It is estimated that at least sixty percent of web surfing at the office is for personal reasons.  In the most comprehensive internet productivity study ever conducted, (Websense) the world’s largest provider of employee internet management solutions announced that $178 billion is lost annually by American companies as a result of internet misuse in the office.  In terms of Thailand, the facts are clear, unrestricted and unmonitored internet access in the office is a massive distraction to employees and companies in Thailand are experiencing significant financial losses as a result of casual internet usage during business hours.  In another study, Salary.com found that 44.7% of employees cited web surfing as their number one distraction at work.

Let’s face it, Thai professionals love technology as university studies show the only thing they love more than surfing the internet at work is talking and texting on their personal phones.  In fact, fifty percent of Thai companies say cell phones and texting are the biggest obstacle to getting work done in the office.  One alarming finding in a study of Bangkok employees indicated that at least twenty-four percent of workers admit to spending at least one hour a day at the office taking personal calls, texting and responding to personal emails.  An equal percentage admitted to to surfing the web for at least an hour for personal reasons on their personal cell phone to avoid office detection.  Unfortunately, not even office meetings are safe from the distractions created by cell phones as eight-two percent of Thai managers recall an employee receiving a call or attempting to respond to a text during a scheduled meeting with employees.

So how can your Thai company deal with these issues in the workplace?  Consider the following strategies to insure cell phones and internet use does not become an issue:

1. Consider installing employee lock boxes where employees can deposit their cell phones prior to the workday.  Since cell phone usage is a privilege and not a right, employers are fully within their right to require employees store their cell phones while “on the clock”.  In the absence of this, a very clear written office policy that requires signatures from each employee acknowledging their understanding of a phone policy is a good strategy.
2. If employees are provided with a cell phone, sign up for monitoring services that are often provided through cell phone carriers.  If you carrier does not offer monitoring services, consider phone applications such as TextGuard or My Mobile Watchdog that provide logs of phone calls, alerts when calls come in from certain numbers, monitoring of text messages, emails and internet history.
3. Impose penalties and written warnings for employees who violate cell phone policies.
4. Talk to your company’s technology department to gauge how much internet usage is for business and personal use.  In collecting information, identify individuals who are the biggest problems and have a meeting with them on the issue.
5. Develop and internet usage policy and require that all employees sign the policy acknowledging that they have read and understand the terms.
6. Install internet monitoring software that monitors internet usage and make it a component of employee reviews.
7. Through the use of internet monitoring software, choose to block unauthorized website usage.
8. Consider software that brings up the internet usage policy upon log-in and requires associates to “agree” to its terms.  This serves two function: first it reinforces the policy to employees and second, it protects the company legally in case the employee objects to any discipline or termination carried out by the company.

The hiring of employees is a huge investment to any company and while they are at the office, they should performing tasks in the best interests of the company. However, the implementation of any policy or action should be thought out very carefully as the company does not want to be perceived as “big brother”. Companies want employees to feel valued, trusted and appreciated.  A heavy-handed policy can hurt recruitment and office moral so companies need to be able to strike a delicate between fair and balanced.