The internet has been transforming businesses ever since its inception and has recently enabled priorities like realistic remote work and a brand new age of digital marketing. Yet, many employers remain sceptical of internet use in the workplace, particularly when it falls outside of company-specific software.
These concerns are such that many employers take steps to either restrict or entirely remove the ability of employees to browse online freely during the working day. To some extent, the reasons for this are self-evident – letting employees visit any website of their choosing could lead to both cybersecurity risks and time wasting.
In reality, though, loosening the reins on internet use a little could prove beneficial in a range of ways, and some of them are somewhat unexpected. For instance, few employers would consider that a freer internet approach could improve in-person business communications, but there’s some evidence this is the case, as we’ll consider here.
Reason 1: Skill Development
It’s now possible to develop countless workplace skills online and, while many of these skills start life through a computer screen, they could have very real applications within your business at large.
For instance, did you know that employees can now access online training to help with everything from their phone skills to their public speaking capabilities? Equally, there’s strong evidence that completing an online MBA holds very real value when it comes to soft skills like communication and teamwork.
As such, while it may seem like employees simply have their heads in their screens, allowing access to online skills development at least occasionally can lead to significantly enhanced teamwork and client conversations. All of which might be difficult to come by if you ruled internet access with an iron fist.
Reason 2: Product Awareness
Internet use at work can also prove impactful for developing product awareness. This is true both in terms of expected internet usage, which could include regular product updates on social media, and through general browsing, when employees may develop a better understanding of where your products sit in wider markets.The ability to easily access things like review sites could also help employees to understand client perception and potential problem areas.
This will lend itself perfectly to improved performance in sales meetings, where employees will be better able to easily slip into the same tone of voice as they use online for the sake of continuity and building trust. They’ll also be positioned to address specific client concerns that they’ve read about on their computers.
Reason 3: Establishing New Connections
You might resent employees who spend hours browsing their own social media accounts during work hours, but this can also serve a very real business purpose, particularly on platforms like LinkedIn. After all, this platform is solely set up to invite positive working networks and connections that span across companies and distances.
Admittedly, this doesn’t mean you should allow employees to browse LinkedIn all day long, but allowing them to spend dedicated time here might not hurt, either. Without needing to send your team out of the office to attend networking events and conferences, this could see them establishing new connections that they can then bring into your offices.
Professional social media platforms like this can also be useful for teaching your team things like client etiquette, and how to turn those connections into potential leads. They could then use this same approach when it comes to in-person client meetings.
Reason 4: Research Potential
Allowing more freedom on search engines like Google can also be great from a research perspective. Admittedly, you’ll want to be careful that colleagues don’t waste the day this way, which is easily done. However, allowing them to get online and thoroughly research a prospective client in advance could work wonders.
As well as helping them to develop stronger, personalised in-points for presentations and sales pitches, this prior knowledge can help each of your colleagues to form a stronger connection with a client when they finally meet. This is especially true if you also allow them to browse things like that client’s professional social media accounts, or any videos that might appear on typically banned workplace sites like YouTube.
Conclusion
Should internet access in the workplace be a free-for-all? Certainly not. In fact, opening the floodgates entirely would be akin to inviting cyber threats right in, not to mention the time-wasting this could lead to. However, if you want your team to perform as well as they possibly can in person, it might be worth loosening the reins on workplace internet usage at least a little.
