As an HR professional, I feel that the line between appropriate employee monitoring and employee privacy must be adequately analyzed for the applicable situation and standardized through effective policy. In other words, the types of observations that take place must be necessary for the company to monitor elements that impact safety, legality, quality, and productivity. Further, employees should be aware of what is being monitored and consent. In my opinion, this should include all company supplied electronics or those agreed to be used for company purposes. For instance, if you work remote, you might use a phone that you purchased yourself, however, if the organization affords you a designated work line and informs you that it will be monitored, I feel that is appropriate for quality and production oversight.
In terms of personal privacy, as an HR professional, I feel that employee
data should be treated as medical data is in health care where only those who must know the information to perform their job should be privy to that information. Even then, it should be kept as confidential as possible, and employees should be aware of and consent to the sharing of identifying information. Therefore, employers have the responsibility to ensure the workplace is safe, there is legal compliance, the products and services being provided are done so according to company values and ethics, and that company
resources, like time and money, are not being wasted. What this looks like for various roles is obviously very different, but overall, HR should consider stakeholder needs, strategic goals alignment, as well as privacy and consent.
Furthermore, the balance between employee monitoring and privacy must consider that “workplace surveillance has consequences for employees, affecting employee well-being, work culture, productivity, creativity and motivation” (Ball, 2010). The consensus is that these actions by companies are in place, essentially, to protect assets, but the ethical implications of such actions should take priority as well.
Legal factors of Employee Privacy
Although there are numerous ethical considerations to make regarding employee monitoring and privacy, the law also provides guidelines to inform policy and behaviors on the matter. Legislation cannot effectively keep up with the rapid advances of technology, its uses, and its impact on employee privacy. In other words, as cases come up, the law works to provide solutions but is unable to foresee every scenario. However, there are legal rights of privacy that
