Does your business have an electronic communications policy? Last week, Bowman v. Butler Township provided a gentle reminder of why your business should have one. Here are some points to consider when putting a technology policy in place in your workplace.
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Is your technology limited to work-related use only, or will you permit some personal non-work use? For example, can email be used for personal reasons? What websites (YouTube, Amazon, eBay, CNN, ESPN?) are off-limits?
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Account for the handling of your business’s trade secrets, confidential, and proprietary information.
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Remind employees of their non-harassment obligations. Offensive, demeaning, or disruptive messages should always be prohibited, as should offensive racist, discriminatory, or sexual content.
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Advise employees that what is transmitted over the company’s system belongs to the company and employee do not have any expectation of privacy.
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Whatever degree of monitoring you are going to undertake, let employees know and obtain their consent.
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For how long are you going to store electronic content and how often is it deleted? Tie together your communications policy and records retention policy.
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Are employees allowed to remove electronic data from the workplace?
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Provide for virus protection.
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As with all employment policies, account for discipline for violations.
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.