As companies use remote monitoring systems to maintain productivity with distributed workforces, the amount of data they collect on their employees is increasing. Faced with the rising importance of privacy for their existing and prospective talent, organizations need to view their employees’ privacy as a core benefit to put on the table, writes Rob Shavell, CEO of Abine.
Privacy protection has long been an essential privilege for corporate executives. Faced with a constant threat from doxxingOpens a new window and a need to protect their families from targeted harassmentOpens a new window , senior-level managers expect their employer to help ensure that workplace disputes don’t follow them home.
Unfortunately, the risk of targeted phishing scams, doxxing attempts, and online harassment isn’t limited to the C-suite. As the incidence of identity theft, ransomware, and online harassment rises, keeping employees’ personal information private is vital. With over 44% of Americans having suffered online harassmentOpens a new window , employers should consider privacy protection as a core part of the benefits package offered to new and existing employees at every level.
How Employees Feel About Data Privacy
For employees, whether or not their employers protect their personal information is a growing concern. This is partly driven by many organizations’ noted failure to safeguard their employee and customer data from cyber breaches. As companies use remote monitoring systems to maintain productivity with distributed workforces, the amount of data they collect on their employees is increasing.
According to AccentureOpens a new window , 64% of employees say that data privacy scandals make them worried that their data might be at risk. This leads many employees to consider their organizations’ approach to privacy as a key benefit or deficit in their job. Where privacy isn’t taken seriously, employees are increasingly likely to vote with their feet.
More than 1 in 2 workersOpens a new window would consider leaving a job if the employer didn’t use new technologies and workplace data responsibly. The same proportion would refuse to apply for a job with such an organization in the first place.
Faced with the rising importance of privacy for their existing and prospective talent, organizations need to view their employees’ privacy as a core benefit to put on the table. This means understanding employee privacy concerns, dealing with vulnerabilities, and offering a proactive solution that makes privacy a benefit rather than a problem.
Learn More: Privacy, Productivity, Compliance: 3 Considerations When HR Adopts Employee Monitoring Software
Why Privacy Is at Risk Unless Protected
As businesses operate with increasingly distributed workforces, the risk that employees pose to corporate networks rises.
When it comes to data safety, employees themselves are often their own worst enemies. By oversharing on social media, employees can compromise both their own and their company’s security. For example, an employee might post a photo on LinkedIn or Facebook while at work, unaware that a post-it note with network passwords (or an open laptop or a security badge) is visible in the background. Gen Zers are also in the habit of vlogging their workday, a practice that creates a massive privacyOpens a new window risk for their employers.
Lack of privacy for remote workers can eventually translate into corporate network breaches. When employee personal data is so easily acquired, phishing, social engineering, and spoofing of accounts become easier for malicious actors.
With entry points in distributed corporate systems easier to access, ransomware attacks have grown by over 72% percentOpens a new window since the start of 2020. In 2019, compromised employee accounts were already the cause of the year’s most expensive data breachesOpens a new window . As remote employees further smudge the line between their personal and professional environments, the incidence and cost of these kinds of attacks are only likely to grow.
For organizations, a network breach can be devastating. But the impact of identity theft or doxxing resulting from a privacy breach can be equally profound for employees. By giving thieves control over an individual’s credit, reputation, and accounts, stolen personal details can cause irreparable financial, reputational, and personal damage.
With an incredible increase of 733%Opens a new window in reported cases between 2016 and 2019, identity theft is undoubtedly rising. So is doxxing. Offering new and existing employees protection against this threat is something all companies can and should do.
Learn More: How HR Can Manage the Evolving Data Privacy Landscape
Three Key Ingredients of a Privacy + Benefits Package
With a growing market for personal information among data brokers and barely any sign of federal interference, employers have an opportunity to take the lead when it comes to privacy protection.
In practice, this means offering a privacy plus benefits package to entice new hires and retain existing employees. Doing so also increases organization-wide cybersecurity. Here are three of the key features such a package should have:
1. A commitment to making employees stakeholders in performance monitoring
Employees are often concerned about how much of their data employers access when their performance is monitored remotely. Transparency is critical to mitigating this concern. Employers aren’t legally required to inform employees that they’re being monitored (except in Connecticut and Delaware). However, if they want to gain their employees’ confidence, they should consider doing so.
Employers can get employee buy-in for monitoring software by listing the monitoring tools they want to use and explaining why they are necessary.
The effectiveness of this method is borne out by research. A Gartner studyOpens a new window found that only 30% of employees are okay with an employer monitoring their emails. The percentage increases to over 50% when the employer explains why they need to do so. Moreover, over 90% of employees are open to data collection if it promises to improve their performance, well-being, or other personal benefits.
For an excellent example of how consensual monitoring can work in everyone’s favor, look at how BMC software uses employee monitoringOpens a new window . While BMC monitors employee emails and calendars to track productivity, they do so on an opt-in basis. Employee data is anonymized. In return for sharing data, BMC employees receive personalized feedback on how to improve their time management skills.
2. Smart privacy awareness training
Rather than repetitive lectures, a company can use live fire security drills to train workers to recognize phishing scams and teach them how to use social media safely.
According to a studyOpens a new window by KnowBe4, a provider of security awareness training, most businesses see a 15% drop in the number of employees who fall prey to phishing scams after just 90 days of intensive computer-based training and simulated phishing attacks.
These drills should be backed up with regular security-focused newsletters and training that tell employees how to stay safe outside the workplace.
3. A proactive data broker removal service
One of the biggest threats to employee privacy comes from publicly available information about them, collected, collated, and sold by people search sites and data brokers.
Taking this information back can be a complex and lengthy process. It is also something that needs to be done continuously. A subscription-based service (like DeleteMe) scans the net for users’ data on these sites and coordinates its removal on the employees’ behalf.
Doing so removes ammunition for hackers looking to send phishing emails or break into corporate accounts with easy to guess passwords. It also reduces targeted advertising, such as robocalls. Reducing third-party access to employees’ personal information also minimizes the chance that targeted doxxing or online harassment will be successful.
Learn More: Time Tracking and Screen Monitoring: Are You Having Trouble Trusting Remote Employees?
Privacy Is a Win-Win Benefit for Employers and Employees
As well as taking care of their employees’ health, businesses will increasingly be expected to help workers protect their personal information. While this perk has been a crucial part of an executive benefits package in the past, organizations should consider offering some degree of universal privacy protection to all their employees.
Doing so can help cement a company’s positive cultural values, protect the organization itself, and improve employee perceptions of how their employer protects them. Faced with an increased awareness of privacy among their employees, organizations have a unique opportunity to use the situation to their advantage and gain a competitive edge when attracting talent.
By rolling out a comprehensive privacy plus benefits package, a company can double down its commitment to its employees’ well-being. For companies and their staff, privacy is a win-win benefit.
What are your thoughts on privacy as a benefit? How serious do you think this need is in the current landscape? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .