14 DAY TRIAL // A study published by SpectorSoft Corporation – a leader in monitoring and analysis software – should be taken into consideration by company owners and managers. It highlights the fact that almost 40% of those questioned plan on following this year’s biggest sporting event during work hours.
A number of 350 individuals from various industries have been interviewed in order to make the study as precise as possible.
“Misuse of the Internet at work began as a concern over wasted time, and it’s since become a multi-billion-dollar problem for businesses each year,” said Jason Judge, CEO of SpectorSoft.
“In addition to tangible dollar losses due to lack of productivity, very serious and costly threats can occur when employees act or click on something they shouldn’t from a work computer.”
The figures show that 37.9% of the respondents have admitted that they’ll be using work-issued devices to follow the Games. In case an event takes place during work hours, employees will utilize the Internet to ensure that they will not miss any key moments.
Apparently, 41% of those who plan on watching the event on company time feel that it’s acceptable to spend one hour per day to follow the Olympics.
The employees of organizations where the use of company computers for personal activities is strictly regulated don’t seem to be too discouraged either. Over 10% claim that it’s acceptable to follow the event for two or more hours.
Experts believe that such activities not only compromise network security policies, but they’re also counterproductive.
Of course, SpectorSoft doesn’t just present the problem, but also a solution for it. Managers who want to make sure that employees are not doing anything unproductive on company time, can install the SPECTOR 360 solution, which has recently become available for firms relying on Mac computers.
“With SpectorSoft’s SPECTOR 360 solution, we’ve actually been able to fill the gap left by most traditional wall-and-fortress-type security approaches and effectively monitor the human behaviors that can impact productivity in the workplace,” said Robert Lebeaux, president of The Plastics Group of America.
“With SPECTOR 360, we've been able to better enforce the company’s Acceptable Use policy and mitigate a number of potential security and compliance issues, whether ultimately intended or unintended by the employee.”
The complete report is available here.
The SpectorSoft Olympics 2012 infographics is available here.