Computers … an employer’s best friend or worst nightmare?

Get the benefits of Information Technology without the downside
	Protect your reputation and trade secrets
	Increase employee productivity
	Increase efficiency of computer network
	Make disciplinary action easier
	Minimize legal liability

• No expectation of privacy
• Right to monitor computer usage 
• Password usage
• Use of e-mail and Internet for personal reasons
• Security and privacy of e-mail communications
• e-mail disclaimers
• Virus protection
• Prohibited Activities
• Blocking inappropriate Internet sites
• Copying and misuse of software
• Use of encryption software
• Accessing other users' files
• Purging e-mail files

• Evaluate and assess current monitoring and controls
• Discuss and suggest options 
• Possible provision of IT solutions by Ithaki Consulting to effectively enforce company e-policy

e-policy
Computers, software, Internet and e-mail

If you are a company like most others in the 21st century you rely on computers to carry out your business. However you find yourself many times worrying about their misuse by your employees, either because they spend too much time responding to personal e-mails, reading and forwarding ‘chain letters’ jokes and horoscopes, sending harassing e-mails, downloading non-work related files, copying company registered software on their home PCs, shopping on-line, or simply not using e-mail correctly by writing too casually and copying everybody in their mailing lists unnecessarily.

You know its time you adopted an e-policy.

Ithaki Consulting can help you adopt a comprehensive e-policy that governs how employees should use the company’s computer resources. The policy will inform your employees how you expect them to use the company’s computer equipment and how you intent to monitor its usage. This will, in effect, decrease the incidents of computer resource abuse, increase employee respect towards the company and its resources, increase efficiency by reducing wasted time on non-productive activities and make any disciplinary action easier to carry out.

Extracts:

No expectation of privacy
The computers and computer accounts given to employees are to assist them in the performance of their work. Employees should not have an expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send or receive using the Computer Resources...

Duty not to waste Computer Resources
…acts include, but are not limited to, sending mass mailings or chain letters, spending excessive amounts of time on the Internet, playing games, engaging in online chat groups, printing multiple copies of documents or otherwise creating unnecessary network traffic. Because audio, video and picture files require significant storage space, files of this type may not be downloaded unless they are business related.

e-policy is sold separately or as part of the Employee Handbook. 

Ithaki Consulting cooperates with Lellos P. Demetriades Law Office in the development and maintenance of its e-policy consulting service.