Using Employee Computer Monitoring Software Legally

Improving the data security in your workplace is a great New Year’s resolution, and monitoring employees computer activities is a good way to do that. But if you’re planning to implement new employee monitoring practices in 2019, it’s important for you make sure you are using employee computer monitoring software legally. Take a look at some of the steps you can take to ensure that your monitoring practices are helpful for your business without going overboard or compromising your employees’ privacy.

Establish a Clear Monitoring Policy

Make sure that you and your employees both understand the specifics of your employee monitoring policy.

Transparency is the key to collecting and using data responsibly. It’s important to create a legal and ethical employee computer monitoring policy that makes sense and meets your needs, and then make sure that the employees who will be monitored are fully aware of when and where they’ll be monitored, as well as the reasons why they need to be monitored.

Monitoring workers’ computers can be a contentious issue in the workplace, and for understandable reasons. No one likes to feel as if they’re being spied on or mistrusted. But giving clear reasons for the monitoring, and providing details on when and where exactly monitoring will be used, can address employee concerns before they have a chance to become more serious. Have employees sign a statement saying that they’ve received information and training about your employee computer activity monitoring practices. This helps ensure that everyone is on the same page from the start.

Be Selective About The Data You Collect

Many employee computer surveillance products are capable of helping you collect a large amount of data, but you don’t necessarily need all of it. Good products are customizable – you can set rules collect the data you need and not any private information.

For example, you can choose to receive data only when an employee accesses sensitive information or tries to access restricted areas of the network, or you can set your system to redact and avoid capturing personal data input by an employee when you don’t need to have that data to begin with. Not only does this reduce the risk of invading employee privacy, but it also reduces the burden on you to protect personal data if you don’t collect unnecessary personal data to begin with.

Consider Pseudonymizing Data

Avoid singling out individual employees when you don’t need to.

In addition to protecting sensitive data and making your network more secure, using employee computer monitoring software legally can be used to provide you with information about important business metrics, like productivity. This is often what concerns employees, who may fear being micromanaged in addition to worrying about their personal data safety, and this is where employers may sometimes overstep their boundaries.

In some cases, you can avoid problems by pseudonymizing the data. That way you can observe overall trends in your business and address them without singling out any one person or digging too deeply into an individual employee’s data.

Using employee computer monitoring software responsibly and ethically ensures that you’ll be able to get the information you need without causing other problems for your business or for your employees. Find out more about how employee monitoring software can work in your organization.