Information on Employee Monitoring Software

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that employee use of computers while on the job is not a private affair, freeing employers and managers to implement Internet monitoring through surveillance software.

While computers and Internet access were originally brought into the workplace to allow greater work capacity with lowered costs, to some extent the Internet has led to the opposite in the American workplace. In offices without surveillance software, or Internet monitoring of any kind, improper Internet use is the #1 cause for disciplinary action. Employee productivity also suffers heavily, costing American businesses $85 billion dollars a year.

Did you know: Poor employee productivity, due to Internet abuse, costs American businesses $85 billion dollars a year.

And while employee productivity would seem to be paramount in the workplace, often overlooked issues of liability are also at stake. The ruling by the Ninth Circuit was in response to an appeal brought by an employee who was caught downloading images of child pornography into a workplace computer.

The FBI confiscated said computer, and the gentleman was arrested, but he did try to argue in a court of law that his on-the-job behavior was protected by the 4th amendment. The fact that the computer he was using was not his computer led the courts to rule against him, effectively freeing employers to use surveillance software and prevent such things from happening in the workplace.

While this is an extreme case, similar workplace behaviors, including online gambling, hate speech, and more have been known to surface in the workplace, demoralizing other employees and strengthening the case for Internet monitoring in the workplace.

But what about employee motivation and morale? Studies have proven that as long as they know that workplace computers are outfitted with surveillance software, and they are allowed a certain amount of Internet time daily, employees do not find Internet monitoring to be invasive or oppressive.

For a full picture of on-the-job Internet use, Awareness Tech's WebWatcher is a superior product. WebWatcher incorporates website blocking to discourage inappropriate materials, but also implements website recording and email recording, among other things, to allow employers and managers to maintain employee productivity. WebWatcher can also be accessed from a remote location, meaning that the "boss" can check in on workplace Internet use from anywhere.

With WebWatcher, employers can make sure that the workplace will function as effectively as possible, and at the same time, limit the kinds of situations that lead to an uncomfortable or unproductive environment.



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