How Does Content Filtering Affect Workplace Productivity?

Few problems can negatively impact employee productivity more than downtime due to data breaches, viruses, and other cybersecurity issues. Plus, inappropriate, time-wasting websites will severely hinder the job performance of even the most helpful and hard-working employees.

When suspicious links and harmful or inappropriate websites take aim at your systems and staff, it can seriously slow down operations or even grind them to a halt. Content filtering services are a vital tool for protecting your business from these problems while maintaining productivity amongst your employees.

What Are Content Filtering Services?

Content filtering is a critical part of your business’s IT security plan. In addition to cloud backup services, network monitoring, and a comprehensive disaster recovery checklist, your company can benefit from content filtering to avoid cybersecurity issues and keep employees on track.

Web content filtering services actively block your employees from accessing suspicious or potentially malicious content online. Content filtering can stop any harmful activity before it affects your company. This way, you’re covered in the event of a cybersecurity failure or attempted data breach. If your clients rely on the security and integrity of their data within your systems, then your business absolutely must invest in web content filtering and management solutions.

In addition, content filtering can stonewall any staff attempting to visit inappropriate or offensive websites utilizing something called a block list. After adding all of the website URLs you want to restrict to the block list, your employees no longer have the ability to waste valuable company time filling their online shopping carts or scrolling through social media.

5 Ways Content Filtering Can Improve Workplace Productivity

If you’re searching for an effective way to boost productivity amongst your employees, content filtering is a great first place to start. Setting up your business with robust content filtering solutions can stop your staff from visiting harmful or time-wasting websites and help you avoid any downtime after a data leak or other cyberattack.

Are you still not convinced that content filtering will make a positive impact on your company’s productivity levels? Below, we explore the many ways that content filtering easily boosts efficiency:

1. Protect Against Cyberattacks

Many different kinds of scams and cyberattacks, such as malware, phishing, and ransomware, can wreak havoc on your business and put operations on hold. When your systems are down due to a harmful cyberattack or data breach, it can significantly impact productivity levels business-wide. However, with content filtering, you can protect your business’s systems from several malicious online attacks, including:

• Phishing scams
• Viruses
• Trojan horses
• Ransomware
• Rootkits
• Keyloggers

Any of these cyberattacks listed above can severely hinder your daily operations and potentially cause your company’s untarnished reputation to plummet. Unfortunately, cybercrimes are consistently rising, so businesses need to have their backs covered with content filtering to keep things running smoothly.

2. Avoid Data Leaks

Since content filtering services will help stop cyber threats such as malware in their tracks and eliminate the threat before it can impact your business, it’s also one of the best ways to avoid data leaks (and maintain productivity).

Whether you work in the medical field, legal and insurance industries, or another occupation where confidential or protected client information is paramount, it’s important to invest in high-quality web content filtering so that this information stays secure — and you stay up and running at all times.

Examples of the kind of private information often targeted by cybercriminals during data breaches include:

• Names
• Phone numbers
• Email and physical addresses
• Credit card information
• Social security numbers
• Bank account details
• And other private information

Your clients count on you to protect their private information and trust it remains secure after sending it to your business. Luckily, content filtering stops your staff from accessing specific sites that can contain harmful software or suspicious links that, when clicked, often lead to a disastrous data leak and a lot of added downtime. So, with content filtering, you, your employees, and your important clients can rest assured that all sensitive information is secure and protected from data breaches and stay on task without slowing down due to a data leak.

3. Utilize Cloud Backups

Organizations in every industry must introduce a reliable data backup and recovery system into their IT infrastructure to avoid downtime. Cloud content filtering is commonly deployed across corporate PCs and mobile devices to ensure that data remains secure and encrypted both in-office and out.

With cloud content filtering, authorized users can continue utilizing corporate-owned devices and accessing critical information or documents without putting any data at risk. Cloud services give your teams the ability to work safely and productively from wherever they are in the world with a reliable internet connection.

4. Block Inappropriate Content

In addition to helping you avoid data leaks and other cybersecurity threats, content filtering blocks employees from visiting suspicious or inappropriate sites, which is probably what this service is best known for in the business world. For example, after you set up your content filtering services and tailor them to your needs, you can now restrict access to any website that contains:

• Sexually explicit content
• Violence and gore
• Offensive text, photos, or videos
• Blogs, chatrooms, and forums encouraging hate speech
• Illegal downloads or purchases
• Other illicit online activities

Although your employees might initially be annoyed at the limitations content filtering imposes on them, they’ll soon realize that the restrictions help them focus and function at a higher level. With less time spent scrolling through social media feeds, reading blogs, or surfing inappropriate sites, your employees have no other option but to operate productively in the workplace.

5. Improve Network Efficiency

One final way content filtering can impact employee job performance for the better is by improving network efficiency. By restricting access to dangerous downloads and harmful websites, you make it virtually impossible for employees to install, stream, or download anything suspicious that could slow down network speeds. Now, your teams can stay connected, protected, and productive!

Potential Negative Impacts of Content Filtering

Of course, with content filtering often comes pushback from employees. Some staff members might feel like you are restricting them too much or impeding their rights with the additional security measures. Unfortunately, as a result, your teams might become unhappy or, worse, even more unproductive. However, you can simply remind them that robust and reliable IT security solutions such as web content filtering are essential in the business world, especially when private client information is at stake. Content filtering protects both clients and your company as a whole.

Increase Protection and Productivity With Web Content Filtering

Even though there might be a slight downside to content filtering from your staff’s perspective, the positive impacts these solutions can have on productivity far outweigh the drawbacks. When you protect your business with web content filtering, you can be prepared for any data breaches or cyberattacks before they even happen. Additionally, you can maintain high network speeds and minimize your employees’ time on productivity-draining sites to significantly improve their job performance levels.
If you’re looking for a reliable way to increase workplace productivity while simultaneously securing your business’s online systems, content filtering is a fantastic solution. Contact the content filtering providers at Total IT and get the support you need to boost productivity.