Are Your Employees Your Biggest Enemies?

could your employees be your biggest enemies

We don’t like to think about employees taking advantage of the technology at work for things other than, well, work. Sure, we probably don’t mind them printing off the occasional personal document, or flipping onto social media during break times. But the idea that employees are actually spending large amounts of time abusing the technology privileges they get at work? It doesn’t sit well with most business owners. You can read more uncomfortable realities of business ownership at https://definingmydecade.wordpress.com/the-realities-of-being-a-business-owner/.

The fact is that a large portion of the problems that business owners face are actually the direct result of employees misusing the technology of the office. Of course, there are several ways of looking at this problem. The things that cause problems aren’t always so obvious.

Let’s talk about a less obvious but way more serious risk when it comes to employees and business technology. Because a lot of business owners out there would probably just jump to the conclusion that time-wasting is the main issue. This isn’t necessarily the case, however. When we think about employees with unlimited access to the Internet, or who use personal/portable devices to do their work, we also need to think about security. You can read more about good security at https://techgeek365.com/security-software-literally-fights-back/.

Employees who are accessing whatever website they like, as well as downloading software that can help them do their job and connecting their devices to unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots, are putting your technology and data at risk. In fact, most problems involving viruses and breaches stem from within the company, as opposed to outside. This should highlight the need for people to be more clued up about cyber security. Consider hiring an expert, or even learning more about it yourself. Find out more at http://online.maryville.edu/cyber-security/masters/.

Of course, lost productivity is still what most business owners are worried about when it comes to employees and office technology. And the impact that time-wasting Internet use has on your business shouldn’t be underestimated. For one, it takes your employees out of “the zone”, that sweet spot of productivity in which you’re fully focused on your task. It can take a good fifteen minutes of uninterrupted work to get into that flow, so breaking it with the likes of Facebook and BuzzFeed is clearly a big problem.

Then there’s the bandwidth problem. If all your employees are streaming music from Tidal or Spotify, then the Internet is going to be really slow for everyone! You should encourage employees to listen to offline music files if they want to listen to music at work. (Which, yes, means they’ll actually have to pay for MP3s or CDs. Shock! Horror!) Of course, you could also look into getting a faster, more reliable connection from your ISP, and increasing bandwidth with more routers. Read more over at http://smallbusiness.chron.com/increase-bandwidth-two-routers-51284.html.

Remember: your employees can be your biggest enemies when it comes to office productivity, thanks to frequent misuse of office technology. Be sure to lay some ground rules!

With over 9 years of search marketing experience, Sandra is cross skilled between PPC and SEO. Her experience in search spans across different verticals including Technology, Retail, Travel & Automotive.