Priscilla Kohl

HR for Small Business Achievers

Are Your Workers Holiday Shopping on the Job? Tips for Managing Employee Online Shopping Trips

According to a 2008 Careerbuilder.com survey, nearly one-third of workers plan to holiday shop online while at work. "While employers are unlikely to terminate workers for online holiday shopping during the workday, employees should proactively police their personal Internet usage," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. 

In another survey published by ISACA, previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, nearly 63 percent of employees surveyed plan to holiday shop online while at work.

How can an employer manage this inevitable seasonal challenge? Here are a few ideas that may help keep employee productivity and morale high during the holiday season:

1. Set up an “Internet Café.”  The IT department could temporarily install a few computers (that are not hooked up to the network) in a central location. Employers can determine times that employees could access computers in order to take care of online shopping needs. For instance, employees might use designated break or meal times.
2. Allow access from individual employee computers but have the IT department install “blockers” that prevent access to unsafe or questionable sites. Employers could also use this strategy as a good-will or morale-boosting gesture. A message could be communicated that you understand how difficult it is to juggle work and family duties. So, here is your holiday gift or employee perk—our valued employees will be permitted to holiday shop online at work but with pre-set time limits. You can also remind employees to meet all customer service needs and work deadlines first. You might even be pleasantly surprised to find out that most employees will behave professionally. Not only that, productivity rates may even increase.
3. Train employees about safe computer practices. Make sure employees learn how to determine if a site is not secure before they shop online. According to the ISACA, “Providing a workplace e-mail address to an online retailer can leave a computer network open to a variety of threats and productivity wasters including spam, phishing attacks and viruses. Yet more than two in 10 (22 percent) respondents have clicked on an e-mail link to go to a retailer’s web site from their workplace computer and used their company e-mail address as the contact for a purchase.”
4. Ask employees not to provide their work e-mail addresses to online retailers, and ask them to delete ‘cookies’ from their computers when they are finished shopping.

This employee online holiday-shopping issue may also be a good time to remind employees of your Internet policies. If you don’t have any policies, most HR professionals recommend that employers develop e-mail and Internet policies to inform employees what is permitted while using employer systems.

The information contained in this document is for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. This information is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional and should not be relied upon in reference to any specific situation without first seeking the advice of a qualified HR professional and/or legal counsel regarding applicable federal, state or local laws. HRTools, Insperity and their respective employees make no warranties, express or implied, and make no judgments regarding the accuracy of this content and/or its applicability to a specific situation. A reference or link to another website is not an endorsement of that site or service.