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The idea that employee activities during work hours can be legally monitored by their employers is not a new one. Mandates against employees using company equipment for personal business during work hours goes back many years, perhaps to the dawn of the industrial revolution. Certainly the advent of phone and fax machines made employee monitoring more prevalent. Now, in the era of the Internet, when digital communications are a global reality, employers are faced with a tricky set of circumstances in which employee monitoring is more critical than ever, yet privacy laws are being rigorously enforced. Everyone deserves privacy, but when it comes to using company resources during work hours, employers have rights also.
When employees engage in non-work related activities during work hours, productivity loss is just one of the consequences. The media is full of stories of companies that have had to pay huge settlements because employees downloaded offensive materials from the Internet that threatened other employees. Other issues such as loss of intellectual property or compromising sensitive customer data can result in lost revenue or huge fines if regulatory requirements are breached. There’s no question that failing to implement some sort of employee monitoring of Web behavior at work, can result in significant losses.
An essential part of any employee monitoring strategy is a strong and comprehensive acceptable use policy (AUP). With a signed policy in place, employees are agreeing to abide by company policies and acknowledging that they will be subject to monitoring. A strong AUP protects your company and also puts employees on notice that their activities during work hours are open to examination.
Employers should have some discretion when embarking on employee monitoring. A system of monitoring that takes into account employee morale, building company loyalty and other factors that can affect retention should be considered. You may want a system in place that gives some groups greater leeway than others because of job function or seniority. Or, you may want to give all employees more latitude during their lunch hours and breaks. A strategy for employee monitoring should include a solution that will give you the flexibility to you need to enhance your work environment while helping enforce your AUP.
The iPrism Web Filter is the award-winning appliance-based filtering solution that gives you the enforcement power you want and the flexibility you need. With iPrism, you get the employee monitoring tools necessary to enforce your AUP and assure that your sensitive data and intellectual property are protected from employee threat whether intentional or accidental. iPrism’s powerful h-series appliances include models that can handle any size organization with any size pipeline so that Web performance is never an issue. Its flexible configurations allow you to give access to groups and individuals as you choose, delivering a solution that easily conforms to your company’s requirements. Comprehensive drill down reporting takes you from an overview of your entire company’s Internet activity down to individual users within seconds. You can also monitor employees and your bandwidth usage as it occurs with real time reporting. Employee monitoring of Internet activity is now a given. The iPrism Web Filter gives you the power and flexibility to enforce your AUP and support your overall business goals.
> Discover the Top Six Threats in Employee Internet Usage
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