‘Tis the season of shopping online for holiday gifts, and that little exercise costs many wind up costing you a lot more than what you’ll spend on the average year-end bonus.

Managing workers’ online activity is a constant headache not just for IT but for upper managers who need to ensure they’re getting maximum productivity from employees — especially in these days of lean operation and belt tightening.

That doesn’t mean employees are just as worried about being productive and leadership is.

A new study by the folks at the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) found that 63% of workers will do at least some of their gift buying on the job using their workplace computer.

In a parallel version of the survey administered to IT professionals, 46% believe their company loses an average of $3,000 or more in productivity per employee from online holiday shopping at work.

More than half – 55% – also reported that their company permits workers to shop online, but has no strategy for educating them about the risks.

What’s your policy?

Lost productivity during the holiday season is a major concern for many businesses – from employees who take time off from work to shop in person to those who shop during working hours from their company PC, especially during “Cyber Monday,” the biggest online shopping day of the year.

For the uninitiated, Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving, when shoppers hit the online retailers hardest. “Black Friday” refers to the super sales that bricks and mortar stores hold the day after Thanksgiving. The theory being: Folks check out the deals they can get at local stores first, then hit the online version soon after.

Now might be the time to re-state the organization’s policy about acceptable computer usage.” There are also software tools that can help your IT team monitor which sites workers are visiting.

If you’re considering monitoring technology, here’s data that may help you decide:

• $580 million: the estimated amount employers lost in productivity on Cyber Monday in 2008.
• 43% of those planning to shop from work on Cyber Monday will spend at least one hour doing so and 23% said they shop two hours or more from their workplace computer. (Source:  CareerBuilder.)
• Cyber Monday, November 30^th is anticipated to be the number one online shopping day in 2009. The busiest shopping hours are from 2PM to 4PM, while people are at work. (Source:  Purdue Retail Institute.)