UK Employers Stand to Lose £300 Million a Week in Lost Productivity

Bloxx, the innovator in web and email filtering, today warned the forecasted increase in Internet shopping could end up costing the UK economy millions of pounds in lost business productivity in the run up to Christmas.

Online retail industry group IMRG and consultants Capgemini recently stated that they expected online sales this Christmas to reach £6.4 billion, up 16% on 2009 sales. According to the Business Software Alliance, 46% of online shopping takes place during working hours.

Using an average of just one hour spent browsing shopping websites or reading and reacting to shopping related emails during the working week and using an hourly pay rate of £12.50, Bloxx estimates that UK employers could stand to loose up to £300 million a week in lost productivity over the next six weeks.

“Most organisations will allow their employees to spend a reasonable amount of time shopping online or receiving shopping related emails,” said Eamonn Doyle, Bloxx Chief Executive Officer. “However, with the addictive nature of online shopping and retailers using frequent emails to drive traffic to their sites, it can be all too easy for employees to get carried away and end up spending excessive amounts of time shopping when they should be working.”

To address the problem, employers need to act now by ensuring that they have a comprehensive Internet and Email Acceptable Use Policy in place and that they have filtering that allows them to proactively manage personal use of web and email.

“Companies need to ensure that they have a clear Acceptable Use Policy for personal Internet usage during working hours and ensure that this is communicated regularly to employees. Employees need to know what is acceptable and what the consequences could be for breaking the policy,” concludes Doyle.