Data breaches derived from insider threats are at an all-time high, and every indicator suggests that this trend will continue well into the future. Consequently, employee monitoring is quickly becoming a ubiquitous part of the modern work environment.
While this technology-driven approach can help companies identify and prevent costly data breaches, many are concerned that such initiatives – that monitor workplace activities and access as well as usage of company resources and information – could simultaneously violate employee privacy rights and impact company culture.
In today’s privacy-first climate, companies don’t have to be faced with a seemingly impossible task of protecting regulated information, like securing customer data as well as their intellectual property when they take a balanced approach. The following best practices provide an effective way for HR departments to oversee the rollout an employee-centered monitoring initiative that accomplishes company priorities without compromising employee privacy.
Here are the four steps to getting it done.
#1 Identify your purpose for monitoring
Whether you are trying to protect company data, identify productivity bottlenecks, or to evaluate customer service experiences, employee monitoring is quickly becoming a ubiquitous part of the modern work environment.
What’s more, today’s technology advancements are incredibly capable and uniquely powerful, opening far-reaching opportunities for employers to derive new insights about their digital environment.
In a very real way, whatever your company is trying to achieve, there is likely some software or app available to support those efforts.
Nevertheless, expansive and unrestrained monitoring initiatives can negatively impact employee privacy, causing regulatory and culture concerns for HR departments charged with overseeing these programs.
Therefore, identify your purpose for monitoring and take steps to ensure that your monitoring workflow aligns with those goals.
For example, a company deploying employee monitoring to protect company data will
take time to understand the company’s data landscape
complete a data inventory that evaluates employee access points
create specific protocols that address tangible data security risks.
These initiatives can be incredibly valuable, allowing companies to be nimble, adaptive, and responsive in a fast-moving digital environment, and, when precisely applied to specific needs, they can be tailored to balance necessary oversight and employee privacy rights.
#2 Consult your employees and communicate your approach
While the piece was technical in nature, the underlying message was clear: many employees don’t know about or don’t understand their company’s monitoring initiatives, and they want to ensure that their privacy is protected.
This secretive approach to employee monitoring might be prevalent or popular, but it’s not the best practice for adopting a monitoring initiative.
Instead, engage employees in the development process, and clearly communicate your approach. This includes
how monitoring will take place
when monitoring will be active
what will be done with the information
how the program will impact employees.
HR departments frequently serve as a bridge between a company’s policy decisions and the employees that those prerogatives impact, making them the natural communicator in this regard.
By consulting with employees from the beginning and clearly communicating monitoring protocols, you can enhance employee buy-in while reducing accidental privacy violations that can emerge from secretive programs.
#3 Automate privacy standards
Privacy management is an important topic when copious amounts of employee data are made available through monitoring.
Fortunately, there are ways to automate privacy standards, ensuring that employee data is accessible only on a need-to-know basis and that certain information is redacted or removed from reports.
For instance, HR might decide to
limit monitoring to work hours while employees are on the company’s network
select specific applications and data sets to oversee
restrict data movement and accessibility.
Each of these qualifiers, and the many more available using today’s software, can automate privacy protections, ensuring that companies match their priorities with effective privacy standards.
In many ways, advocating these standards falls on the shoulders of HR personnel who dictate employee privacy standards to IT administrators who oversee the usage of specific tactics.
When data privacy is implemented by design and by default, companies can reap the strategic benefits of employee monitoring while still prioritizing employee privacy.
#4 Don’t compromise
Today’s data privacy laws are complex and nuanced, and employers have an obligation to know the laws that apply to their employees. In addition to well-publicized laws like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act, more than 80 countries have data privacy laws on the books, and many of these regulations include employee-related standards.
To put it simply, to compromise employee privacy in an effort to protect customer data isn’t a winning proposition. Nobody has to make that tradeoff when a blended and balanced approach is taken from the top-down in an organization.
Understanding the laws and applying them to workplace initiatives is a weighty responsibility for HR personnel that involves collaboration among many departments. Even so, the payoff is worth it.
Customer data is increasingly compromised by malicious and accidental insider threats, and employee monitoring initiatives can help prevent data loss.
However, if implemented incorrectly, they can stifle your workplace culture and cause legal or regulatory headaches for HR departments charged with managing the employee rollout.
As technology-driven monitoring initiatives become more popular, make sure that your company keeps the ‘people’ top of mind in at every point of the process.