Monitoring employee use of Internet: Employers’ perspective

THE EMERGENCE OF NEW and emerging information and communication technologies can no longer be ignored by organizations. Whether organizations provide it on their own or not, people are bringing these technologies to the workplace.

Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development, as part of the Open Net Initiative-Asia (ONI-Asia) project, surveyed 112 organizations regarding their policies on Internet use and monitoring of computer resources.

Internet access

Results show that providing access to the Internet is becoming the norm among organizations in the Philippines. Almost all the organizations that were surveyed reported providing access to their employees. Furthermore, among these organizations, 65 percent say reported that access to the Internet is made available to all its employees. The most popular reason given for providing access is for research and ease of communication.

Policy on ICT use

Organizations have resorted to various strategies for regulating access to the Internet and use of ICTs in general. However, less than half of organizations have written organizational policies for using organizational ICT facilities. Only 44 percent have reported having e-mail use policies, 48 percent have Internet use policies and 41 percent have instant messaging policies.

Restrictions and monitoring

Even though access is provided, the majority said they had restrictions on how the Internet was used. The majority of organizations block some online content and applications (58 percent).

Among companies that block access to sites, the most common sites reportedly blocked are pornography and gaming websites.

Most organizations monitor and review their Internet connections, with only a third not doing so. A quarter of the organizations perform constant monitoring, with another 20 percent conducting this routinely. Over a fifth actually monitor time spent on the Internet, while 45 percent monitor the content/sites being accessed and visited.

More than half of the respondents have dedicated staff who is conducting the monitoring. A third have automated software that helps restrict access, while 12 percent say it’s the immediate supervisor’s responsibility to monitor Internet and e-mail use. Use of automated software is more common with private organizations.

Implementation

The study also examined whether ICT policies have been implemented by organizations. Almost half reported that their organization had already disciplined an employee for improper use of the Internet, and 28 percent reported the same for improper e-mail use. The majority of offenders were issued formal reprimands, and 18 percent led to dismissals. For e-mail use, 72 percent were issued formal reprimands/warnings, and 9 percent were dismissed.

Findings clearly show there is still much room for improvement on policy development and monitoring of employee Internet use.

Given that Internet use carries both advantages and disadvantages written policies, formal training, and proper management can help minimize risk and maximize compliance to organizational and legal regulations. The recent news of hacking of government websites highlights how securing information will become more and more important in an increasingly wired world. –Erwin A. Alampay, Ph.D., Regina Hechanova, Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Hechanova is the executive director of Ateneo CORD and a faculty member of the Department of Psychology, Ateneo de Manila University, while Alampay is a faculty member of the National College of Public Administration and Governance, University of the Philippines, Diliman. This article is an abridged version of an Ateneo CORD Trendwatcher monograph “Technology in the Workplace (2009”). For feedback or inquiries please e-mail ateneocord@admu.edu.ph.)