Remember those days when you went to office to work all day and only entertainment was to call a friend, or to go down for a smoke, or chat with your co-workers? Well, those days are long gone. These days you walk around carrying cell phones and PDAs, desktops have instant messenger service keeping you in contact with your family and friends, and if that is not enough we can have conversations with strangers on twitter and Facebook. It is now becoming a status symbol to have internet profile; to have more friends on your Facebook account than your friends have. Although as North Americans we are most receptive to new technologies. As business managers we must ask, what does it mean for your business? Are these tools making us more efficient and more productive? What is the cost of loss in productivity?
Many believe that having access to more information makes employees more knowledgeable and allows them to make better decisions. Having access to expert knowledge on information portals can be highly valuable to individual and companies. In transportation industry where information is so fragmented, it may be our only channel to stay abreast of ongoing changes. In the past, such information was only available through in-class lectures and seminars. Having access to online portals allows us to key in on specific industry vertical. It allows us to share good practices and stay tuned to what market leaders are doing.
Now let’s look at the cost side of the equation. What are your employees surfing on the Internet? Are they browsing sites that complements their work related duties or are they checking their personal emails, or making personal travel plans? They might be looking for a new job or making new friends on the instant messenger. The bottom line is the cost. How many hours are being spent on this type of activity? In order to estimate the cost of productivity, let’s look at an example. If a small company that employs 20 people has its staff engaged in personal internet activity for one (1) hour a day. This equals a total of 5000 hours, assuming they work for 50 weeks a year. At average rate of $15/hr, this will equate to $75,000 in lost productivity every year. In addition to this, there is additional cost in having company resources protected from spyware and viral attacks. Each time a computer is infected with a virus or a Trojan, it further increases lost productivity.
The cost of keeping controls in place to protect basic infrastructure including intellectual property gets higher for larger organizations. There are several tools available in the market to protect and manage your internet resources. It is imperative to have good Antivirus software; it is equally important to have filtering/monitoring tools to limit access to non-productive sites. These tools are generally expensive and their cost goes up for larger organizations. The best approach is to design your network with these security concerns in mind so you don’t fall too far behind. For those with tight budgets, there are some freeware antivirus software. For small organization, there are some less eloquent approaches to restricting access to undesired sites. Even though these technical controls are required, they are generally not enough. Organizations need to establish policies and procedures related to internet and email use within the company. These policies must be properly conveyed with emphasis on what is acceptable and what is not, and fully enforced. As we are doing so much to limit our exposure to unnecessary cost, let’s look what is eating away at our internal resources.
Gagan Goraya