6 Effective Workplace Employee Privacy Protection Strategies

Do you want to safeguard your employees’ privacy rights while also monitoring their work progress? Workplace monitoring has become a vital necessity, whether for security or productivity reasons. However, in order to preserve employees’ privacy, workplace surveillance must be done in an open way. In this post, we will define employee privacy rights. And also discuss how to monitor employees without infringing on their rights. We’ll provide six practical ways to assist you mitigate the adverse effects of surveillance on employee privacy laws.

This article includes the following sections:

1. What are the employee rights in the workplace?
2. 6 Suggestions for Effective Employee Monitoring

• Employee Confidential Information Should Safeguarded.
• Use data only for its intended purpose
• Restriction on Electronic Surveillance
• Restriction on Camera Surveillance
• Have a Policy for Employee Monitoring
• Use Productivity Management Software that is User-Friendly.

So let us begin.

What are the Privacy Rights of Employees?

Privacy of the employee rights are the regulations that govern how you can monitor an employee at work or from a distance.

The federal and state governments of the United States have many laws in place to protect employees from discrimination, hazardous working conditions, and so on but, the policy typically governs employees’ privacy rights.

For accurate compliance details, consult state and federal labor and privacy laws, although there are some grey areas employee’s privacy rights.

To prevent privacy concerns, you must regard all personal data about an employee and their family as private and confidential.

But what difference does it make?

Managers may be interested in workplace monitoring these days in order to increase productivity and guarantee workplace safety. You may be contemplating performance management software, for example, to increase employee’s productivity.

However, an employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy must be evaluated against their employer’s legitimate business interest in monitoring.

Viewing a job applicant’s social media profiles, for example, maybe a natural procedure. Prospective workers, on the other hand, may regard social networking as private. And do not want you to access their social media accounts because they consider it an infringement of privacy.

6 Suggestions for Effective Employee Monitoring (Without Invading Employee Privacy)

It is entirely possible to monitor the workplace without infringing on your employees’ privacy rights. Here are six wise suggestions to assist you in tracking employees responsibly:

1. Safeguard Employee Confidential Information

Employers have an ethical obligation to properly keep sensitive papers containing personal information about their workers (such as their social security number). They should also shred outdated papers that are no longer required.

Here are some examples of employee data that is deemed private and confidential:

A. Results of Alcohol and Drug Testing

Private firms may perform alcohol and drug testing, but the results cannot be lawfully published.

B. Personal Body Sniffing

Employees may search under specific policies in private firms. If an employee’s workplace and property (e.g., desk, automobile) are on corporate property, the business policy may allow for a search.

C. Background Investigations

Prospective employees have the same privacy rights as current employees.

When performing a background check on a job candidate, human resource professionals must examine various legal issues, not only employment regulations.

D. Medical Details

A firm should never divulge its employees’ medical information.

Medical data, together with sensitive information such as family details, social security numbers, addresses, and so on, are classified as private and confidential.

E. Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates

While GPS trackers can be used by a private business to monitor employees, they should only be used when employees use company-owned vehicles and equipment, such as a mobile smartphone.

However, certain jurisdictions, such as Texas, have rules that prevent using GPS to track an employee. However, they make no mention of the installation of GPS tracking devices on business vehicles.

2. Use Data Only for Its Intended Purpose

When companies begin using data for objectives that have not been disclosed to employees, the notion that the employer is intrusive grows.

As an employer, you must prioritize employee data privacy and ensure that data gathered is only used for the intended purpose. Employees quit faith in their bosses when it is utilized for another reason, which can lower morale.

3.Establish an Employee Monitoring Policy.

Here are a few points to include in your employee monitoring policy:

• Explain precisely where employees are being watched.
• Highlight the means utilized to monitor them, such as video surveillance, GPS tracking, and so on.
• Consider that you would be monitoring them professionally and exclusively during work hours.
• Explain the extent of employee monitoring during onboarding.
• Ensure that your workers are aware of this policy and appreciate its significance.
• Maintain openness by granting employees access to their own data, allowing them to see what is reported.

4. Restriction on Electronic Surveillance

Electronic surveillance enables a company to watch employee activity and assess worker involvement with job-related tasks — even when employees work from home.

More individuals are working remotely since the Coronavirus epidemic.

And, while COVID may have pushed individuals to work from home, they still have a legitimate expectation of workplace privacy when it comes to personal gadgets — even if they are utilized for business.

5.Use Productivity Management Software that is User-Friendly.

Employee productivity monitoring software has grown in popularity to keep track of both remote work and in-office personnel.

You may encourage employees to use such software by marketing it as a productivity aid rather than a method of monitoring work. Employees will be more amenable to performance software tools to increase productivity if they realize that it is there for their advantage.

EmpMonitor is the sole competing software product. The majority of firms that provide customer support use it. The employee monitoring software programme records all of the employees’ activities from the time they log in to the time they log out. This is how it manages attendance.

Also watch; EmpMonitor — Best Time Tracking Software | Productivity Management

Final Thoughts

As an employer, you must walk a delicate line between monitoring your employees and safeguarding their privacy. I hope this article has helped you to know about employee privacy.