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View All NewsHalf of employees shop online at work, survey finds
Employees are once again boosting their online shopping following last year’s record low rate in the post-recession era, according to CareerBuilder’s annual Cyber Monday survey.
Half of workers, 50%, said they will spend at least some work time holiday shopping, up 3% from last year. Of this group, 42% will spend an hour or more doing so.
Additionally, 12% of employers said they have fired someone for holiday shopping on the Internet while at work, up from to 8% in last year’s survey, and 56% said their organization blocks employees from accessing certain websites from work — up 3% from last year.
“In a world where the lines between the professional and personal are becoming more and more blurred every day, it’s not surprising that more employees are bringing personal activities to the workplace,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “Employees should follow the rules, but employers should be careful not to micromanage. The issue should be more about performance than about what employees are doing with their time.”
Firms have taken stronger measures to prevent loss of productivity this year, including:
- 36% of employers said their organization monitors the sites employees visit, up 4% since last year
- 55% of employers restrict employees from posting on behalf of the company on social media, and 32% have adopted stricter policies in this regard over the past year, up from 50% and 25% last year, respectively
- 28% said they’ve fired someone for using the Internet for non-work related activity, and 18% have fired an employee for something they posted on social media, up from 24% and 12% last year, respectively
This survey was conducted online within the US by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,326 hiring and human resource managers. It was conducted between Aug.12 and Sept. 2, 2015.