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Employees still unaware of IT policies

Despite the need for IT policies continually being emphasised in companies, many employees are still unaware of their existence.

By Jennifer Scott, 8 Nov 2010 at 11:52

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IT policies for company employees have been increasingly brought in over the years to help protect both the security of business information and to ensure networks are being used properly.

However, whilst most companies have the policies, many employees don’t follow them, let alone know they exist.

This was the finding of a new report from Cisco, which showed although 82 per cent of companies had IT policies, less than one in four employees – 24 per cent – knew about them.

This wasn’t down to staff ignorance though, as the report seemed to lay blame with bosses not communicating the policies effectively.

A significant 32 per cent of respondents claimed to only be informed of policies once a year, whilst a shocking 10 per cent said they had never been told about the rules in place.

“Companies clearly need to address this disconnect between IT policies and workers to avoid IT policies becoming irrelevant and employees breaking them with increasing regularity,” said Marie Hattar, vice president of borderless networks at Cisco.

Even for those who understood the policies and their existence, respondents to Cisco’s survey thought many needed adjusting.

Just fewer than 65 per cent said the rules needed to be improved to better suit modern working needs, be it remote working or the option to use a variety of portable devices.

“It is vital that businesses update IT policies to align with the evolving workforce which is not only becoming increasingly mobile but is also demanding more flexibility in regards to social media, video and devices,” added Hattar.

“Employees are now expecting to be connected anywhere, anytime, with any device and any information in their work and personal lives.”

The report concluded with a stark warning that employees were willing to break policies if they didn’t agree with them. Of those who admitted to straying from the rules, 41 per cent said it was to access forbidden applications that helped them get their jobs done.