Management Articles
Create an Internet Usage Policy that Works for You
By Mike Foster
Sep 13, 2006

No matter how large or small your company, if you have employees and supply them with an at-work Internet connection, chances are you also have Internet misuse issues. In fact, recent surveys show that at-work Internet users spend an average of 21 hours per month online, more than double the amount of time spent online by at-home Internet users. While some employees may be using this online time to conduct actual business, many more are using their at-work Internet connection for personal use.

For you as a business owner or manager, this misuse costs your company thousands of dollars each year. Consider this
example: if an employee who earns $35,000 annually is spending 20% of his or her time being unproductive on the Internet, that equals $7,000 lost out of your payroll. Now multiply that amount by the number of employees at that
salary level who misuse the Internet. Next, add to that figure 20% of your organization’s share of Social Security payments, unemployment taxes, and worker’s compensation insurance, and the true amount lost can be staggering. a href="http://www.fosterinstitute.com/articles/intmisuse/pdf/im05_create%20an%20internet%20usage%20policy%20that%20works%20for%20you.pdf" target="_blank">Download this article in PDF format.