Monitoring and security of staff

When an employer is allowed to monitor staff

Monitoring usually results in the collection of personal information, which means the Data Protection Act 1998 will apply. The Act requires organisations to ensure that monitoring is appropriate to a particular problem or objective.

Monitoring is not prevented. However, any adverse impact of monitoring on employees must be justified by the benefits to the employers.

To decide whether monitoring is justified, you should undertake an impact assessment that involves:

• clearly identifying the purpose(s) behind monitoring and the benefits of monitoring versus any alternatives
• assessing the benefits of monitoring against any adverse impact on staff, eg intrusion into workers' private lives, or the oppressive effect of monitoring
• identifying whether confidential information will become known to others in the workforce as a result
• considering the need to be fair to workers
• ensuring any intrusion is kept to a minimum
• ensuring that significant intrusion into workers' private lives will be justified
• assessing the results of consultation with trade unions, representatives or workers
• considering obligations that arise from monitoring such as setting up new processes to ensure records are secure
• complying with the law

Improper monitoring can lead you to contravene laws including the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 1998.

It is a core principle of the Data Protection Act 1998 that workers should be aware of the nature, extent and reasons for any monitoring. If you are monitoring employees to enforce your business rules and standards these should be set out in a policy that also refers to the nature and extent of associated monitoring. Only in rare cases is covert monitoring justified.

Businesses intending to use monitoring techniques to collect information about workers must explain to staff how and why they monitor. This creates awareness, prevents monitoring misuse and reduces uncertainty.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Why you might monitor your staff and what monitoring includes
• When an employer is allowed to monitor staff
• Set up monitoring policies
• The right ways to monitor your staff
• The laws and penalties for improper monitoring
• Checklist of monitoring issues
• Staff security - your responsibilities as an employer

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