Do your employees spend, what seems to you to be, an inordinate amount of time on the internet at work...whether during business hours or their personal time? Ever wonder what they're doing? Ever wonder about the nature of the emails they send or receive? To control net use (and abuse), you need a formal policy.
As the internet becomes an increasingly integral part of day to day agency and company operations, it is critical that every organization -- large or small -- have a corporate internet policy. The internet opens up the business to liability claims due to copyright violations, slander, invasion of privacy, and other offenses, not to mention potential first-party damages due to the downloading of viruses, internal (or external) distribution of offensive materials, and the release of proprietary information, passwords, etc.
In addition, if guidelines are not established and implemented, employee use of the internet can create a significant drain on agency and company resources. School of Technology General Technology Department Head Jack Fries has put together a Word document that you can use as a template to create your own internet usage policy. As with any such document, you should consult an attorney or specialist in this area to determine what guidelines and contractual wording is appropriate for your operations. To download a copy of Jack Fries' Employee Internet Usage Policy as an MS Word document, click below:
Employee Internet Usage Policy
The Software & Information Industry Association has a couple of articles available for free download.
Copyright 2000-2006 by Jack Fries. Used with permission.