IABC Employee Communication Commons

In a recent article in the San Antonio Express-News, Dave Beck (president of Frost Bank) writes:

“While compensation and benefits are important elements in making an employee feel valued, an attitude of genuine concern and caring can be even more important.”

My knee-jerk reaction was to think, “Yeah, right!” but then I remembered an incident a few years back, when I was only six weeks into a new job, yet I had to ask for several weeks of leave because my husband needed very scary, very urgent surgery. My boss–and her boss–were very generous in granting me the leave I needed to focus on my husband’s health. His surgery had a happy outcome, but an unexpected outcome for me was the warm fuzzy feeling I had from believing that my boss and her boss really cared. When I went back to work, I cared very much about doing a good job for them.

So maybe there’s something to the touchy-feely idea about employers needing to care about their people, and if there is, what should we as communicators be doing about it?

This little piece of news appearing in late 2006 may have escaped your attention but I thought it was worth bringing it up.

A survey conducted by Fortiva based on 100 North American organizations that monitor and review the messages of their employees found that:

* Of the 93 percent of companies that have formal electronic communication retention and review policies, 63% companies reported employee e-mail surveillance has improved their ability to see risks to the company.
* 12 percent of the companies uncovered customer complaints that were not previously escalated or disclosed.
* 14 percent also said copies of employee correspondence were forwarded to a regulatory body or law enforcement agency.
* The increase in visibility has resulted in 26 percent of organizations terminating an employee as a result of information yielded through email surveillance.

www.fortiva.com/news/pr_email_surviellance.html

Now, it’s hard to argue with the fact that a company reviewing its employees’ e-mail may indeed be getting some valuable information. And its important to note that this particular research surveyed North American securities industry companies, which are under some stringent rules when it comes to monitoring information.

But what about the rest of the business world? Just where does this type of surveillance fall when we consider the ethical implications? What are your thoughts on this?

Natasha

Allan Jenkins and Donna Papacosta, two seasoned IABC communicators, recently agreed to be interviewed as part of a series of interviews I’m conducting for PR undergraduates at Deakin University here in Australia.

You can hear and download Allan’s and Donna’s interviews over on theMediaPod.net site.

Thank you to those of who who have agreed to be interviewed by me shortly - I look forward to it!

My motto for interviews: “no stone unturned, no laundry unwashed, no pizza uneaten.”