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$178 Billion in Employee Productivity Lost in the U.S. Annually Due to Internet Misuse, Reports Websense, Inc.

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

SAN DIEGO, July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Websense, Inc. , the world's leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced that internet misuse in the workplace costs American corporations more than $178 billion annually in lost productivity. This translates into a loss of more than $5,000 per employee per year.

Workplace internet access continues to increase, resulting in more than 68 million U.S. employees accessing the web at work in 2005, according to the IDC Internet Commerce Market Model version 9.1.(1) However, as web use becomes increasingly engaging and interactive, workers are spending more office time surfing the internet for personal reasons. For example, a recent America Online and Salary.com survey reported that 44.7% of the more than 10,000 American workers polled cited web surfing as their number one distraction at work.

Furthermore, according to a recent Websense/Harris Interactive Web@Work survey, 50% of employees surveyed who access the internet at work admit they do so for both work and personal reasons. Based upon this statistic, of the 68 million U.S. employees who access the internet at work, approximately 34 million spend time surfing the web for personal usage at the office. In addition, the survey also states that IT decision-makers polled believe that employees are spending an average of 5.9 hours per week surfing the internet for non work-related reasons. This time spent "cyberslacking," multiplied by the average U.S. salary, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor's National Compensation Survey, accounts for the multibillion dollar crisis facing American businesses.

"The web can be a critical business tool; however, in some cases its misuse can offset the productivity benefits of internet access," said Leo Cole, vice president of marketing at Websense, Inc. "To help companies maintain a positive and efficient work environment, Websense software helps enterprises provide a work-life balance for employees so they can enjoy personal surfing as an employee benefit but still remain productive during work hours."

To help manage employee web surfing, the Websense(R) Master Database contains more than 11 million websites, divided into 90 categories, such as sports, travel and shopping, which organizations can use to set flexible filtering policies for internet usage. According to the Web@Work survey, among those employees who use the web during the work day for personal reasons, the most popular non work-related websites accessed are news (81%), personal email (61%), online banking (58%), travel (56%) and shopping (52%).

Websense allows organizations to institute flexible policies to effectively manage employee internet use. For example, through implementing time-based quotas, companies may set daily limits to manage employees' access to non business-related websites. Employees can visit these sites for a specific allotment of time each day, and are notified when they must use quota time to access a website. Websense's sophisticated technology also lets companies filter by time of day, and provides a continue option which notifies a user that a website is considered inappropriate, while immediately allowing access to the site with prior notification that access to the site will be reported.

About Websense, Inc.

Websense, Inc. , the world's leading provider of employee internet management solutions, enables organizations to optimize employee use of computing resources and mitigate new threats related to internet use including instant messaging, peer-to-peer, and spyware. By providing usage policy enforcement at the internet gateway, on the network and at the desktop, Websense products enhance productivity and security, optimize the use of IT resources and mitigate legal liability for our customers. For more information, visit http://www.websense.com/.

(C) 2005, Websense, Inc. All rights reserved. Websense and Websense Enterprise are registered trademarks of Websense, Inc. in the United States and certain international markets. Websense has numerous other unregistered trademarks in the United States and internationally. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(1) IDC, document # 30949 Worldwide Internet Usage and Commerce 2004-2007 Forecast: Internet Commerce Market Model Version 9.1, March 2004. MEDIA CONTACT: Jen Culter Websense, Inc. 858 320 9511 jculter@websense.com

Websense, Inc.

CONTACT: Jen Culter of Websense, Inc., +1-858-320-9511,jculter@websense.com

Web site: http://www.websense.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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