How to safeguard employee dignity in a monitored workplace

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How can you better safeguard employee dignity in a monitored workplace? In modern times, it’s a rare organization that doesn’t monitor its employees with CCTV cameras. 

Over the past ten years, technological advancements have pushed employers to monitor their employees.

This has created huge moral dilemmas and instigated heated debates amongst employers and employees about employee’s right to privacy and dignity in a monitored workplace.

But how do you safeguard employee dignity in a monitored workplace environment? Let’s find out.

Importance of safeguarding employee dignity

Employee dignity is the foundation for an ethical workplace. Ethical responsibility and employee dignity are inseparable. The consequences of not safeguarding employee dignity can be disastrous for your business, including:

• Employee turnover, which is expensive and disruptive to business operations
• Loss of trust with customers and vendors
• A hostile workplace culture that impacts employees’ morale and productivity

There are many benefits to safeguarding employee dignity. 

Positive workplace culture

A good work culture can help organizations attract high-quality talent and retain employees. A positive work environment results in increased productivity and job satisfaction among employees.

Employee morale

Employee morale is directly proportional to the respect they receive from their supervisors and managers.

When employees feel respected at work, they give their best efforts toward achieving organizational goals.

Employee retention

Employees who feel appreciated and valued are likelier to stay with your company. And when you have happy employees who are not looking for a new job, it means less turnover and fewer recruitment costs.

Improved workplace culture

When you value your employees, they will feel more appreciated and motivated to do their best work. This makes the overall workplace culture more positive, improving productivity and making people happier with their jobs.

Ways of safeguarding employee dignity in a monitored workplace

According to Techreport, using secure employee monitoring software is a necessary precaution for employers regarding data security.

However, there are ways to safeguard employee dignity in an environment where surveillance is necessary.

Transparent communication

Ensure that your employees know why you monitor them and what you intend to do with the data collected from them.

You can do this by creating a privacy policy and making it available for all employees to read at their convenience.

Clear privacy policies

The next step is to state your workplace monitoring and surveillance policies clearly.

This will help your employees understand how they’re being monitored, what kind of data you collect from them, where it goes, and how long you keep it stored.

Consent for monitoring

A company should not monitor its employees without their consent. An employee being monitored without their permission is an invasion of privacy and could lead to legal action against the employer.

As such, an organization must ensure employees understand the consequences of not giving consent before monitoring them.

Anonymization of data

If you’re going to monitor your employees’ activities, make sure that all information collected is anonymized so that no individual is identifiable through this method.

This will ensure no privacy issues are involved in using monitoring software at work. It will also prevent any legal problems for your company if someone decides to sue over this issue.

Sensitive data handling

Your company may handle sensitive customer data, employee records, and trade secrets.

You must ensure that these are kept secure at all times, as they can put your business at risk if accessed by unauthorized parties.

Confidential reporting channels

Employees need an outlet to report harassment, discrimination, or bullying without fear of reprisal from their manager or peers.

These channels should be confidential so that employees don’t have to worry about being reported themselves if they do report such incidents.

Data encryption measures

Employers should have adequate encryption measures to protect sensitive information such as credit card details and social security numbers.

These measures should also include protection against cyberattacks and unauthorized access by third parties like hackers and criminals.

If your company doesn’t need to put these measures in place, then now would be a good time to start thinking about them.

Final words

Even though we should expect our employers to monitor our work, the workspaces must be set up to preserve the dignity of its workers.

This can include enhancing the transparency of the monitored workplaces, but it is primarily an attitude toward the workers that will set them at ease with electronic monitoring.

There are also specific ways to handle communication and conflict between employees and upper management. It will help the employees maintain their sense of self-worth even as they are observed at every step.

Have any thoughts on this? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. However, our opinions, reviews, and other editorial content are not influenced by the sponsorship and remain objective.