#you don’t protect someone by forcibly restricting access of information. you protect someone by helping them learn how to protect themselves

[empmoniitor]

EFFICIENT INTERNET USAGE POLICY TO SET EMPLOYEES UP FOR SUCCESS

Every IT company has a wide range of policies and regulations, which helps them with the management of the workforce. But most of the time, such policies just become a few words on a piece of paper in the form of documents.

There are many reasons for a company to follow these regulations, implementing which they can boost productivity and increase workplace employee engagement.

According to the latest survey, we found that almost 50% of employees do vaguely care about their duties regarding the Internet usage policy of their firm. In the same survey with more than 2.2 millions of employees, it is also concluded that managers are also hazy about what should be expected from employees.

In an organization, it’s a responsibility of the management to not forcibly impose anything on employees. And make sure to be transparent and justifiable with your regulations.

In this article, we are going to study about the importance of Internet usage policy. By executing such rules in your organization, you can restrict the access usage of the Internet, which is costing you extra time, effort, and money.

WHY DO YOU NEED THE INTERNET USAGE POLICY IN YOUR ORGANISATION?

Being an employer, you should understand that the policy of your company does restrict some actions of employees, and it can’t be sugar-coated. There is no need for you to hide the fact that you are concerned about insider frauds and work time theft in your organization. And eventually, your employees will also understand these things.

Especially when we talk about Internet usage in the workplace premises, employers have every authority to check the internet activities of their employees on workplace devices. With such a policy, employees can also understand their limitations and responsibilities towards the organization so that they can work more diligently for the sake of business growth.

Here we are showing you some of the reasons why you need Internet Usage Policy in your organization.

TO FIND CYBERSLACKERS:

It is often seen that there are some cyberslackers in the organization who use the company’s resources like computers and the internet for personal usage during working hours. Obviously, they are stealing the business hours for their own interest. However, if you have a strong Internet usage policy in your firm, you can ensure that your employees are not slacking off during business hours.

TO ENHANCE INSIDER CYBERSECURITY:

Of all the threats in the cyberworld, today, most of the companies pay special care to avoid insider threats. According to survey stats, we found 90% of the organizations feel at least “slightly vulnerable” against insider threats. Research shows the data breach can cause an average of $8.76 million in  terms of damage per year. By having a good Internet usage policy, you can keep track of insider threats and enhance cybersecurity in your workplace.

ALSO READ

How To Protect Your Data From Insider Threats?

TO REDUCE BANDWIDTH HOGGING:

Do you find your staff streaming videos using workplace WiFi? Even if they are doing so in their break time, their actions might be actually hogging the Internet bandwidth, and it can also interrupt the other online business activities.

To deal with this issue, you can implement the Internet usage monitoring policy in your workplace. In fact, studies have shown that when employees know that their internet usage is getting monitored, they try to avoid using the Internet for non-work-related stuff. That way, you can not only increase the speed of production rate but also reduce the chances of malware entry in your network.

TO MANAGE WORKFORCE:

Nowadays, you can make use of some of the best employee monitoring software to manage your workforce. Indeed, in the present scenario, to prevent the spread of COVID 19, companies are allowing their employees to work remotely. And to manage a remote workforce, what you need is an online monitoring system, which can remotely track the computer activities (work) of employees.

TO PREVENT MISBEHAVIOR:

By adopting Internet usage monitoring policy, you can ensure the work environment safety by monitoring the internal communication to prevent misbehavior and cyberbullying. Management can use behavior protocol in the workplace to govern acceptable usage of the Internet so that nobody in your organization gets offended.

HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE INTERNET USAGE POLICY IN YOUR ORGANIZATION?

There you might already have some fundamental rules and regulations in your organization. In case you need to make sure that your staff is clear about the conduct that is banned while using the property of the organization. For creating an effective Internet usage policy, you should keep these things in mind and make sure to mention the forbidden actions like data theft, misuse of IT property, cyberbullying, revealing secret business information, and so on.

