Employee Monitoring

Employee Monitoring

Employee monitoring refers to the method of using computers to track what an employee does during work hours on company owned equipment. Employee monitoring involves the use of computers to review employees using company computers and communication devices. This means that employers can monitor employees through e-mails, keystroke logging, website history, and phone recordings. The reason why employee monitoring is becoming so popular amongst employers is because companies are starting to struggle more and more with information security problems. This has caused companies to start to look at monitoring the behavior of employees to reduce the risk of security problems from happening. Although there has been much debate over whether or not employers have the right to monitor employees so closely, it's considered completely legal and an effective way to avoid security risks. However, although it's legal, there are many people that argue that it's unethical and an invasion of privacy.

Companies are starting to take the next step to make their companies more secure by working on the behavior of their internal computer users; meaning their employees. By employees refraining from risky behavior on company computers, they are able to help decrease the chances of information security problems. Proper risk management means protecting losses from within a company (Latto, n.d.) . Supervising employees can aid companies in the management of risks of decrease productivity, loss of assets, and liability claims. (Latto, n.d.). Decreased productivity can come from employees spending hours each day looking at websites of personal interest, sending and viewing personal e-mails, visiting social networking sites, etc. Other risks come from employees trying to download music files, movie torrents, video clips, and photos. Activities like these can not only slow down the systems response time and take up valuable storage space, but it can also open the door for viruses to come through. According to Websense, Inc., American businesses lose approximately $85 billion a year due to employees misusing the internet in the workplace . (Latto, n.d.). When it comes to liabilities, companies are held to high expectations to guard clients and others from the actions of their employees. Liability claims can stem from employees unintentionally revealing client records, which can violate regulations in place. (Latto, n.d.). Liability can also come from employees making inappropriate jokes, viewing and sending pornographic material, and making offensive racial, sexual, or religious comments that can quickly spread through e-mail and the internet. Unless a company can show that its taken proper measures to prevent and correct employee behavior, the courts can hold a company liable for the actions of its employees. Many companies that engage in employee monitoring have a zero tolerance policy for employee actions that can be looked upon as creating a hostile work environment because harassment lawsuits are expensive and can tarnish the reputation of the company

Although companies have legitimate reasons for employee monitoring, employees still resist it because it's seen as an invasion of privacy and is teetering on the line of being unethical. In order to try and solve issues regarding employee's rights to privacy, legislation has gotten involved in an attempt to resolve it. However, as debates continue to go back and forth, companies are still able to intercept employee's voicemails and e-mails