The average UK office worker spends an hour and a half of work time daily surfing the web for personal use at a cost to the economy of £10.6bn a year, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has revealed.
The survey of 503 organisations also revealed that nearly two thirds of employers think staff regularly use office time outside of lunch hours and formal breaks to look at non work- related pages, including social networking sites, web email, shopping and holiday sites.
Employers across the public and private sectors estimate that 4.4% of working time is lost in this way, which accounts for 95 minutes per week, or ten days a year. According to the CBI’s calculations this works out as an annual cost of £939 per employee.
Despite this, 25% of organisations have no limits on internet access. Of those polled, 54% restrict access to some extent, whereas 14% deny access altogether.
Yet companies are beginning to get tough on employees who misuse their internet privileges. A third of respondents disciplined an employee for internet misuse during 2007, while 13% took action to dismiss an employee for persistent misuse.
John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general said that it’s an issue that business leaders need to take seriously. “Employers need to decide for themselves what level of non-work surfing is acceptable and then set out clear boundaries.”
The research comes a week after a report was released showing the banning of internet use could lose UK businesses up to £4bn a year.
The research, conducted by PopCap Games, found that employees were shunning traditional tea breaks in favour of surfing the web.
© Crimson Business Ltd.
