Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Employee Monitoring Software - recommendations?

I figured with all you IT guys on the boards, I'd be wise to ask you guys before purchasing some software.

Basically, in my medical practice we have a server and 4 computers - 2 for doctors and 2 for staff. We have become aware that one employee is spending more and more time on the internet for non-work related stuff. Oh, the irony.

This employee otherwise is a good worker, so the other doctor and I want to install internet monitoring software to restrict internet usage to work-related sites, such as insurance company pages to confirm patients' insurance and handle billing issues.

I see via "the Google" that there are many products out there. I would like to make this product work on the employees' computers but not on the doctors' computers. Rank has its privileges.

I'm viewing a demo for Websense right now. Any thoughts? Being a small business, we don't want to spend an arm and a leg on this.

Can't answer you... big brother software is cutting link to Axiom forum... need help...

I'm not a fan at all of big brother, and I'm a boss, so if the same thing was happening to me I would fire the person and hire another good worker.

My first reaction is that perhaps simply telling the employee that you're aware of the non work-related internet access and to ask them to stop. Perhaps remind them of whatever official internet policy you have. If they're an adult and a good employee that cares about their job, that should be enough and won't cost you or your practice a dime. If they continue to abuse it, then perhaps Wheelz idea is appropriate.

I don't know about specific software packages that do this, i'd be checking the great Google too.

But you might already have a solution in the router that's serving up your network. Some have filtering options. I know that my home router (D-Link DiR-655, $100) has website filtering options that can be placed on specific MAC addresses or IP addresses on the network. It think it even allows for time-based restrictions, like blocked/allowed from 9-5, etc. As I recall, it can do black-listing (do not allow list) or white-listing (only allow list). It's pretty cool, for a simple home router.

It sounds like you want to white-list sites. So if you have a list of websites that they can access, you could tell the router to only allow those websites on certain computers. All other sites will simply be blocked. And of course, you'd leave full access to the computers that need to retain full access.

All that said, I don't actually use those features because I have no need to. But if that was an option that you were considering, I'd be happy to take a closer look at what the router can and can't do and let you know.

Something to think about, anyway.

I think this is the wrong approach, best thing to do is deal with the specific issue, namely the one employee. You say they are a good employee so build on that, discuss the problem and I'm sure that should be the end of the issue.

OR you could show them this post

Crippling internet access because of one employee doesn't seem to be very effective.

Many companies look at the extra surfing as time theft and as such is grounds for dismissal. I would distribute an internet useage policy which states such things and see where it takes you.

It could also be the employee is addicted to her favorite forum, like a few other people we know and can't control themselves and as such, needs help

Precisely. That's why I classify this as a 'critical information/research' site.

Yeah, I didn't mention that we have already told both of our employees that we are aware of this issue. We may try a more forcefully worded approach in a second meeting with the one employee.

Our billing company (we contract out this to them) had the same issue, installed software, couldn't be happier.

Websense is what I was going to recommend if you did want to put software in, but it looks like you're already looking at that one. That said, it may be a bit of a pricey solution for a small office.

I would think there should be some log files on the server/firewall, that would show the sites being accessed...