By: Staff Writer

Over the past decade, there has been a technological revolution in the workplace as businesses have increasingly turned to technology as the primary tool to communicate, conduct business, and store information.  As the use of technology has increased, so has the concern of employers that their technology resources may be abused by employees.  As a result, companies have developed various “computer conduct” policies and implemented strategies to monitor their employees’ use of e-mail, the Internet, and computer files. National surveys have reported that many companies are engaged in such practices. Federal and state laws and judicial decisions have generally given private sector companies wide discretion in their monitoring and review of employee computer transmissions, including the Internet and e-mail. However, some legal experts believe that these laws should be more protective of employee privacy by limiting what aspects of employee computer use employers may monitor and how they may do so. 

No matter where people stand on the issue of privacy, one thing continues to be critical in the courts, in the media and in the work place.  Employers are expected to clearly communicate the organizations position to employees as it pertains to employee conduct and privacy.

As an employer, one of the challenges has been keeping up with written policies that describe and make clear what the employee should know about the organizations expectations of technology use when the technologies available change at such a rapid rate.  Many organizations have an “Email Policy” an “Internet Use Policy” a “Communications Policy” and often a general section outlining general office technology use in an “Employee Handbook”. 

The situation above has developed because organizations tend to layer additional policies as new technologies present themselves in the work place.  As a response to this situation, more and more organizations are creating a single “Technology Use Policy” that pertains to all of the various technologies and communication mediums in the organization. 

There is now a broad enough understanding of the interaction between employees and the internet enabled world to refine the employer’s expectations in a single “Technology Use Policy” that will address elements such as email, webmail, web surfing, telephone/cell phones, social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc.), Blogs, instant messaging (IM) and texting.

The courts, specific industry associations and experts agree that establishing a comprehensive policy on employee technology use is incomplete without strategies to disseminate the information. Experts pointed out that informing employees about these policies not only established the limits of employee expectations about privacy but also allowed the employee the opportunity to conform their behavior to the circumstances of having limited privacy.  Don’t allow your organization to send conflicting messages to employees because technology specific policies have been layered on top of each other as new technologies make their way into the work place.  Focus on replacing multiple policies with a single “Technology Use Policy”.

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