Concerns cause employee monitoring

By Luis Jiménez
Summer Reporter

An increase in security, productivity and legal concerns doubled the number of large U.S. companies that monitor their employees' online behavior, a recent survey by the American Management Association shows.

The survey collected data from 1,627 large companies regarding their policies and practices about employee workplace monitoring and surveillance. The results indicate an increasing trend in companies of tracking their employees' use of corporate assets such as telephone, computer and especially online access.

According to the survey, 77 percent of the companies reported that they recorded and reviewed employee communications and activities. Among these, 46 percent have gone to the extent of recording e-mails sent by their workers.

Bradley Alge, an assistant professor of management, said companies have a number of valid reasons that may compel or require them to establish monitoring practices. He said managers monitor their employees' activities to ensure assets are being used productively, to mitigate legal vulnerability and to prevent legal liability.

This legal liability could be the result of inappropriate use of the Internet by employees. Alge said the sending of offensive graphic material through e-mails or the surfing of pornographic Web sites by employees may create a hostile working environment driving companies to put safeguards in place such as Internet monitoring.

According to the survey, financial institutions were more likely to have electronic safeguards in place because the services they provide tend to be highly regulated, and also because protecting the value of proprietary corporate information is a primary concern in businesses.

The survey also revealed that 88 percent of the respondent firms that keep track of their employees' activities inform them of their policies. However, Alge said that most employees don't know what the policies are at their company.

Alge recently completed a study in which he created a simulated workplace and hired participants to perform a series of Web-based tasks. The participants weren't aware that they were being part of the study, instead, they were let to believe they were participants of a project to help build a Web site. The main factor of the study was that they weren't informed of the policies on personal use of online resources.

Alge said the aim of the study was to identify conditions in which employees would deem the electronic monitoring of their activities, especially Internet activities, as less or more acceptable. He also was interested in finding the perceived invasiveness of privacy and fairness of the monitoring.

The results of the study revealed some key aspects about the policy-making process in companies and the subsequent abiding of these policies by employees.

Alge found that those employees, who were given a voice when the policies were defined, perceived higher fairness than those who were not involved in the policy-making process.

"We found that electronic monitoring is viewed less threatening and invasive when employees have say in defining policies," said Alge. "People are more likely to adhere to standards they've helped set."

Alge's study also suggests that companies should communicate policies in writing and include an explanation on what is unreasonable use of Web resources.

Communicating policies in writing and letting employees have an opinion in the policy-making process can be good for the organization, Alge said.

He said an ideal policy would be one that defines who's going to be monitored, what is going to be monitored, how it is going to be monitored and why it's going to be monitored.

"(Companies) have to understand that a good policy would address these issues, " Alge said. "I would advise a policy that allows some minimal corporate assets use. It increases the environment of trust."

Although companies vary in terms of how restrictive these policies are, Alge said he would allow employees some personal Internet use. "You may impede creativity, innovation and communication," he said. "If they feel that the management is always watching, employees would choose not to develop ideas in detriment of the organization."

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Concerns cause employee monitoring

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