In fact, you can also ban the usage of social media and other non-work-related sites, which could be the means of sharing certain information about the company. And make sure to forbid video streaming using the official Internet that can hog the bandwidth and reduce the network speed in your workspace.

Here we have mentioned some of the things which you should include in the Internet usage policy of your company.

THE POLICY SHOULD REFLECT VALUES & PURPOSE:

Teamwork is essential for the success of every business. Hence it becomes important for you and your workforce to value the culture of teamwork. In the team, employees should help each other instead of accusing and rebuking others for their mistakes.

And this will help you to create a happy environment in your workplace, and it would also make your employees happy and engaged in their work.

While restricting several internet activities of employees, make sure that you are giving enough value to your workforce.

For example, if someone is contacting their family for an important matter, the company shouldn’t restrict them to get in touch with their family members.

THE POLICY SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE:

Have you been thinking of bounding your employees with strict rules for Internet usage? There is no need for that. In fact, too much of unnecessary restriction will only create an unhealthy work environment.

It seems unreasonable to expect your employees to use the internet for work purposes only. There can be situations when they might need to use the internet for their personal usage also. It’s better to be a bit flexible with the policy while you can also draw the bottom line, so no-one takes extra advantage of the flexibility.

THE POLICY SHOULD CREATE FREEDOM:

Although Internet usage policy is to restrain the activities of employees. Still, you can allow flexibility to build trust with your employees. Especially when your employees are working diligently and using the internet to improve their skills and knowledge. Then you can allow them to access the workplace Internet freely so that they can work more efficiently.

THE POLICY SHOULD REFLECT THE EMPLOYEES:

Every employee is different, and they have their own approach to deal with the task in front of them. For example, some people focus on a single task to complete it, on the other hand, there are also some people who can work on several tasks without getting distracted. There might be some people who can’t be able to sit in a place for a long time, and they can work more efficiently after taking a break in between. So you need to make sure that your Internet usage policy doesn’t interrupt the work schedule of such employees.

IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERNET USAGE POLICY

Now you have included all the modifications in your policy and are ready to implement it for your company. When people join your firm, they should be explained about these policies. Make sure to give attention to every particular information of your policy apart from other paperwork. Don’t degrade its importance, by just putting in a stack of papers.

Make your employees understand the importance of Internet monitoring and how it can empower them with better productivity. Some companies also go all-out with the whole training session explaining the different policies of their organization.

However, to implement that, you also need to monitor the internet usage and online activities of employees. While you can use EmpMonitor software using which you can track and restrict the unproductive usage of the Internet bandwidth in your firm.

ABOUT EMPMONITOR:

EmpMonitor is a software that lets you track the online computer activities of your employees. It has amazing features using which you can remotely manage the work productivity in your company.

Here we have shown some of the amazing features of EmpMonitor that can help you to empower your business.

It shows you the employees’ web browsing history record, so you can know whether they are using the internet for their work, or using the company’s Wifi to stream videos, or using social media during work hours.

EmpMonitor software works in the background, and it doesn’t appear on the program and task manager, so you can say it is invisible to the inside people having malicious intentions to leak or breach important business data of your company.

It also lets you check the website and apps that your employees are using in their work. That way, you can also learn about tools and web applications using which you can increase productivity in your business.

It also allows you to check what your employees are typing on their computers so that you can learn about internal communication between employees. That way, you can also ensure to prevent workplace harassment or misbehavior and create a healthy work environment in your firm.

If your employees are hardworking and capable enough to take responsibilities, then you can promote them to the manager or team leader position with some freedom to analyze and check the work of their other team members.

EmpMonitor also shows you the time when your employees are working online, or when they are being idle during production hours. With its online monitoring features, you can remotely monitor the productivity of employees from anywhere around the world.

These are some of the best features of EmpMonitor software, which can help you to track the online computer activities of your employees so you can implement effective Internet Usage Policy in your organization.

