Strategic HR Lawyer

Regina, has this post today about a trend for companies to block employees from viewing RSS feeds at work. If you don't know what an RSS feed is we have a simple explanation HERE. She points us to Shel Holz's blog which discusses the seeming extensive measures employers will take to limit employee use of workplace computers. Some interesting tidbits:
· According to one article, next year companies will shell out over $6 billion for applications that monitor and/or block web surfing, instant messaging, keystrokes, and now RSS, according to an IDC study.
· A TopTech News article paraphrases Websense VP and General Counsel Mike Newman as saying - "The rationale behind monitoring employees, according to Newman, is that a computer at work is a corporate tool for enhancing the employee's productivity. Because some people abuse that privilege by sending personal e-mail and viewing movies during working hours, employers feel they have little choice but to monitor what their workers are doing."

Shel also shares his thoughts regarding why some of this is a bit overboard:
· "The measure of productivity is how much work is getting done, not how much time an employee spends on non-work-related activities. Employees will stay late, come in early, or take work home. They won't simply let it slide. Nobody wants to lose his job so he can check sports scores on ESPN.
· Nobody ever got fired for checking sports scores at work in the New York Times. The web is the new newspaper.
· An employee's home computer is a personal tool, but it gets used for work all the time. Work-life integration is the name of the game today. If you expect me to take work home, then expect me to live part of my life at work.
· Telling employees you don't trust them—any of them—is a great way to earn some of the lowest engagement scores in the business world. (Trust is a key determinant of engagement and commitment.) Companies with large populations of highly engaged employees earn double-digit growth. Those with large populations of actively disengaged employees earn zero or negative growth. So which is preferable: locked down computers and no growth or open access and double-digit growth?"

Regina also points out:
· "RSS feeds may actually increase employee productivity — info about customers, competitors easily and quickly accessible.
· RSS feeds may actually increase employee understanding of your company's media attention, brand, reputation, new products and services, etc.
· RSS feeds may be used internally to enhance your key company messages but if employees can only subscribe to internal feeds it seems hypocritical to only pump out company propaganda
· RSS will be built into future technology and become part of the way people manage their lives (attention) and information - it will become harder for companies to control in the future."

I'd have to say I agree with both Regina and Shel. I am certainly an advocate protecting company trade secrets, protecting the organization from hackers, phishers, etc, but if we don't incorporate some kind of balance in our policies, we're in big trouble. The sad reality is that many times employees use their personal email addresses and computers at home as work-arounds to the limits of the employers systems. If fact, I just received an work related email from someone this week from confessing that she was using her personal email because the spam blockers on her company's system were so "effective" she doesn't get half of the important email she needs. So why aren't the HR people involved in the development of such policies?