Increased competitiveness has caused companies to wage a continuous battle against their competitors. Since consumers have several options available on the market with similar products and services, it is very important that companies find smarter ways to stand out and ensure greater profitability. For this reason, productivity has become a priority for businesses, showing that blocking websites in the company can make all the difference for those who want to have better results.
In this sense, website blocking can be a valuable ally for businesses that want to stand out and reduce lost productivity during working hours. However, even with so many benefits, many managers still have doubts about the need to block certain resources available on the internet.
Although the digital environment has become an extremely valuable tool for business, it also enters a zone full of dangers and pitfalls that can bring down employee productivity. To know if it is the ideal time to block websites within your business, it is important to pay attention to some factors such as:
- Drop in productivity and focus of Workers;
- Increased incidence of failures and errors resulting in rework;
- Continuous problems with maintaining devices that have been infected by malware and viruses;
- Data leak;
- Need to reduce the number of employees;
- Delays in delivering demands;
- Problems with workers working remotely;
- Between others.
Blocking certain tools on the internet can be a very intelligent strategy to help the company guarantee more productivity and information security.
Why block websites?
As we have seen, there are many factors that can impact employee productivity. However, many times the company has already established changes and improvements to guarantee better results and still fails to achieve its objectives. This means that it is possible that the internet within the company is being used indiscriminately and for purposes that are unrelated to the business objectives.
Just as the internet can help with the routine, bringing more practicality and intelligence to tasks, it can also be used incorrectly , causing workers to waste valuable time on resources, tools, websites and platforms that have no relation to the activity. from the company.
For this reason, it is essential to establish intelligent strategies that help control internet access and ensure that employees have more focus during their daily lives.
When it comes to productivity, Brazilian workers are far below the list of the most productive professionals. According to a survey carried out by FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas), Brazilian worker productivity suffered a drop of 4.5% in 2022 , highlighting the need to establish strategies aimed at improving results.
This happens because much of the time that should be allocated to work-related tasks and obligations is wasted on tools unrelated to the activity and browsing random websites , such as social networks, e-commerce sites, entertainment pages, streaming platforms, and even pornography.
Given this, we can understand how blocking websites can make all the difference in a business's productivity. The internet is the main work tool and means of communication used during working hours , and control of this resource is more than necessary. With the help of the correct tool, the company can effectively block the main resources and pages that harm productivity at work, such as:
- Social media;
- Gaming and betting sites;
- E-commerce;
- Message exchange platforms;
- YouTube;
- Pornographic sites.
To know what should or should not be blocked within the company , it is important that managers know what users' usage patterns are like and how this behavior harms the company's routine.
Let's do a simulation: Imagine that, for every hour in the workplace, the employee spends 15 minutes accessing social networks, personal emails or other types of content. Assuming that this worker's working week is 40 hours a week, the impact that these 15 minutes have on the tip of the pencil is equivalent to a whole day without working and a few hours of delay.
Taking into account that hiring employees is directly related to the number of tasks to be performed, indiscriminate access to the Internet causes the company to spend much more money than is actually necessary.
What are the advantages of blocking websites in the company?
As we have seen, indiscriminate access to the internet can have a major impact on the productivity and profitability of a business. Blocking websites can guarantee some benefits for the business, as we will see below:
Reducing distractions
We know that staying focused 24 hours a day is an impossible task. Depending on the activity to be carried out, ensuring focus becomes an even more difficult mission , so by reducing external and virtual distractions, it is possible to help employees remain attentive to the activity being carried out.
Errors during the execution of tasks can often lead to substantial losses for the company and the employee. Imagine that the accountant responsible for the company's finances is constantly distracted by social networks and streaming platforms during working hours. The errors generated by this distraction can have a huge impact on the financial health of the business and even its continuity in the market.
Increased cybersecurity
Currently, there are numerous threats roaming the internet, whether on suspicious websites or even on pages considered trustworthy. These scams can cause your company to lose access to its data, suffer leaks of its information, harm devices due to virus contamination, and many other problems.