WRAPPING WORDS:

In the end, I would say that you need to have some policy in your firm, which can help you to restrict the unnecessary usage of Internet bandwidth in your workplace. While it is also a perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your commitment to the growth of business and employees both. So, be proactive from the front and lead your business to achieve success.

However, remember that you must tell your employees about what are your expectations from them. Make them know that your policy is not only for the growth of the business, but it also favors the growth of employees.

So, are you ready to implement Internet usage policy in your company?

If yes, then what’s your preparation? In case, you have any queries, you can share them with us in the comments given below. We would be happy to help you out.

ALSO READ:

7 Workplace Monitoring Laws Of Different Countries: Legal Restrictions & Best Practices

Originally Published On: EmpMonitor

[chevygirlsunny]

Android P (9.0): What’s New?

The public beta version of Android P was rolled out on May 8 and some of the exciting features were discussed at Google I/O 2018. If you’ve tuned into the Google I/O 2018 live stream or been there, you must be aware of the features in Android P or Android 9.0 (as you prefer). In this article, we’ve compiled a big list of new features introduced with Android P.

What Devices Will Be Getting Android P Beta?

The list of devices that support Android P beta update currently (in case you want to join the beta bandwagon after knowing the features) are as follows:

Essential Phone

Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL

Nokia 7 Plus

Oppo R15 Pro

Sony Xperia XZ2

Vivo X21UD

Vivo X21

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

For more information about the Android P update to your device, you should check out Google’s dev blog.

Android P: So, What’s New?

1. A Whole New Design

The design has been completely revamped with round corners, new icons, and a relatively new color scheme which makes the new UI look like that it has been inspired by the Flux White theme available on the Play Store for a theme engine aimed for rooted Android devices to help them utilize custom skins on top of stock Android.

Even though the design is not super unique, it is still pretty impressive and does focus on making the user experience a lot more cleaner and intuitive.

2. Notification Enhancements

There are some visual enhancements and some advances in the functionalities of how a notification helps you. For example, now you can copy your 2FA codes received via SMS directly with a single tap. It basically detects the messaging containing the One-time passcode or the 2FA code, and when you tap on “Copy” from the notifications (or the messaging app), your code will directly get copied for use.

So, you don’t have to select the code and copy/paste the authentication code received via SMS. It is definitely a useful feature for Android users in a country like India because a lot of reputable services rely on 2FA codes / One-time passcode for authentication via SMS (instead of using code generators) in those countries.

3. New System Navigation

With Android P, Google has decided to introduce smart gestures for navigation (similar to the ones on iPhone X) over the soft button keys.

The gestures might be confusing for some and would really take several days to get comfortable using it over the soft keys. For instance, swiping up all the way up to launch the app drawer or swiping halfway to see the recent apps may not be the go-to solution for some.

But, the gestures definitely add more value to the user experience once you get acquainted with them.

4. Indoor Positioning Using Wi-Fi

With the support of Wi-Fi RTT (Round-Trip-Time) IEEE 802.11mc WiFi protocol, Android P can calculate the distance to the nearest Wi-Fi hotspots or access points to approximate your position indoors. So, this could facilitate a service which would be responsible for in-building navigation, and more accurate position tracking.

5. Adaptive Battery Feature

 Android P brings in a lot of A.I implementations and the “Adaptive Battery” feature is one among them. With the help of machine learning, it will study your usage patterns (which app you use the most/rare) and prioritize the utilization of system resources by the applications you have on your device.

6. App Actions Feature

App actions is a feature closely related to the frequently used applications displayed in the first row of the App Drawer. Just like you observe the most used applications in the first row of the app drawer, you can notice certain “action shortcuts” below it for even quicker access to the tasks you want to achieve.

For example, you regularly utilize the Skype app to call “Martha“. So, after a while, you will notice a direct action shortcut to call Martha using Skype app with a single tap instead of launching the Skype app separately and searching for Martha.

