Employees are once again boosting their online shopping game, hunting for deals and checking out their carts from their cubicles, according to CareerBuilder’s annual Cyber Monday survey. Half of workers say they’ll be spending at least some work time holiday shopping. Of this group, 42 percent will spend an hour or more doing so.

Despite Higher Risks, Greater Percentage of Employees Are Holiday Shopping at Work, Finds Annual CareerBuilder Survey

• Half of employees are using time at work to shop online
• 42 percent are holiday shopping on their smartphones or tablets
• Survey results indicate a four percent increase in employers who have fired an employee for holiday shopping on the Internet while at work

Employers aren’t turning a blind eye to this. Twelve percent of employers say they’ve fired someone for holiday shopping on the Internet while at work, and 56 percent say their organization blocks employees from accessing certain websites from work.

“In a world where the lines between the professional and personal are becoming more and more blurred every day, it’s not surprising that more employees are bringing personal activities to the workplace,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “Employees should follow the rules, but employers should be careful not to micromanage. The issue should be more about performance than about what employees are doing with their time.”

You know they're doing it, so you might as well advertise to them right where their eyeballs are! AudienceSCAN data shows 34.4% of Cyber Monday Shoppers took action in the past 30 days based upon sponsored search results (like on Google, Yahoo or Bing).

Power in Online Shopping

As mobile technology continues to have a growing presence in the workplace, more workers are using their gadgets to shop. Forty-​two percent of employees use their personal smart phones or tablets to shop.

Whether desktop or mobile, a higher percentage of workers in the sales and financial services industries online shop compared to those in other industries:

• Sales: 63 percent
• Financial Services: 62 percent
• Information Technology: 57 percent
• Health Care: 52 percent
• Transportation: 50 percent
• Manufacturing: 46 percent
• Leisure & Hospitality: 42 percent
• Retail: 39 percent

Hit these industries hard with digital advertising. AudienceSCAN results reported Cyber Monday Shoppers are 42% more likely than average to take action after seeing Internet banner ads in the past month.

Internet Use in the Workplace

More than one third of employers (35 percent) said that even if performance isn’t affected, they care if employees spend time on non-​work related emails and websites. With the ever-​looming distractions offered by technology, many have taken stronger measures to prevent loss of productivity this year, including:

• 36 percent of employers say their organization monitors the sites employees visit.
• 55 percent of employers restrict employees from posting on behalf of the company on social media, and 32 percent have adopted stricter policies in this regard over the past year.
• 28 percent say they’ve fired someone for using the Internet for non-​work related activity, and 18 percent have fired an employee for something they posted on social media.

AudienceSCAN data is available as part of a subscription to AdMall for Agencies, or with the SalesFuel API. Media companies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.