Blocking the internet will help keep these threats away from your employees' access and contribute to protecting your business's data, networks and devices.
More efficient control of everything that happens within the company
Blocking tools go far beyond just blocking certain websites. They can provide managers with consolidated information about everything that happens in the company's digital environment , contributing to more assertive management and smarter decision-making.
Modern businesses depend on realistic data about everything that happens within the company, and the more information provided, the better strategic planning and management will be.
Risks of free access to the internet
In addition to the loss of productivity, free access to the internet can favor the creation of points of vulnerability that harm the security of the company's data. Cybercriminals have increasingly efficient tools and resources to hide traps and apply cyber scams to the most inattentive users.
These threats can arrive via email, as is the case with phishing, through banners and misleading advertising on entertainment websites, cloned pages of well-known companies, and many other ways.
Internet access management control allows you to block websites and access to certain threats , preventing your employees from exposing themselves to digital traps. See below the main traps that surround the internet and that can harm your business considerably:
Phishing
Phishing is a threat that has claimed victims on the internet since the popularization of this tool. Using social engineering, cybercriminals send fake emails to their victims so that they provide confidential data, credit card information, access data, among others.
Through this strategy, the cybercriminal can also make his victims download malicious files that are implanted on the computer. These files can be used to spy on users' activity on that device, invade systems or promote other types of scams.
Ransomware
This cyber scam has gained a lot of visibility in recent years, mainly due to the immense losses it caused to companies of all segments and sizes. With this strategy, the cybercriminal blocks access to a company's information with the help of encryption , this access remains blocked until the company pays a ransom , usually in cryptocurrency to make tracking difficult.
Malware
Malware are malicious applications or programs created to cause some type of harm to their victims . Depending on the cybercriminal's objective, this tool can be used to damage devices, steal information, install spyware used to monitor the company's activities, transform computers into a botnet, among others.
What does your company gain from this type of blockade?
There are many losses that indiscriminate access to the internet within the company can cause. It is very important that companies find tools and resources that help keep their employees away from the problems and main threats that permeate this environment.
In the same way that new technologies are developed every day to make our routine easier and bring more practicality to the activities we carry out, new ways of stealing information, monitoring our activities and causing losses to companies are also developed . For this reason, the more prepared your company is, the more difficult it will be for cybercriminals to break into your systems and steal your information.
How to block websites in the company?
There are some manual ways to block certain internet tools , such as editing computer host files, blocking websites through the browser used, blocking carried out directly on the router, through PfSense , among others.
However, all of these strategies end up being ineffective in companies, as each user behaves differently in the online environment. Furthermore, without a specific solution, the company needs to carry out this blocking individually on each machine used , including those used by home office workers.
In this sense, it is more interesting for businesses to have an automated tool to block and control internet access within the company more effectively.
This type of tool allows personalized blocking according to usage patterns and business needs, so that the company can more objectively control internet access during working hours . Through this type of solution, managers also guarantee access to realistic and consolidated information about how the internet is used by their employees.
The correct tool is the key
Blocking the internet within companies is no longer an alternative but a necessity for business. In addition to ensuring greater productivity for employees during working hours, blocking websites also helps to increase data security within the business.
With the emergence of the General Data Protection Law , companies needed to look for efficient access control solutions to keep stored information more secure. Leaking information , in addition to damaging the company's image and reputation in the market , can also generate substantial penalties due to non-compliance with the provisions of the legislation.
Internet access control helps to avoid most of the problems and digital threats that occur today. When it comes to cybersecurity, there is little care: we need to have all the help we can to maintain information security and block the main digital threats.
To do this, you need to have a reliable tool that can deliver all the features your company needs. Discover Lumiun's resources that were specially developed to increase your company's security . Contact us and discover everything we can do to help your business stay more protected.
