Employers crack down on email and internet misuse

Half of UK employers surveyed recently by IRS have disciplined employees for misuse of email and the internet at work.

Misuse ranges from simple time wasting to downloading and circulating pornography. Around one in five employers surveyed has dismissed staff as a result of their abuse of email or the internet over the past 12 months.

A majority of respondents to the IRS survey have a written policy dealing with email and internet use in the workplace. Many of these policies are broader in scope, with one in three covering the use of personal mobile phones in the workplace, and one in six instituting a ban on the use of cameras and camera phones.

  • Email and internet policies: Cracking down on misuse    By Lyn Whitfield, writing in IRS Employment Review. The survey is based on responses from 63 organisations, together employing just under 106,000 staff.

  • Email and internet policy for employees  Read HR & Compliance Centre's model policy on email and internet use.

    Also

    Written evidence    Writing in Training Magazine, Ross Bentley investigates how employers can benefit from investing in training staff on the use of email.

    Email policies must cover circulation of messages   Policies on acceptable email use should include provisions limiting the widespread dissemination of messages, as the escape of internal emails into the public domain can potentially attract both adverse publicity and legal claims.

    The law on email monitoring  Writing on personneltoday.com, James Elwes looks at what the law says about employers clamping down on email abuse.

    Employee monitoring in focus    IRS reviews part three of the Data Protection Code of Practice, which covers monitoring employees in the workplace. The Code covers areas such as opening workers' emails, the use of closed-circuit television, monitoring internet usage and videoing workers outside the workplace to collect evidence.

    ACAS issues guide to email and internet policies    HR & Compliance Centre reports.

    How to protect against issues arising from employee email and internet use    Practical guidance from HR & Compliance Centre's How to service.