When it comes to monitoring of employees at the workplace it is already very common and already established in many businesses. There are many employers that monitor employee arrival times. The majority of business that handle any kind of currency monitors the way that the currency is handled to ensure that it is being handled correctly and professionally. Most organizations monitor the accuracy and quality of employees work. Nevertheless, a surprisingly large number of organizations still do not effectively monitor the manner in which employees use their computers and that can be an extremely costly oversight. The misuse and abuse of computer equipment can have serious costs for an organization and should be monitored at all times. Lost productivity is one problem that occurs without employee monitoring. Personal surfing has become an enormous habit for many employees and an emerging problem for employers. Employees can shop, play games, chat, watch and share videos and surf the internet all during working hours without monitoring. The amount of time that is lost to cyber slacking varies immensely among organizations, but most studies put it in the region of 2.5 hours per employee, per day. Multiply that 2.5 hours by the number of employees and the average hourly pay rate in your organization, and you will have an approximate estimate of the cost of cyber slacking (Turner). The Social networking site, Facebook, was recently labeled a social not-working site after a study by security company Sophos revealed that 60% of its users accessed the site during working hours and that more than 20% of its users accessed the site more than 10 times each day during working hours(Sophos).Intellectual property theft Intellectual property theft or IPT has always been a concern for companies and internet connected computers and mobile devices now provide new opportunities for people to access and steal data easily. Documents and data can speedily be transferred to a flash drive or laptop and are mostly stolen by an employee. The employers want to guarantee that the time they are paying employees for working is not being used for personal reasons. A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute found that 75% of IPT’s were carried out by current members of staff. Companies will not often admit to being victims of IPT, and so it is impossible to calculate the costs to the company. In a recent case however, a research chemist admitted to stealing $400 million worth of proprietary data from his former employer, DuPont (Greenemeier). Another reason to monitor employees would be because Fraudulent activity Employees often have access to sensitive personal information which can either be misused by the employee or sold on to a third party. The cost of fraudulent activity extends beyond the losses incurred as a direct result the fraud. The financial effects of the damage to an organization’s reputation and the loss of customer confidence can far outweigh the cost of the act of the fraud itself. Since a company is responsible for their employees’s the company has Legal liability for their employees. According to the ePolicy Institute, 13% of employers have faced a lawsuit resulting from the improper use of e-mail by employees (ePolicy). With employee monitoring companies can ensure that employees are using company equipment. Monitoring employees should not be a company’s only defense as a solution to the problems previously discussed. To be operative, monitoring must be introduced as part of a risk management strategy. . In order to avoid such difficulties and potentially costly legal battles organizations should create an acceptable use policy that covers e-mail, internet and applications and communicate the policy to their employees. Clearly setting out acceptable and forbidden uses for e-mail, internet and applications and specifying the disciplinary consequences of breaking the policy should also be included in establishing monitoring of employees. Employers should explain the employer’s right to monitor the employee. Informing an employee that employee monitoring is in place is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, not informing an employee would be an infringement of their privacy rights in certain jurisdictions. Secondly, employees that are informed that they are being monitored may be less likely to breach the policy made by the company.
An advantage in employee monitoring is that employers can provide feedback to employees on their work performance. Instead of listening to the manager tell an employee how their job performance is the employer would be able to review the tape with the employee to see exactly what they are doing wrong and judge the employees performance. Monitoring can be used as a instrument to show employees their work habits and what they need to change to advance their performance. Employees may enjoy the process of reviewing their work performance like this because it gives the employee the chance to see for themselves their weak and strong points, and the employee can use the evidence to progress their work methods. This awareness can increase employee performance and efficiency. Employers monitor employees to preserve a high level of productivity as well as for liability purposes in situations such as sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and employee theft suits. By monitoring an employee’s email and internet usage, an employer can keep an eye on whether the employee is using company time wisely or if the employee is abusing work time. Monitoring also will tell if an employee is keeping up with the expected work pace, whether personal problems are affecting an employee’s work as well as seeing how long or often employees are taking breaks.
Employee monitoring is a great way for companies to make sure that the company is withstanding and upholding the company’s policies and that employees are fulfilling their required duties for their jobs. It also helps companies improve the company’s expectations and work performance of the employees. Employees that work for the company and follow the company’s policy already should not see any problems with Employee monitoring as long as the company make sure that their employees has a full understanding of the terms and usage of the monitoring.

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One in seven brings their Facebook addiction to work (Sophos) http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2007/10/facebook-addiction.html Welcome toThe ePolicy Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2015, from http://www.epolicyinstitute.com/