Monitor Your E-Mail before The Company Does

Companies are monitoring employees’ e-mail to guard company secrets and enforce rule violations, according to a survey by Forrester Consulting.

In a study with 294 participating companies, 37.8% said they employed e-mail monitoring staff. Nearly half of the surveyed companies audit outbound e-mail. Perhaps not surprisingly their suspicions are well-founded. Approximately 21% revealed that they had arranged for their employees e-mail to be subpoenaed in the past year, a figure that has doubled since 2005.

Inevitably, when companies make such a decision, they risk violating employee privacy, says Keith Crosley, Proofpoint director of market development. He emphasized that the use of mobile phones for e-mails blurs the line between personal and work settings and that people will inevitably send personal e-mails from work e-mail accounts.

If you encourage your staff to create a clear line between their personal and professional lives and encourage them to use a non-work e-mail for their personal correspondence, you will take the fear of privacy violation out of the equation and you will build a stronger business.