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Developing A Winning Employee Internet Policy!


Every business needs an employee internet policy. Even a college will have an internet usage policy for college students in place. These policies help ensure that the employees are not using the internet or company computers for anything inappropriate, or wasting time surfing when they should be working. Here are some guidelines to setting up a company internet usage policy for your business.

Consider The Need For The Internet

The first step to setting up an employee internet policy is to consider the need for the internet for each employee. Depending on the type of business you are running, you may find that some of your employees do not need access to an internet browser. Part of your internet policy for your business could be that only those who need internet access receive it. This can eliminate problems with many of your employees.



Also, if your employees need access to only certain websites, you may want to set up a server that only allows access to those sites. The server could be password protected to keep employees out of other sites, unless approved by their management. Again, this eliminates wasted work time spent searching the internet for personal reasons.

Appropriate Usage Guidelines

Another important aspect of building a company internet usage policy is creating guidelines that dictate an exact definition of appropriate internet usage. For example, if you allow your employees unlimited access to the internet, you may want to put in place an internet usage policy that says that any employee caught looking at adult material on company computers will be dealt with severely, suspended, or even fired. A strict policy on this type of content makes employees think before they visit inappropriate sites.



The most common sites that are not allowed in any internet usage policy are adult content websites. Some businesses do not allow their employees to spend any time surfing auction or shopping sites that are not related to the business. Others may block travel sites that employees would use to look for airline tickets and plan their vacations.

Enforcing an Employee Internet Policy

Enforcing your appropriate and inappropriate sites policy can be a little tricky. Make sure you have in place some form of tracking software that allows you to know where your employees are going on the internet. There are software programs that will send you a flag if an employee visits a questionable site. This is the best way to keep track and keep your employees honest! Be sure your usage policy is clear to everyone who works for your company.



Implementing Your Company Internet Usage Policy


Besides controlling your employees' internet usage, you may want to enforce a corporate email policy. Email policies are designed to dictate what is appropriate use of the company's email programs. You may, for example, want to eliminate any employees using the company's corporate email for personal communication.


Another company email usage policy involves forwards and spam emails. These are the types of emails that wish everyone luck or riches for passing on the email to ten friends. For whatever reason, they keep coming into your inbox and your employees may be spending valuable company time forwarding them on to their friends. You may want to put a ban on any of these types of email. Rate this Article

Another aspect of a company email policy that is often overlooked is appropriate communication. You may want to tell your employees that they may not use the company email to carry on fights with each other, or to bad mouth someone behind his or her back. Remember, you never know who will see an email, and when two employees are having difficulties, they should talk to each other instead of sending an email back and forth that is full of bitter words.

Employees who refuse to adhere to email policy compliance standards should face strict consequences. You may choose to have a certain number of times they can be caught abusing the company email before you suspend or fire them. The internet and email are dangerous tools in the wrong hands, and you do not want your company's reputation to be marred by an unethical employee.

Internet And Email Security

The final thing you need to consider when establishing a company wide internet and email policy is the internet security policy for your company.

What will you do to an employee who is caught hacking into the company's system, or introducing a virus to the computer network? Is this cause for immediate dismissal?

What security measures are you going to put in place to prevent outsiders from damaging the computer network, and to keep secure files secure?

How will you keep the employees from within the company from leaking important security information?

These considerations need to be thought through as soon as possible to keep you from having serious security problems.



With these tools and tips, you can set up an internet usage policy. College settings should consider the same things as a business. The policies for employees would then apply to students. Remember, an employee internet policy keeps everyone more productive, happier, and safer at work!