Monitoring social media usage at work

It’s safe to assume that most employers operating within an office environment worry about their staff browsing the internet when they should be working. According to a new study, employers have reason to be concerned.

Swinburne University and online security company MailGuard recently released the results of a six-month study measuring the internet usage of 50,000 people.

The study reveals the average Australian worker spends up to 60 minutes a day browsing online for personal reasons, namely to check social media sites such as Facebook.

However, employers have been advised against banning their staff from using social media altogether, arguing there are ways to monitor it instead.

For example, one researcher at Swinburne University has developed a self-regulation tool, which tells staff when their internet use changes in the hope it will deter them from abusing it.

A growing number of companies are also using software programs to monitor their employees’ internet use, with Swinburne and MailGuard creating a program that can calculate the average internet use of different departments and for particular occupations.

As the issue becomes more prevalent, companies are scrambling to introduce measures without losing key staff, so perhaps there is an opportunity to develop this further.

A social media enthusiast could deliver training programs on appropriate ways to monitor internet use in the workplace or develop their own technology to keep tabs on employees’ online activity.