Thanks to the escalating advancements in technology, now you
can do absolutely anything, even spy on your employees. Every mode of
communication has become digital, so you just need to know how to access it. All
large companies monitor the activities of their employees to some extent, but
of course only within the realms of the workplace, such as internet use and
email at work. For obvious reasons, employers don’t appreciate that their
employees engage in personal activities during work hours or engage in
inappropriate actions, such as trading stocks or playing games.
Other than menial reasons, the main concern of companies is
to make sure employees aren’t selling trade secrets or using workplace
computers and phones to harass other employees. In fairness, all gadgets that
belong to the company and are being used by employees should be monitored for
the reasons stated above.
Monitoring Internet Use
Monitoring internet use on all devices that belong to the
company is absolutely essential and well within the legal limits. Keeping track
of how the internet is being put to use by the employees helps the company
realize if they are being completely utilized during work hours or not. For
instance, if you find your employee has been watching a movie for the past
three hours on their computer, then either the employee has a poor work ethic
or they are just being underutilized. In any case, you can remedy the situation
and improve the working environment with a phone spy.
Monitoring Emails
Emails are the most basic form of communication, especially
in a business environment. Legally speaking, employers are awarded the right to
access their employee’s emails if they have reason to believe suspicious
activity, unless the employee was promised privacy and confidentiality at time
of employment. Informing the employees beforehand about such policies will
prevent them from committing suspicious activities in the future. To keep
matters simple, only access your employee’s email when you have sufficient
reason to do so, or else you risk harming employee retention.
Monitoring Phone Calls
Employers need to be exceptionally careful when monitoring
phone calls with a phone
app because that’s a higher level of privacy invasion. Again, legally
speaking, employers are well within their rights to record all phone calls made
with phones/mobiles that belong to the company. The reason is twofold.
First off, if the company deals with customers over the phone,
they like to monitor how their staff interacts with their clients. Second of
all, they want to make sure the employee is not leaking sensitive information
or harassing other employees. The company should not only let the employees
know they are being recorded, but it’s a good business practice to let their
customers know as well.
Also, employers need to explicitly tell their employees to
not make personal phone calls on all devices owned by the company. If they fail
to do so, the employer is essentially violating the employee’s privacy.
Spying Within Legal Limits
To avoid privacy violations, there are a few steps every
company should take before monitoring their employees. First of all, there
should be established policies that are made available to every employee. The
policy should clearly state which forms of communication are being monitored.
Have the employees sign a consent form for extra caution.
Secondly, justify reasons why all employees are being
monitored. If an employee is caught performing illegal activities, the court
will never hold you liable for anything if a justified policy is put in place.
And whether that employee is using a Samsung, an HTC, an iPhone 6 or searching
for the elusive iPhone
20, it’s a company’s responsibility to set policies.
Lastly, be reasonable when spying on your employees. You
want to build trust and loyalty within your company to keep things running
smoothly. Excessive invasion of privacy will affect your rate of employee
retention.
