Disillusioned employees are still providing an opportunity for the channel to capitalise on helping firms prevent misuse of company networks during working hours.

Research from the IT Job Board, which questioned almost 500 IT professionals in the UK, revealed that more than three-quarters of those surveyed do not feel guilty about carrying out personal tasks while at work, such as checking emails, using social networking sites and making personal phone calls.

A total of 50 per cent admitted to making personal phone calls, with 61 admitting to sending non-work emails. Reasons cited included a lack of work (17 per cent), but one in 10 respondents claimed it was because they felt underpaid for the amount of work they do.

In addition, 79 per cent of UK IT professionals questioned spent up to 30 minutes a day surfing the internet for personal reasons.

More respondents admitted to using personal email accounts such as Hotmail and Yahoo than to using social networking sites. A total of 10 per cent used Facebook, but 40 per cent used personal emails.

Barrie Desmond, business development director at distributor VADition said the channel should embrace the business opportunity.

“Our remit is a looser control of the network without losing control. Banning and blocking social networking drives it underground. It is a concern that is gnawing away at a lot of companies ­ they have compliance, remote working policies, virtualisation, but no idea how to deal with social networking at work.

“Resellers should be contrary and challenge their customers; there is definitely an opportunity out there. We are getting more calls than ever before about social networking.”

Nick Garlick, managing director of VAR Nebulas Group added: “The debate has been going for a while, but the issue is still topical. All companies have a different approach. Some treat it as a useful tool and others believe it is non-productive.”
David Hobson, managing director of VAR GSS said there was awareness of the issues from management.

“A lot of firms have tended to treat it as an IT problem in the past, but it is a human problem and firms need to be realistic. It is an issue that will never go away.

“We always talk to clients on the basis that they allow a certain amount of give and take with personal network use, but not abuse. Cultures do vary and some are more open than others.”