Majority of firms monitor staff net usage
15-04-2008
by Bryan Collins

Over 60 percent of Irish people using the internet at work face restrictions when trying to access social networking, entertainment, online shopping or webmail sites.

The research, conducted by market research firm Red C on behalf of Eircom, also found 78 percent of all workers use the internet for personal use at work. However, these users were wary of what they looked up while at work. Over half of those surveyed said their internet usage is monitored by software programs, the boss or other work colleagues.

"Broadband users simply don't have the freedom or the time to surf the internet and engage in the online activities they're interested in while at work," said Debbie Byrne, Marketing Director for the Consumer Market, at Eircom.

The research also concluded that 43 percent cannot access YouTube and other entertainment sites, while 32 percent have no access to webmail and 26 percent cannot shop on portals like Amazon, eBay or Ryanair. Even Eircom, which commissioned the study, revealed it employs an internet policy which restricts employees from accessing certain websites.

"The restrictions exist primarily to protect employees and additionally to provide guidance as to the use of the company's internet access system," a spokesperson explained.

One company, which is the starting point for many people surfing the internet, explained to ENN why it did not rely on such restrictions.

"We rely on people's maturity. There is not a policy saying that people can't access Facebook or anything like that. The company expects people to use the sites in a mature fashion and obviously do nothing illegal. There is no set policy of what you can do. We don't restrict access to social network sites," said a spokesperson for popular search engine, Google.

Meanwhile, the survey also found 47 percent of workers with internet access are blocked from social networking sites such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook. However, social networking sites such as LinkedIn can offer new ways for businesses to communicate.

"Generally firms can look at how social networking can help their business. If you look at companies like SAP, they internally use their own social networks as a communications tool. There is certainly businesses using social networking in a clever way to promote their own businesses. That is the positive side of social networking," Google's spokesperson told ENN.

The same study revealed that 18- to 34-year olds spend the longest time on the internet at work, clocking up over an hour a day online. Next up was 35 to 44 year olds who spend over 40 minutes a day online while workers aged over 45 spend over 40 minutes a day surfing the net.

Eircom is using the findings to promote its "Get More" strategy.

"Having a broadband connection at home means that users can download their favourite tracks, update their Facebook profile, shop online and book holidays, or catch up on and share the latest YouTube videos in their own time and for as long as they like without any restrictions or prying eyes," said Byrne.