No matter how skilled and well-prepared their team is, managers know that a significant portion of the time available for carrying out activities relevant to the company is wasted on inappropriate internet access. Many employees end up losing productivity by accessing content irrelevant to the business , such as social media, personal emails, e-commerce sites, sports websites, and even pornography. This type of behavior makes it necessary to monitor employees' online behavior.
The internet is full of tools that help optimize our routines and make activities even more practical. However, it also has several distractions that hinder the smooth running of a business . Because of its benefits and its large market presence, the internet is an indispensable resource.
According to a report released by Raclaim.ai in 2022, only 12% of workers are fully productive at work. This data highlights the need for strategies and resources that increase focus on improving company productivity .
For this reason, many managers are looking for ways to continue using their tools in the workplace, but without harming employee productivity and business security. To this end, several tools have emerged focused on monitoring and controlling internet access in companies , such as Lumiun's solutions.
But how can this control be implemented without creating friction with employees and causing any kind of discomfort in the work environment?
Bad behavior on the internet can be "fatal".
Since the rise in popularity of the internet, we have been surrounded by threats and pitfalls that can compromise the security of our devices and even facilitate financial scams.
It's important to keep in mind that the internet is a tool that should be used intelligently and effectively during work hours. This means that unauthorized access is dangerous and can cause significant harm to the company.
To better illustrate this situation, let's cite a very common cyber scam today: the phishing scam . Through phishing, cybercriminals disguise themselves as trusted senders such as stores, financial institutions, and other companies (in some cases even known senders from the contact list) to deceive the victim. With this scam, the criminal manages to disguise traps in the form of attachments and links.
These attachments may contain malware that impairs the proper functioning of devices and creates vulnerabilities in company machines. Through these vulnerabilities, cybercriminals can access stored information, steal data, and carry out even more damaging scams, such as extortion attempts and ransomware.
These emails may also contain links that redirect to fake pages created specifically for malicious purposes . These websites are built to be very similar or even identical to the pages of well-known and trusted companies. In this way, they manage to mislead their victims into providing confidential information , personal data, credit card information, and more.
Considering the corporate environment, this type of behavior can cause numerous losses for the company, ranging from the leakage of confidential information, such as customer, supplier, and partner data, to extortion through scams like ransomware. Understand how this cyber threat works:
Internet access vs. Productivity
Depending on the company's activities, the internet can be indispensable for business continuity. This means that it's impossible to completely block employees' internet access to avoid loss of productivity. But what is the relationship between the internet and employee productivity?
Within a company, employees have a set amount of time to complete all the tasks necessary for the business to continue. The hiring of these employees is done according to the number of tasks to be performed, taking into account the workday, whether it's 4, 6, or 8 hours.
However, when an employee stops performing their assigned tasks to access unnecessary content on the company's website, these tasks remain pending , potentially overloading other employees and even causing delays in delivery.
If just one employee exhibiting this behavior in the workplace can cause this much damage, imagine what would happen if all employees spent hours of their day on entertainment websites, online stores, social media, and other tools.
Many of the resources used to perform tasks are in the online environment, and it is important for the company to establish an access control protocol that helps employees stay focused on what is truly important for the business strategy.
Internet access control helps to bring smarter management of resources and available workforce to the company's tasks . In addition, it can also provide several benefits to the company, such as:
Provision of access reports
Through an efficient internet access control tool, managers can rely on comprehensive reports about internet usage within the company. These reports can provide information on the type of access being made and how much time is being wasted on tasks unrelated to the business.
Calculate the team's wasted time.
With the help of these reports, managers can determine the online behavior of their employees and, based on this, gain a better understanding of how much time is wasted within the company . Knowing the causes of this waste, managers can implement more specific and optimized access management that meets the company's needs.
Identify contaminated devices
As we saw earlier, unauthorized access can cause various problems for a company, one of which is the risk to digital security. Having an access control tool will also help managers identify devices that are infected by malicious applications or files, and prevent this type of infection from happening.
Improved network performance
Since resources are being directed only to tasks related to the company's activity , network performance will be optimized. Unauthorized access, in addition to harming employee productivity, also uses business resources for unnecessary tasks. Some viruses and malware are designed solely to impair machine performance, often turning them into zombie computers (machines that are remotely controlled to carry out cyberattacks).
Tips to help improve results
For a company to achieve its expected success and growth, it needs to be productive and deliver increasingly better results. To increase productivity in the workplace , it's important to adopt measures and strategies that help employees achieve the performance expected by the organization.
To that end, we've compiled some tips that can help you increase productivity within your company and deliver increasingly better results:
Establish a time management protocol.
Time management is essential for employees to organize themselves and deliver the expected performance. With so many tasks to perform daily, it's essential to have measures in place to help improve organization and optimize available work time . Time management is indispensable for anyone seeking to organize their routine and work smarter.
Invest in the work environment.
In addition to providing all the necessary infrastructure for employees to perform their tasks, the company also needs to be concerned about the organizational climate. Keeping employees free from problems and motivated is much more than just imposing rules and behavioral protocols: it is necessary for the company to listen to its employees and know how to deal with situations that occur on a daily basis to prevent small problems from becoming major challenges, harming productivity during working hours.
Value the training of employees.
A company's workforce is its most important asset. Investing in your employees is investing in your business and the results you want to achieve. A training process helps these employees develop and add even more value and quality to the tasks they perform daily. The better prepared your team is, the better the productivity, and consequently, the results obtained.
Have an Internet Usage Policy
An Internet Usage Policy will provide rules and best practices for the online behavior of your company's employees. With the help of this document, managers will be able to instruct their team on the risks and security rules that should be followed to avoid the main threats of the digital world. Lumiun has a complete template for creating an Internet Usage Policy .
Avoid the traps on the internet.
Although essential, the internet is full of pitfalls and threats that can affect employee productivity. To avoid these problems, it's necessary to have an access control system that helps managers block threats and bring more efficiency to their daily routines.
Controlling internet access is simpler than it seems.
Internet access control is a very intelligent and efficient strategy that allows the company to monitor the online behavior of employees and, through more assertive management, increase its profitability and team productivity .
Performing this control manually can be a real challenge, because in addition to having to block resources on each device, managers are unable to determine which websites and resources are undermining their productivity .
For this reason, it's necessary to have an intelligent access control system, such as Lumiun's solutions. With the help of our products, you can monitor the online behavior of your employees and more efficiently control internet usage within the company . In addition to having an internet usage policy, using this type of tool can bring many benefits to companies that want to improve their results and market position.
Are you already familiar with Lumiun's solutions? Get in touch and discover everything our tools can do for your business's productivity!
Until later!
