Online Shopping During Working Hours - To Do or Not to Do?

Many workers tend to browse various shopping websites and applications during work hours. Studies from various sources show that most online orders are placed within the office working hours, especially in the afternoon between 12 to 4 pm. Many companies might also have rules against accessing e-commerce sites from their office computers to block employees from wasting time while on the clock. They block off the websites through firewalls or limit internet access for employees because most companies believe that all the time and attention of their workers should be focused on the work itself.

Forcibly not allowing employees to not take even a little time off during the long work days might have adverse effects than what was intended. To effectively prevent such occurrences from happening, companies should take certain steps with the employees themselves.

Company Policy

Having a specified company policy that limits and restricts employees from online shopping is a good way to make sure the employees are held accountable. If certain social media and retail sites are important for the company’s work itself, it is impossible to completely block such sites. So, having a detailed policy where the terms of the allowed access to these sites on company devices and data are limited is important.

The employees need to understand the rule the company sets for them regarding the company’s property. Before signing on employees, the company needs to make sure each of them has read the policy and agrees to abide by it in good conscience. Not doing so would be a breach of contract and employees would avoid facing the repercussions of such actions when they know they have to answer for them.

Educating About Bandwidth

Every company out there has to depend on the internet connection to work. The connection is generally shared by a whole company if it is a small to medium size business. The bandwidth for the company is estimated by calculating how much each process might need the speed and data to successfully work and that plan is generally selected. The successful working of a few departments depends completely on the speed of the internet. Important tasks might malfunction if the servers are engaged by something else that is utilizing the speed and data.

Many employees think they are utilizing unlimited resources by shopping online during work and no harm is done through their actions. But they have to understand that online shopping is one such thing that requires a constant flow of data. Employees should be made aware of how hogging the network for something that is unnecessary might affect the company’s productivity.

When employees understand that their actions are causing harm to their company, they would tend to stop. Properly educating them on how these might cause problems is a great way to control shopping online during work.

Hackers and Malware

The operating system for most companies is connected to an array of computers since it is easier and cheaper to manage the company that way. When systems are connected, they can have different users but the system itself is shared. Most e-commerce websites aren’t protected and they often lead to third-party websites through pop-ups and links that have the risk of viruses and malware attacks. When a person is accessing these websites from a work computer, they are risking all the information that is stored in these systems. If the systems are connected, the other computers are also prone to the risk of these attacks.

Oftentimes, the server crashes, and the whole computing system of a company is down because of the virus which takes hours to fix. This wastes valuable company time that might also lead to a huge loss in revenue from the waste of a complete work day. The company is exposed to unnecessary risk from these acts. Through malware, hackers can also hack into the company system and gain access to all the economic, security, and revenue information that might be stored in the system itself.

Hackers are known to shut down systems or hold information hostage and ask for ransom without which they might make this information public or cause a shutdown. They might even directly steal money if they gain access to the company’s banking details. When employees are taught of all these risks that come from accessing unprotected websites on company systems, they will most likely stop since they would not want to cause such a risk for the company they work for.

Let Them Shop

This might seem like the opposite advice but it does have its benefits. Employees spend from morning to evening glued to a desk, working on the same things continuously. It has been proven that when one gets bored of a job, their productivity is affected. Even when the worker is at the desk, staring at the computer, many might be unable to focus on their tasks because of their monotonous nature. With limited internet and website access, they are forced to do a job that they have no motivation to do. The work rate tanks, even after all precautions against it remain in place.

With such a forceful ban on recreational periods, the company morale is often brought down. This doesn’t help anybody. Employees also sometimes sit idle and have nothing to do and it doesn’t affect the company if they take some time off. Even though most companies consider it bad if they allow breaks to their employees, it is not always disadvantageous. It is more important to make sure that the employees are finishing their projects for the given day instead of focusing on how much time they are spending working.

The rate of productivity is more important than the time spent on it. If the employees are asked to achieve certain goals for the day or finish projects, chances are even if they are given freedom of internet access, they will complete their work in time.

Conclusion

Employees working at a company are adults who understand their responsibility. If they are taught to do the right thing and asked to make sure the company’s goals are completed, online shopping during working hours can be easily and successfully controlled.