina Hechanova, Philippine Daily Inquirer