Employer Best Practices & Policies Essay

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Company Policy

Draft a company policy on use of the internet by employees. Draft it in the form of a memo to employees.

Take into consideration the following issues:

Is it realistic to believe that all personal use of the internet at work can be prohibited? How do you deal with this?

Do employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in, e.g., an email they might send at work? A website they might visit? How could your policy deal with this?

Dear Acme employees,

It has become necessary to address the employee use of internet and internet tools for personal reasons while on company time and/or company equipment. While Acme wishes to respect your privacy and allow you to fill any idle time you might have between calls or during your lunch break, bear the following in mind:

All computers and phones on Acme property are subject to be monitored at any time and for any legal reason. If you are concerned about a private non-work conversation not being private, please conduct that conversation on a non-Acme phone and/or a non-Acme computer.

Acme can and will monitor phone and internet use at our sole discretion. That being said, if it is clear a conversation is private, monitoring will be broken off. But again, keep in mind that some revealing of private manners may occur before this breaking off of monitoring occurs.

Any work or non-work-related discussions or situations that involve violations of the law or violations of other Acme policies will be monitored, recorded and will be dealt with accordingly

Any use of company email address for non-Acme business is strongly discouraged and will usually be against company policy. Remember that you represent Acme when you use your Acme email address. Use your own email address (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) for personal emails. What you do on there will generally be your business (except as noted above).

Social networking sites are not blocked but should not be used while you are clocked in or otherwise supposed to be working.

Video streaming sites (YouTube, etc.) should not EVER be used or visited on company computers. They consume a lot of bandwidth and this can hinder the performance of the Acme network.

At no point should non-Acme computers or mobile devices be on Acme's network. Make sure to use your own personal cell or Wi-Fi device if you are connecting to the internet.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/dec2009/sb2009121_245449.htm

https://www.privacyrights.org/workplace-privacy-and-employee-monitoring

Topic 2:

As the result of the company adopting a policy on use of the internet, a group of employees plan to meet to discuss a possible response to the policy. Your boss comes to you as head of HR. He knows you have personal friends among the employees who are perfectly happy with the policy you have drafted and circulated. The boss wants you to ask one of your friends to attend the meeting and report back to you what the employees discussed. You are then to report to the boss. Are the employees happy with the policy? Unhappy? Is it too strict? Not strict enough? How would you respond to your boss and why?

That tactic could backfire royally…and it could especially backfire on the employee that is to be informing on the other employees. That employee could and probably would be ostracized and impugned for "tattling" on what the other employees are saying. Whether it is anonymous or in an open forum, all feedback to the policy should be asked for directly. That being said, the company generally has the right to do what they wish. The opinions of employees does not necessarily matter all that much. The company has a real concern in protecting their bandwidth and what is done on their systems. A union situation would complicate things…but the same basic things still apply. Employees should not expect privacy on machines and devices that are not theirs…there is nothing reasonable about that expectation even if some people think so.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/01/26/workplace-retaliation-ethics-see-something-say-something/

Topic 1:

You work in HR for a company that operates a factory that manufactures fiberglass. There are several hundred employees working in a variety of positions. Your boss has seen a program about drug abuse. He comes into your office in a very excited state. He wants to hire a company to make an unannounced, random drug test of all the employees in the factory. Some employees work in dangerous jobs (large manufacturing equipment) but others do not (secretarial/administrative work). The company in the past has paid for some employees to go to rehabilitation centers for alcoholism - these employees either came forward asking for help or had been confronted over deteriorating performance suspected to be due to alcohol abuse. You say you'd like to look into the matter and send him a memo on the subject.

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Write a short memo addressed to your boss expressing your opinion on his idea for unannounced, random drug testing of all employees. Are there [legal] risks? Can these risks be minimized?

Dear Boss,

You had inquired with me about hiring a firm to do a blanket drug test on all employees so as to fetter out who is using drugs and who is not. Per your request, I have a few answers for you.

Generally, a blanket "random" test would be a no-go because that is generally not allowed. It would have to be focused on a specific person (or group of people) and with certain evidence behind it. For example, if used narcotics needles were found in an office, the people that work in that office could be tested. Similarly, someone slurring their speech or found slumped over their desk could be tested as well if there is not an obvious medical cause. The one exception that is not up to discretion or perception (i.e. reasonable cause) would be if an employee had an accident

With that being said, employees can refuse to take a drug test when asked. If Acme has reasonable suspicion to believe the employee would refuse the test, the employee can be fired on the spot and there would be little recourse…except a lawsuit. It should be made clear up front that the test is compulsory, is based on reasonable suspicion and the employee will be terminated if they do not comply. If they do comply and they pass, they will face no repercussions. If the fail the test, it will have to be decided what drugs will be fired for and which will not…and then there is the concern of whether they are actively under the influence or if they simply have used the drug(s) recently. That ALL needs to be clearly defined in a company policy and followed to the letter. Any documentation of reasonable suspicion (as noted above) should also be documented and witnessed by at least two different managers (the more, the better)

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/employee-rights-book/chapter5-3.html

Topic 2:

An employee comes to your office and says he wants to anonymously make a complaint to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act. He doesn't want his identity known to his supervisor, who told a group of employees that he would make life difficult for anyone who complained about working conditions. How would you handle this?

Making a complaint to OSHA would require that OSHA be able to reach out to the person making the complaint. However, there are two different issues here and both of them require protection of the employee. First of all, OSHA has regulations and so forth that protect whistleblowers that are acting in good faith. Second of all, the employee is apparently being threatened already and the person allegedly doing that needs to be investigated for that reason alone…OSHA complaint or not.

The employee should be encouraged to tell OSHA about the issues if they wish but that the company would like a chance to address the issue without OSHA involvement if possible….but that the employee WILL NOT be punished by the company if an OSHA complaint goes through…so they are safe either way. The manager should be investigated. If there is any merit to the claims, the manager should be fired…nothing short of that.

https://www.osha.gov/law-regs.html

http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/safetysecurity/articles/pages/loto-program-osha-inspection.aspx

https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/index.html

http://www.dol.gov/elaws/OSHARecordkeeping.htm

Topic 1:

Your boss comes to your office. He has just seen a YouTube video. A single person appears in the video. Although he appears in the shadows in an effort to hide his identity, the boss clearly recognizes who it is. The person names the company and makes disparaging remarks about the boss and the company. He also complains of unsafe conditions - some of which you know or strongly suspect are true. The person recently received an unfavorable performance evaluation. The boss wants to fire the employee immediately. How do you suggest he proceed?

Disparaging the company would normally be ground for termination and a lot of companies do it. So long as the employee had no reasonable expectation of privacy and/or knew he was being taped, he has no one to blame but himself.

But

If he's making allegations and some or….....

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