7. Smart Reply In Notifications

I should have mentioned this feature as an enhancement to the existing system of notifications but it’s not just a tweak, it is a very useful addition. You may have observed the smart replies while using “Inbox” app by  Gmail.

If you haven’t, let me explain a bit – “When someone sends you an email, and you try to send a reply – Google’s Inbox app suggests you some preset replies for a quick reply to the email”. Now, with Android P, you can start utilizing this feature for other 3rd party applications as well (the dev team of the app needs to add the functionality for you to use it).

8. Text Magnifier

When you select a text, you will get a magnified view of it just above the selected text to easily set the position of the text cursor.

9. Background Restrictions

If an application has a very high background battery usage, Android will automatically detect that and list it in the Battery settings for you to easily restrict the background usage of that particular app in a single tap. So, if you observe an abnormal battery drain, simply head to the battery settings and check whether an app with high background activity is the culprit.

10. Biometric Prompt

While purchasing something / confirming something that requires biometric authentication, Android will now be able to display its own biometric authentication prompt (instead of a separate dialogue prompt designed for the app).

11. Protected Confirmation

There have been several under-the-hood improvements to provide better security in Android P. Here, the Android Protected Confirmation feature introduces a Trust Execution Environment to verify user’s confirmation to initiate an action (such as initiating a sensitive transaction).

12. Dashboard

Android P brings in a dashboard where you can see how much you have been using the device (and what you’ve been doing). For example, the number of times you’ve unlocked the device, time spent on YouTube, and so on.

The dashboard feature will help you be more productive while analyzing the usage patterns.

13. App Timer

Google did mention about the Digital Wellbeing of the users. App Timer is exactly a feature addressed to the same. It lets you set a timer for the applications you use so that you get notified when you use the app for a longer time.

14. Enhanced Do Not Disturb

Normally, the DND mode takes care of the notification sounds but not the visual interruptions (you still check your screen when a notification pops up even with the DND mode enabled). But, with Android P, you get the option to disable the visual interruptions for notifications. You can enable the feature by activating the “Shush” mode in the Do Not Disturb settings.

15. Wind Down Feature

The “Wind Down” feature introduces a grayscale color scheme which makes everything look dull on your screen. When enabled, it reduces the strain while checking your smartphone just before going to sleep (thereby promoting Digital Wellbeing). The color scheme of the screen will automatically turn back to its original state in the morning.

16. Adaptive Brightness

You might have already heard about this feature on Android smartphones. But, this time, it is different.

Android will learn your preferences when you manually adjust the brightness and after a certain period of analyzing your behavior, it will automatically tweak the brightness in similar situations.

17. Battery Icon In Ambient Display

In Android P, you will now notice the battery percentage icon in the Ambient Display screen.

18. A New Screenshot Button

You no longer have to juggle between the volume down button and the power button to take a screenshot.

With Android 9.0, you just need to hold down the power button and you should notice a screenshot option in the power menu. It’s definitely a handy addition.

19. System UI Notifications

Don’t want the notification icon to show up when you take a screenshot?

Fret not, Android P has the solution to your problem.

You can now disable/enable some system notification icons to show up from within the App Notifications settings using the System UI Tuner.

20. Lockdown

If you want to temporarily disable the fingerprint sensor to prevent someone to forcibly unlock your device (usually an assailant), simply hold down the power button and tap on the “Lockdown” option.

You can unlock the device using the PIN/Passcode/Pattern, which will automatically re-activate the fingerprint authentication feature.

Wrapping Up

As we keep using the Android P beta, we will start noticing new things/features which we haven’t spotted yet. So, make sure to bookmark this article to check back for updates on what’s new in Android 9.0. If you are a developer, you might want to check Android’s developer blog for the detailed list of enhancements and features in Android P.

What do you think about Android 9.0? Are the features useful to you? Also, what could be the possible name for Android P? Is it going to be Android Pie?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Android P (9.0): What’s New? , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Original source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/articles/android-p/?utm_source=mainrss

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