Despite bulging inboxes, bosses at Britain’s small businesses are making time to look after their staff, with employee welfare listed as the number one health and safety priority. And the signs are that bosses aren’t having to spend a fortune to keep employees safe with the majority (two thirds) spending less than £500 a year to keep their workforce safe, according to a study carried out by TalkTalk Business.

However, Britain’s conscientious bosses are the first to recognise that things aren’t perfect with three out of four small business owners recognising that employees who use the internet are subjected to potentially offensive material on a weekly basis.

TalkTalk Business carried out the study to mark the launch of WorkSafe, a new security and website filtering service, after recognising its SME customers needed a solution to the problem. WorkSafe is designed to empower small business bosses to help safeguard staff and is included at no extra cost with the TalkTalk Business’ broadband service.

Charles Bligh, managing director of TalkTalk Business, commented: “While we absolutely understand that security is just one of the many issues small business owners have to deal with on a daily basis, it’s significant that 65% of small business owners recognise that their computer network isn’t properly secure. This issue is at the root of many of these problems and leaves unprotected employees open to receiving online content that they may offensive and, at the same time, it also allows employees to access unapproved sites when they are being paid to work.

“It’s a situation which has the potential to cause real headaches for small business owners, so we felt it was important that we provide a practical tool which empowers employers to tackle the situation quickly and easily.

“WorkSafe is intended to allow employers to do this by offering similar protection as our domestic equivalent – HomeSafe – which has been successfully safeguarding families across the country since last year. Just as we believe parents shouldn’t worry that their children will access inappropriate or offensive material at home, it’s important to us that employers can also play their part and protect their workforce as they browse the internet.”

Charles added: “We absolutely understand that small business owners are looking for value for money, particularly at the moment, which is why we are including WorkSafe to broadband customers at no extra cost. It’s a practical solution which both removes the need for time intensive policing of employee’s online activity and respects employee’s privacy.”