Conventional wisdom dictates employees waste too much time online. From watching silly videos on YouTube to watching porn. From checking personal email to checking the latest box scores, employees waste millions of hours every year in no productive online endevours. There is no doubt that unrestrictied access opens a company up to everything from sexual harassment for those who surf for skin, to being infected by viruses, trojans, and worms.
There is mounting evidence however that allowing employees some latitude in their online time might actually increase productivity. A recent University of Melbourne study indicates that those who engage in leisure browsing are 9% more productive than those who do not. Perhaps the leisure web surfing acts as a bit of digital sorbet allowing employees to refresh and recharge. This infographic from socialcast gives us some great concepts to consider as our online policies evolve.
