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An Internet Policy for Your Employees
2. Using the Internet
2.1 Encourage the use of appropriate services.
- Promote the use of internal and external email for business communications, when appropriate.
- Get employees to access websites for business purposes.
2.2 Control misuse of the Internet.
- Limit personal use (see 3.1).
- Restrict the sites that employees can visit (see 3.2).
- Control downloads (see 4).
- Control or ban online purchasing (see 5).
- Control or prohibit other uses of the Internet, such as postings on social networking sites, chatrooms or forums (see 6).
2.3 If you have a company intranet, you may want to set up extra internal services that work with your Internet software.
For example:
- Make important documents available via browser software. For example, production schedules, sales targets, standard letters and forms and company policies.
- Set up a bulletin board to improve internal communication without creating excessive levels of email.
- Install diary software that allows employees to schedule meetings and book rooms.
Personal Downloads
The Internet can be a tempting environment for many employees, who often see little wrong in downloading material for their personal use during working hours.
The most popular types of downloaded files are generally music, video clips, pornographic images or films and free or demo software.
Make sure your policy states the kinds of file you consider to be unacceptable. Failing to control or ban such downloads could lead to a number of problems.
Time spent online will go up.
Such files are often large, and can take a long time to download (see 4.4).
- Your phone bill will increase if you only have a dial-up connection.
- Employee productivity is likely to be affected.
The performance of your systems and software may suffer.
- Downloaded files can take up a lot of disk space, slowing your system down.
- Other users may find Internet connection speeds are noticeably slower when large downloads are being made.
The security of your system may be threatened (see 4.1).
There are legal issues.
- You may be liable for files downloaded on your system.
For example, images, text or even music protected by someone else's copyright.
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