How to Make an Internet Usage Policy – 2 Templates
Company policies are made for the sole purpose of maintaining office order and ensuring that employees know what they can and cannot do. Employers also know that the Internet is a very powerful tool that allows everyone to share or acquire information at any given point in time. For this reason, a lot of employers try to limit how employees make use of the Internet within the office, and the way to do that is by creating an Internet usage policy.
What should your Internet usage policy cover?
When creating your Internet policy, you have to clearly state the employees can only use the Internet if it is job-related and nothing more. This is something that you especially want to write down if your company is one that handles formal business. You can also decide to ease up on how the professional employees can make use of the Internet if you are willing to make things a bit more lenient, such as allowing these people to access their social media accounts while at work.
You must state that if the employee does not solely use the Internet for work-related purposes and the employee’s performance and productivity drop because of this, you will strip the employee of the privileges that you were kind enough to offer. You may also like leave policy
You also have to state that the employee must use the Internet wisely and in a way that benefits the company. Also point out that since the employee will be using company equipment to access the Internet, you have every right to monitor the traffic as well as the access data that is composed, sent, or received through its online connections. You may also see email usage policy
Mention that all sites may be monitored or blocked if they are deemed to be harmful to the company and if they hinder the operations within the general workplace.
Computer Use Policy Template
Company Policy Template
Unacceptable uses of the Internet
- Sending or posting any inappropriate images or messages such as threats through the use of company email or through any application that allows employees to send them
- Using the company computers to perpetrate any form of fraud and/or software, film, or music piracy
- Stealing or using another employee’s password and using their accounts without any authorization
- Downloading, copying, or pirating software and electronic files that are copyrighted without authorization
- Sharing any standard confidential information about the company to any outside sources
- Hacking of any business websites that have already been unauthorized by the company
- Sharing or posting anything that will give the company a bad image
- Introducing any malicious software in the company’s system that could very well jeopardize the company’s Internet protection company security system
Reasons why you need an Internet usage policy
If you own a business, then you would want to make sure that you take every single precaution that will help protect your simple company. That includes managing the way your employees make use of the Internet.
By instituting this type of general policy, you are making sure that the employees do not share anything the company does not want them to share, ensuring that they make use of the best Internet wisely and guaranteeing that they do not do anything to make the public look at the company in a negative light. You may also see policy templates
Read other articles about how to create editable company policies by checking the rest of our archives.