Monitor your staff: Telephone call recording UK

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Why you might monitor your staff and what monitoring includes

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 recognises several reasons for the monitoring of staff, and sets out principles for carrying out monitoring - see the page in this guide on the laws and penalties for improper monitoring.

Why monitor staff?

Reasons for staff monitoring include to:

check the quality of customer service

find out if staff require training by observing their performance

review staff skills and competencies used in their job

ensure staff are safe

observe the application of health and safety rules

ensure compliance with the law or company policy, eg on Internet usage

discover any fraudulent, criminal or otherwise illegal or undesirable conduct by your staff

What monitoring includes

Monitoring can include:

recording staff activities by CCTV cameras

keeping recordings of telephone calls, eg in a call centre

opening staff emails or listening to voicemails

checking logs of telephone numbers called

examining logs of websites visited

searching staff, their personal space and work areas

installing tracking equipment in vehicles

making and storing copies of documents that include personal information

If monitoring of employees is to be carried out then such monitoring must be done in a way that is consistent with the Data Protection Act 1998. You must make employees aware of the nature, extent and reason for any monitoring unless, exceptionally, covert monitoring is justified.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 individuals have a right of access to a copy of any personal information about them. This is known as the right of subject access. Be aware that employees have the right of access to any personal information about them collected through monitoring and that the monitoring systems must be capable of meeting this need and other data protection requirements.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has produced a Code of Practice that deals with monitoring in the workplace. There is a simplified version of this for small businesses. Download a quick guide to the Employment Practices Code from the ICO website (PDF)