Employee monitoring: risks, ethics, and best practices

Monitoring Employees

Employee Monitoring Discussion

In the United States, employment law is based on a minimal expectation of privacy (Rosser, 2011). This means the interest of the business takes precedence over the employee's right to privacy. If an employee is conducting personal business on the employer's property, or using the employer's property, such as computers, to conduct personal business, the employee's business is not private under law.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities have regulations on managing email and instant messaging. Sarbanes-Oxley Act is another law that regulates how information must be protected (Grey, 2006). HIPAA regulates health companies in how they must protect personal health information, as well as other laws and regulations that govern the protection of sensitive information.

Best practices of employee monitoring involve identification of the risks of concern, careful analysis of monitoring that would help manage those risks, clear communications of expectations, and consequences involved (Latto, 2007). Identifying the risks of concern should be done first. This helps the employer defend a monitoring case if it ends up in court. Then those risks need to be fully defined and weighed for importance with corporate objectives. Once the risks are fully defined with corporate objectives, policies can be crafted, communicated, and enforced.

It is wise to involve the internal lawyer and the compliance officer to ensure that the policies are clearly stated within legal limits. Employees would need to be educated where they fully understand the policies and what the organizational expectations are. Having employees sign to the fact they fully understand the policies is another defense employers can use for defense in an employer monitoring case.

Employee Monitoring Off-hours

Employee laws are not so clear for employee monitoring in off-hours (Rosser, 2011). Employers can be held liable for off-hour employee tracking. Courts have ruled against organizations in off-hour ruling based on how the company policies were stated. With technology changes creating higher risks for organizations with the use of smartphones, laptops, PDAs, or flash drives, organizations have to be careful in how they handle off-hour employee monitoring.

Mobile devices have made it easier for employees to steal sensitive information (Turner). Misuse and abuse of computer equipment have consequences for an organization with loss of productivity, intellectual property theft, fraudulent activity, and legal liability. Employees can put sensitive information on mobile devices and communicate it off the job. Best practices should include electronic use policies.