November 7, 2006

Using Technology to Check Up on Employees

I'm not an advocate of spying on employees. However, in many cases an employer has no choice but to monitor the email, chats, web sites and etc that its employees use. Sometimes, maybe its even important to track the employees themselves.

If you have a fleet of trucks, it can be the difference between productivity or the lack thereof if your drivers are using efficient routes and/or stopping and doing "non-business" activities on your dime.

Or maybe you can an executive or employee who is downloading porn. Can your company be liable in a sexual lawsuit?

USA Today writes While more employers may feel they have justifiable reason to pry, others believe the practice is too corrosive to the employee-employer bond. Chuck Rauenhorst, CEO of Minneapolis-based Rauenhorst Recruiting, says monitoring employees is not something that he would do.

"Colleagues who trust one another have synergy and work better as a unit," Rauenhorst says in an e-mail. "Eavesdropping, electronic or otherwise, is always going to tear that fabric of trust."

The surveillance of employees has become increasingly commonplace, research shows. Already, 76% of companies monitor employees' website connections, and 65% block access to specific sites, up from 40% in 2001. About 35% track the content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard, according to the 2005 study by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute, a Columbus, Ohio-based training and consulting firm. More than half of employers retain and review e-mail messages.

Read the full article here.

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