Email Policy
Email is a quick, cheap and easy means
of communication. This makes email a great business tool, but at the same time a potential threat for employers. Email threats
such as confidentiality breaches, legal liability, lost productivity and damage to reputation cost companies millions of dollars
each year. How can a company protect itself from these threats? The first step in securing your company is to create an email
usage policy. After you have created your email policy you must make sure it is actually implemented. This can be done by
giving regular trainings and also by monitoring employees’ email using email security software. Employee Signature should
be in his/her employee file.
Why do you need an email policy?
By having a good email policy in place
you can secure your company in several ways. Firstly, the email policy helps prevent email threats, since it makes your staff
aware of the corporate rules and guidelines, which if followed will protect your company.
Secondly, an email policy can help stop
any misconduct at an early stage by asking employees to come forward as soon as they receive an offensive email. Keeping the
incidents to a minimum can help avoid legal liability. For instance in the case of Morgan Stanley, a US investment bank that
faced an employee court case, the court ruled that a single email communication (a racist joke, in this case) cannot create
a hostile work environment and dismissed the case against them.
If an incident does occur, an email policy
can minimize the company’s liability for the employee’s actions. Previous cases have proven that the existence
of an email policy can prove that the company has taken steps to prevent inappropriate use of the email system and therefore
can be freed of liability. WorldCom Corp. for instance, faced a court case from two former employees for allowing four racially
offensive jokes on its email system. WorldCom successfully defended themselves because they had an email policy that spelled
out inappropriate content and because they took prompt remedial action against the coworker who sent the racially harassing
emails.
Finally, if you are going to use email
filtering software to check the contents of your employee’s emails, it is essential to have an email policy that states
the possibility of email monitoring. If you do not have such as policy you could be liable for privacy infringement.
Why do you need an Internet policy?
Business use of the Internet has
experienced extraordinary growth in this decade. It is now common-place for employees to have access to the Internet, and
as the United States moves ever closer to an information worker/service type of economy, even more workers will need access
to the Internet to do their job effectively. Although the business uses of the Internet are many, much of the information
available to employees on the Internet is not related to performance of the worker's job. Thus, many employers have recognized
that unrestricted use of the Internet by employees has the potential to drain, rather than enhance productivity.
The solution may be to implement a policy outlining the permissible parameters of employee Internet use, or an Internet
acceptable use policy (IAUP).
An IAUP is a written agreement, signed
by employees, which sets out the permissible workplace uses of the Internet. In addition to describing permissible uses, an
IAUP should specifically set out prohibited uses, rules of online behavior, and access privileges. Penalties for violations
of the policy, including security violations and vandalism of the system, should also be covered. Anyone using a company's
Internet connection should be required to sign an IAUP, and know that it will be kept on file as a legal, binding document.
There are many reasons an employer may
want to institute an IAUP. The Internet can be a magnificent source of detailed, current information that can enhance employee
productivity. The Internet also allows access to a vast amount of purely entertainment-related features. Thus, in a very real
sense, providing access to the Internet carries with it the same potential for productivity drain as placing a television
on every employee's desk. It is not surprising then, that loss of productivity is the number one reason for drafting an IAUP.
Another reason to institute an IAUP is
to shield the employer from possible sexual harassment suits. As in most communications media, some of the pictures, video,
sound, and text on the Internet is sexually oriented. If such material is brought into the workplace, it carries with it the
potential to create a hostile work environment, thereby presenting a potential risk of exposure to the employer under federal
or state prohibitions against sex discrimination.
There are also technological reasons
to support the implementation of an IAUP. For example, restricting use of the Internet to only work-related matters serves
to prevent a drain on limited computer resources caused by frivolous use. Access to the Internet costs a business money, either
in fees to Internet Service Providers, or in hardware costs necessary to accommodate increased network traffic and data storage.
An employee's inappropriate use may negatively affect other employees' speed of access or storage space for work product.
An IAUP can guide employees concerning the use of storage space and bandwidth on the system in order to maximize utility to
all employees. Examples of restrictions serving this interest would be directives against downloading games or other non-work
related files, restrictions on downloading large files that can be obtained off-line, and instructions to move old or seldom
used files, programs or E-mail to alternative storage.
Employers who have sensitive data on
their computer system, be it company plans, customer demographic data, or product designs may need a clause in their IAUP
concerning trade secrets. It should be made clear to employees that under no circumstances should proprietary company information
be passed though the Internet, or that such material be encrypted if transmitted over the Internet.
Employers should institute guidelines
which prohibit illegal use of the Internet in general. A directive that employees take care not to violate copyright laws
should be included in every IAUP. Gambling via the Internet may also be a concern, and an IAUP should contain a prohibition
against such activity not only because of its potentially adverse affect on productivity but also because the activity may
be illegal.
