Online holiday shopping costly for employers
October 29, 2009 by Valerie HelmbreckPosted in: Communication, Compliance, IT employment, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, User behavior, Web 2.0, Web sites, subscribers
‘Tis the season of shopping online for holiday gifts, and that little exercise costs many U.S. employers a lot more than the average year-end bonus.
A new study by the folks at the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) found that 63% of workers will do at least some of their gift buying on the job using their workplace computers.
In a parallel version of the survey administered to IT professionals, 46% believe their company loses an average of $3,000 or more in productivity per employee from online holiday shopping at work.
More than half – 55% – also reported that their company permits workers to shop online, but has no strategy for educating them about the risks.
Lost productivity during the holiday season is a major concern to businesses -– from employees who take time off from work to shop in person, to those who shop during working hours from their company PC, especially during “Cyber Monday,” the biggest online shopping day of the year.
(For the shopping phobic among us, Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving, when shoppers hit the online retailers hardest. “Black Friday” refers to the super sales that bricks and mortar stores hold the day after Thanksgiving.) The theory being: Folks check out the deals they can get at local stores first, then hit the online version soon after.
IT may want to re-state the organization’s policy about acceptable computer usage in advance of “Cyber Monday.” There are also software tools that can help you monitor which sites workers are visiting.
If you’re trying to get upper management to invest in monitoring technology, here’s data you can use to help make your case:
- $580 million: the estimated amount employers lost in productivity on Cyber Monday in 2008.
- 43% of those planning to shop from work on Cyber Monday will spend at least one hour doing so and 23% said they shop two hours or more from their workplace computer. (Source: CareerBuilder)
- Cyber Monday, November 30th is anticipated to be the number one online shopping day in 2009. The busiest shopping hours are from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., while people are at work. (Source: Purdue Retail Institute)
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Tags: cyber Monday, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, ISACA, online, shopping
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Complete bunk. I agree there’s fundamentally a problem when an hourly associate does anything other than ‘work’ while on the clock. But how much of your numbers was due to sallaried employees? I along with millions of others constantly do whatever it takes to get the job done and don’t charge by the hour for our services. How often do we work late – essentially for free? How often do we work through lunch – essentially for free? How often do we sit at our desks from dawn till dusk – for no additional money… just to get our jobs done? Will I do a little bit of online shopping around the holidays? ABSOLUTELY! Primarily because it will allow me to contribute just a few more ‘free’ hours to my employer by not having to venture out to the shopping malls. Happy shopping.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Right on, Jonny Olinger!
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Amen Jonny Amen!
November 4th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
$3000 per employee? At $30/hour, that’s 100 hours, or over 12 work days spent holiday shopping on line? That’s totally ridiculous. Employees don’t have that much time to spare in a month without being noticed. If they do, they’re not necessary.
January 6th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Shopping in person is just as risky. Scammers can get your credit card number from store sites, ATM machines and the percentage of criminal store employees is greater then the risk of shopping online.