This is the On-line companion to my monthly column in Enterprise Reengineering The National Publication for BPR

Training With a Net
(From the June 1996 issue)

This month I would like to talk about Internet training. We have all heard negative comments about the Internet like:

Many of these bad experiences can be traced back to inadequate training for Internet users. Just imagine the following scenario:

As you walk away from the cars, you can easily visualize the results. One might (incorrectly) conclude that cars and roads are worthless. Yet this is exactly what happens every day on the Internet.

When working with organizations, I explain why Internet training is different and more critical than training for other computer applications.

For example, if you give someone a word processing application and don't train them, the worst that will happen is that they make ugly documents slowly. The word processing user probably won't spend days (or weeks) "playing around" with the font sizes. However, If you give someone Netscape and walk away, you may loose them entirely to the Net.

I have witnessed many disastrous Internet implementations where a company gets a T-1 connection, and Netscape proliferates on everybody's workstation. Thousands of employees then wander aimlessly on the Net in all the wrong directions.

The Internet is very different from most other applications because it includes interactive capabilities. Organizations should recognize that untrained Internet users represent a potential liability to the organization. Users will waste a lot of time, reveal trade secrets and can embarrass the organization in a very public medium.

With one corporate client, I came across a Usenet newsgroup about investing where the company's own employees were commenting on where they thought the company's stock price would be in the future. Clearly, if the Securities Exchange Commission sees this, the company could be in trouble.

Once you decide to invest in Internet training, you want to make sure that the training goes beyond the software mechanics to helping ensure that your employees will use the Internet to support the goals of your organization. Here are several elements that I think are necessary for successful Internet training.

• How to use the software (organizing bookmarks, turning graphics "off", signature files) - this is the simple, obvious part included in all training.
• How to navigate the Internet - reading domain names/URL's.
• subject trees vs search engines
• how to compose a search statement. It may surprise you to discover how many of your employees do not know the difference between "and" and "or" in a keyword search string. (by the way, most search engines assume "or" when multiple words are entered in their search field.)
• Netiquette - Internet users must learn about the culture of Internet if they are to be successful. An organization would never send a manager to Japan to negotiate a contract without first teaching him or her about Japanese culture and language. How many of your employees type their E-mails IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, or understand; flaming, IMHO, BTW, and :-) ?
• Access Policy - Employees should be explicitly told/warned what is considered an acceptable use of the Internet at work. Employees should be cautioned about handling proprietary information over the Internet. Employees should also recognize that everything they do goes out onto the Internet with "company.com" associated with it.

Most corporate firewall/gateways have a transaction log which details every single Internet file/page that goes to every single workstation in the company. Inform employees that this transaction log may be reviewed to see if employees are following the company's Internet access policy. Once employees understand this, 97 percent will be conscious of how they use the Internet and do the "right" thing. What about the remaining 3 percent who continue to spend their entire day looking at playboy.com? This is not an Internet problem, but an employee problem that the Internet can help you document, if necessary.

• The company's Internet class should include a 10-to 20- minute segment on how employees can get a personal Internet connection for home usage. Initially, some of my potential clients question the value of spending the company's time/money teaching employees how to get a personal connection. Employees with a home connection are less tempted to "fool around" on the Internet at work and will become better surfers because of the experience they gain on their own time.

One final consideration for Internet training: The Internet is evolving very quickly. Therefore, training must be thought of as an ongoing process. This investment more than pays for itself when compared to the wasted efforts the average employee expends on ill-fated browsing.

Russ Haynal

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