Prevention of Cyberloafing
Since cyberloafing can lead to a large decrease in production, it’s important to understand how to prevent it from happening in the first place. Not all cyberloafing can be prevented in the same way.
Ugrin and Pearson (2013) suggest that there are various preventative measures that should be taken to ensure that your employees are getting their job done and that it is accurate. In most cases, organizations try to implement monitoring systems on their computers to screen for employees that are using the internet for personal tasks. However, the issue with this is that not everyone views personal internet use at work as being a bad thing. If someone does not believe they are doing anything wrong, they will not think about the monitoring system as a punishment or let it sway them from checking the latest sports scores.
Enforcing Policies
It is not enough to simply tell employees that there is a policy regarding using the internet for personal use. In order for it to be effective, and for employees to understand that there is a chance of them being caught, they must see someone else being caught doing it. In addition, besides seeing someone else get caught for using the internet, it is important to make sure that they understand how severe the consequences could be.
How does ethics play a role?
A third factor that plays a role in how willing employees are to cyberloaf is how ethical they are. If employees see that their company makes moral decisions and is fair, there is a decrease in the chance that they will act in an unethical way and harm the company by cyberloafing. Ultimately though, even if employees do not have the highest ethical standards, if they see that the policies are being enforced, there is an increase in the likelihood that they will refrain from cyberloafing.
Reward employees for hard work
Besides implementing policies within a company to prevent cyberloafing, Beugre and Kim (2006) believe that it can be helpful to just provide a set amount of time in the workday for employees to use the internet for their own personal tasks. This way, it allows employees to de-stress for a few minutes and have some freedom and then get back to work with a fresh mind. It’s possible that while employees are browsing the internet during their free time that they actually come across something creative to help complete a project or fix a problem.
Here are two other alternatives to help keep your cyberloafing under control while at work.
Ugrin and Pearson (2013) suggest that there are various preventative measures that should be taken to ensure that your employees are getting their job done and that it is accurate. In most cases, organizations try to implement monitoring systems on their computers to screen for employees that are using the internet for personal tasks. However, the issue with this is that not everyone views personal internet use at work as being a bad thing. If someone does not believe they are doing anything wrong, they will not think about the monitoring system as a punishment or let it sway them from checking the latest sports scores.
Enforcing Policies
It is not enough to simply tell employees that there is a policy regarding using the internet for personal use. In order for it to be effective, and for employees to understand that there is a chance of them being caught, they must see someone else being caught doing it. In addition, besides seeing someone else get caught for using the internet, it is important to make sure that they understand how severe the consequences could be.
How does ethics play a role?
A third factor that plays a role in how willing employees are to cyberloaf is how ethical they are. If employees see that their company makes moral decisions and is fair, there is a decrease in the chance that they will act in an unethical way and harm the company by cyberloafing. Ultimately though, even if employees do not have the highest ethical standards, if they see that the policies are being enforced, there is an increase in the likelihood that they will refrain from cyberloafing.
Reward employees for hard work
Besides implementing policies within a company to prevent cyberloafing, Beugre and Kim (2006) believe that it can be helpful to just provide a set amount of time in the workday for employees to use the internet for their own personal tasks. This way, it allows employees to de-stress for a few minutes and have some freedom and then get back to work with a fresh mind. It’s possible that while employees are browsing the internet during their free time that they actually come across something creative to help complete a project or fix a problem.
Here are two other alternatives to help keep your cyberloafing under control while at work.