A Guide to Responsible Use of Employee Data

Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/5fNmWej4tAA

As an employer, you are going to gather a lot of employee data. How you choose to store and use it is incredibly important. Doing it wrong can not only lead you to violate all kinds of laws and regulations but also make your employees feel unsafe and unprotected at work. 

Here is how to responsibly use all the different types of employee data you collect.

Let Employees See Their Own Data 

Allow your employees to access all of their own data on demand. If they want to see a performance review, a note in their file, security camera footage aimed at their desk, and so on,  make it possible for them to do that. 

This will ensure transparency and encourage the people handling sensitive data to be more careful, as they’ll know that they can be asked to demonstrate their professionalism at any time. 

It will also mean you need to come up with a data storage system that is easy to access and exceptionally well organized. Determine how long you need to hold on to different types of data and when employees can check in on it. Otherwise, you may end up handling a lot of arbitrary requests at the least convenient times. 

Assign Responsibility 

Make a top-level executive responsible for data privacy. You can either hire specifically for the role (if you are dealing with a large number of employees) or make it a part of someone else’s job. 

While HR is usually the department that handles this data, a higher-level executive will ensure there is more oversight and prove to your staff that you are determined to protect their data and use it responsibly. 

Write a Clear Policy 

You’ll also want to ensure your staff knows how their data is being handled and for what purposes it is gathered in the first place. The best way to achieve that is to write a company policy. 

If you need some help with it, you can use a policy generator. Termsfeed is a good one, and you can read this review to see if it can do what you need it to. 

You can also check out how other companies have done it or consult a specialist who can offer insight based on the specifics of your organization.

Make the policy available to all staff members at all times. Write it in clear language that leaves no room for doubt about your intentions and why you gather different types of data. Also, make it perfectly clear what data is confidential and what can be made public company-wide.

Share Relevant Data 

Speaking of confidentiality, make it very clear to your staff if there are certain parts of their contract, tasks, or performance that they should never share with their colleagues. For example, if salaries are confidential, make it clear what a breach will entail. 

Also be clear about the type of data you want to share with everyone. This gives you an opportunity to praise and incentivize your staff. For instance, if someone achieves much better results than last month, you can put it in the company newsletter or take the time to praise them publicly. This will boost staff morale and prove that you care about your employees. 

Never publicly share negative data, though. If you need to reprimand an employee, do it in private. Also make sure to be perfectly clear that sharing personal information about others is prohibited. 

Use Data Positively 

Aim to use all employee data to improve their productivity and skills, not to punish them. Employees often fear that using a time tracking tool, for example, means that you are looking for a way to penalize them when they are late or slow. They will be resistant to data gathering and can feel unduly stressed at work. 

Instead, show them how you use their data positively. For instance, if you discover too much time is spent on unproductive meetings, eliminate them. If you notice some staff members are least productive in the first hour, ask them if they would like to start work a bit later in the morning.

The more of these instances you can demonstrate, the more comfortable your staff will become with data collection. You can also go the extra mile and check in with a staff member if you notice anything is amiss. For example, if they are late to work on several occasions, ask them if they need time off instead of just accusing them of being late. 

Wrapping Up 

Using employee data responsibly does not mean you have to have hundreds of different policies and teach everyone a lot of rules. You can make everything simple and straightforward by writing one policy that details all the relevant information and ensuring your staff adheres to it.