The Internet and Employee Productivity

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

-Augusten Burroughs

Competitive enterprises exist to prosper and therefore must operate with efficiency. Corporate stake holders are tasked to keep labor and material costs low, justify investment in capital and variable expenses and protect the enterprise from contingent and potentially crippling liabilities derived, for the most part, out of negligence (lawsuits, product recalls, negative publicity, physical and IT infrastructure damage and disrepair). We continue to hear that productivity gains are paramount to controlling inflation and keeping manufactured goods competitive in world markets. In order to control costs and maintain your company’s competitive advantage, it is incumbent upon Management to identify and rid the corporation of malingerers and identify those that are less productive. Functional units need to keep their house in order to reduce the probability of extraneous costs. Operational efficiency takes on new meaning in times of economic contraction. Add the recent slew of corporate governance and consumer privacy legislation and you have a recipe that only disturbs the delicate balance managers must deal with as they attempt to meet requirements without destroying employee morale. In considering the various segments of the Internet, clear thought needs to be given to productivity, liability and security.

American employees of all ages and income brackets are growing increasingly unhappy with their jobs. Only half of all Americans today say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995. But among the 50 percent who say they are content, only 14 percent say they are “very satisfied.” A major source of employee dissatisfaction stems from American employees feeling overworked. The United States now surpasses workaholic Japan in average hours worked. According to a 2001 report from the International Labor Organization, Americans who are employed worked an average of 1,979 hours (49 1/2 weeks) in 2000, up over 36 hours from 1990. This was 137 hours (3 1/2 weeks) more than Japanese workers, 260 hours (6 1/2 weeks) more than British workers and 499 hours (12 1/2 weeks) more than German workers.

Why has overwork been so persistent? One reason is that it is generally more profitable for firms to employ a small work force for long hours. The labor costs are lower, the benefits costs are lower and employers can be more selective about whom they hire. Newly developed technologies and modern “conveniences” like wireless access points, laptops, cellular phones, voice and electronic mail, PDA’s and cheap bandwidth worsen the issue. Each of these inventions has contributed to creating the always-on employee, further blurring the traditional and perhaps once-sacred boundary of work and personal time. As a result, your employees feel warranted with the self-proclaimed right to managing their own time while at work. Since the enterprise unabashedly reaches into the employee’s personal time, the employee feels justified in extending his or her personal life into the enterprise. Activities like online shopping, vacation planning, gaming, personal e-mail and IM’ing are considered quid pro quo by the employee. This is supported by a national survey that our company conducted which reveled that nearly one quarter of employees with online access at work said their company has a formal policy that does not allow personal Internet use. Yet, one third of these employees volunteered that they knowingly violate their company’s Internet use policy prohibiting shopping at work.

So how are employees managing their on-line time when they are not working? According to Fortune Magazine, 72% read the news, 45% make travel arrangements, 40% make purchases, 37% job search, 34% check stocks, 28% coordinate social events, 26% IM, 13% download music, 11% play games, 9% chat and 4% visit pornographic sites. Web surfing alone adds up to about an hour per day per employee. Personal emails, chatting, IM, news groups and file transfers amplify this number. For some, this may be justified but who in your organization is managing this 12.5% hit to productivity and, consequently, your higher labor costs?

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