With various retail bodies reporting a recession-busting increase in online Christmas sales this year, there’s a good chance your employees are scoring some of their best deals from the office desk.

To be fair, figures from Sage Pay suggest it’s all happening over lunch time, but it does underline the blurring line between home and work life that our WorkLifeWeb research has been picking up in recent years. Employees increasingly expect to be trusted to undertake personal tasks at work – and our research shows that blocking personal browsing or social media use in the workplace has the unwanted side-effect of eroding employee job satisfaction and sense of trust.

The really interesting thing is that while most organisations cite security concerns as a key driver behind blocking web access, many studies have found that blocking can expose organisations to greater vulnerability, as employees look for ways to circumvent the rules, either by using their own, unsecured devices or finding workarounds for acceptable usage policies.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Flexible policies help businesses to solve the security-communications dilemma, allowing them to give staff the kind of web access they need without having to worry about data loss or brand damage. Highly granular policies mean companies can allow employees to access Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn , YouTube or any other web site without having to worry about them posting damaging or sensitive information or downloading malware, spyware or other web-based nasties - such as the pre-Christmas phishing sites masquerading as popular stores that seem to multiply at this time of year.

Evolving technologies, business and employee needs are forcing organisations to re-think their data security strategies. Flexible policies can help find the right balance between open communications and strong security without undermining employee relations.

Richard Turner