Staff eager to follow Australia’s plight in the Beijing Olympics will cost the economy $186 million in lost productivity over the two weeks of the event, according to security vendor Marshal.
Workers will spend time and their organisations’ resources following news websites, results tickers and video streaming, leaving employers to foot the bill.
“With good medal prospects again this year, particularly in the pool, it’s not surprising that so many office workers are expected to log on and check on the progress while at work,” Oscar Marquez, head technical consultant APAC at Marshal, said.
This will be exacerbated by the increased availability of high-quality live video feeds of the events, which Marshal says will consume valuable network bandwidth.
Marquez advised employers to be cautious of the balance between network performance and the benefit to employee morale of viewing the events.
“Employers need to strike a careful balance over internet access and usage, to control productivity and bandwidth whilst maintaining staff morale,” he said.
“[By limiting] internet access to certain sites to lunchtime, and before and after working hours, companies are able to effectively achieve this.”
