Yesterday’s Advisor offered tips for controlling surfing on company time; today we’ve got a list of key issues to consider when you write your Internet policy.
Here, from BLR’s popular SmartPolicies, are particular topics to consider for your policy on Internet usage:
- Security. Are all files downloaded from the Internet scanned for viruses? Are hard drives routinely scanned for viruses? Is virus software routinely updated?
- Software. Can employees install downloaded “freeware” or other programs from the Internet onto their office computers?
- Privacy. Do you inform employees that their use of the Internet may be monitored? Do you state that employees’ computers are subject to inspection to determine whether there is a virus present, whether there is pornographic material present, or whether there is personal software present?
- Games. Does your policy prohibit installing games on your computers?
BLR’s SmartPolicies supplies 350 HR policies on a CD, prewritten for you, and ready to customize or use as is. Examine it at no cost or risk. Find out more.
- Solicitation. Does your company policy regarding solicitation apply to the Internet? Do you prohibit the sale of personal items through advertising that is placed during working hours on the Internet? Do you prohibit the use of e-mail over the Internet to solicit during working hours?
- Harassment. Does your policy explicitly forbid the use of the Internet to harass employees, vendors, customers, and others? Is there a method for tracing the origination of an abusive message over the Internet?
- Abuses. Does your policy define what you consider to be abuses of the Internet, such as sending advertising, viewing pornographic material, or downloading movies or music?
- Blogs. Does your policy address the creation of personal blogs at work or using company facilities?
- VOIP. Does your policy address the use of Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) services? (VOIP services convert a voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet.)
- Monitoring. Do you tell employees that you can monitor the sites visited and the amount of time spent on the Internet?
- Confidentiality. Do you require that documents sent via the Internet be encrypted?
Time to update your Internet policy? What about the dozens of other policies that might need brushing up? Fortunately, there’s a new way to keep up with policy challenges.
You Can’t Back-Burner Policy Rewrites
Changes to FMLA, military leave, accommodation rules, the list of policy requirements seems endless. But you can’t backburner policy changes—they’re your only hope for consistent management that avoids lawsuits.
You need policies now, policies that are carefully crafted, legally reviewed, and regularly updated. But it’s no light task to write and update the dozens of policies that any organization needs.
Our editors have a suggestion that will help you do it, with a minimum of cost and effort.
Why write your own policies when we’ve already done it for you … at less than $1 each! Inspect BLR’s SmartPolicies at no cost or risk. Get the details.
It’s a remarkable program called SmartPolicies. The expert authors of the policies on this CD have already worked through the critical issues on some 100 critical policy topics, prewritten the policies for you, and tested them at thousands of companies over time.
In all, SmartPolicies contains some 350 policies covering those topics, arranged alphabetically from Absenteeism and Blogging to Cell Phone Safety, Voicemail and Workers’ Compensation. (To see the complete Table of Contents, click the link below.) What’s more, the CD format makes these policies easily customized. Just add your company specifics or use as is.
Just as important, as regulation and court decisions clarify your responsibilities on workplace issues, the policies are updated, with new ones added as needed every quarter, as a standard part of the program.
SmartPolicies is available to HR Daily Advisor subscribers on a 30-day evaluation basis at no cost or risk … even for return postage. If you’d like to have a look at it, go here and we’ll be happy to arrange it.