Legal and Ethical Considerations of Employee Monitoring Essay Example

employers view this situation quite differently.

Many employers feel that sensitive company information might be at risk from the abuse of the fairly new, yet constantly progressing medium. Today, nearly 70 percent of workers have access to a computer, with approximate 85% having internet access. With computers being so readily available to such a wide variety of workers with a diverse sense of work ethics, knowledge and varying intentions, employers feel forced to monitor the activities of their employees.

As email and the internet have become a major part of most workers’ routine, many are using business resources for personal tasks. Therefore employee monitoring in many cases is there to protect the business from legal liability, as well as to produce a more efficient employee. There are numerous software and hardware solutions available to monitor different activities, and the price of monitoring or surveillance software ranges from free to several thousand dollars. Many packages and monitor several items such as:

• Keystrokes typed.
• Application and website usage.
• Detailed file usage.
• Incoming and outgoing chats and emails.
• Internet connections.
• Windows interacted with.
• Internet packet data.
• Desktop screenshots.
• Software installations (Yerby, 2013).

It is important to also note that many employers also use telephone and video monitoring as well. When it comes to monitoring employees, there are several questions that need to be answered: What should they be restricted to monitoring? Should employees be notified that are being monitored? Unfortunately, if a business owner does nothing to stop counterproductive activities, the owner may not be able to stay in

business. Giving employees open unmonitored, computer access will cause productivity and efficiency to ultimately suffer.

Corporations must educate their employees, letting them know what monitoring is, what it will monitor and convey the message this is not to invade employee privacy, but to protect the company and its interests. Many legal experts state it is best for businesses to make sure employees understand that no electronic communication is private. What the Law Says The type of employer may determine which laws could potentially protect employees.

The Fourth Amendment may protect and employee of a government entity, however any employer that has a union agreement, the National Labor Relations Act and the union contract may protect the employees privacy. Unfortunately, current laws do not clearly note that monitoring employees is against the law, as we know many companies have used information gained from monitoring workers as evidence in court cases. It has been found that email and internet evidence has been critical in many lawsuits, including discrimination and trade secret theft.

Lastly, business face legal issues when it must determine if it is obligated to monitor in order maintain a safe, non-hostile work environment for its employees, according to recent survey, 68% of employers cite legal liability as their motivation. As aforementioned, most laws governing employees depends on the employment relationship; therefore most private employees have no right to privacy. Ethical Issues Not only are there a plethora of legal issues involved in the monitoring of employees, there are numerous ethical situations to boot.

According to Yerby (2013), some of the ethical issues involve downloading pornography, creating personal web pages on company

owned machines, or displaying offensive images on computer monitors. Many workers have used many hours of corporate time shopping, gambling, playing games, or sending personal messages. Companies that monitor keystrokes may assume that when keystrokes slow down or stop for what may be considered to be an excessive amount of time, an employee may be considered off task. Conclusion In the eyes of the employer, there are many positive aspects to employee monitoring.

Businesses must make every attempt to carefully plan who they monitor, how they will monitor who will do the monitoring, but employers need to have a program in place to ensure productivity and limit the risk of legal liability. Human resources departments must draft a computer usage policy needs a clear statement that stresses that employees should not expect privacy with anything put on the company network. Maintaining a safe and productive workplace require an organization to keep a watchful eye on employee activities which could bring harm to employees or create a legal or financial liability for the company.