In October 2022 the Information Commissioner’s Office published for consultation its new guidance on monitoring at work, as part of its Employment Practices Code. The new guidance covers both systematic monitoring, such as software to monitor productivity, and occasional monitoring as a short-term response to specific needs. The sensitivities around employees’ expectations of privacy and risks of interference with the employee’s private and family life are compounded by the increase of homeworking.
Recent advances in technology mean that there are now numerous ways to monitor employees, including via webcams on staff computers or by checking browser histories, email content and phone records or the analysis of employees’ biometric data. Productivity-tracking software offers a raft of ways to assess how employees spend their working day. Employers can also keep tabs on their employees’ movements through the working day using CCTV, vehicle location tracking, dash cameras and devices, or access cards which track employees’ movements in the workplace.
Employers have an increasingly wide range of ways to monitor employees and their productivity. However, just because these forms of monitoring are readily available does not mean that using them is risk free.
Listed below are the pros and cons of employee monitoring and we explain the numerous legal and policy considerations for employers.
Monitoring is often justified in order to improve...
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