Despite increasing concerns surrounding employee privacy and compliance issues, 70% of recently surveyed companies indicated that their organizations had no privacy department. In addition, 75% did not have a Chief Privacy Officer in place to manage the tricky and complex issues associated with employee privacy.
The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp ñ formerly HRI), in conjunction with HR.com, conducted the Employee Privacy Practitioner Consensus Survey in January of 2007. A total of 145 organizations participated.
ìEmerging technologies, such as those associated with electronic monitoring of employees and the storage and access of personal information, have brought the issue of privacy to the forefront. Itís surprising to see that more organizations are not formalizing their policies and procedures. There are not a lot of guidelines in place for organizations, and we need to take these issues out of the shadows and tackle them head on in a way that ensures privacy of the individual and privacy of the corporation at all levels,î says Jay Jamrog, Senior Vice President, Research at i4cp.
Of the 70% of organizations without a privacy department, 53.8% said HR oversaw privacy compliance, while 23.9% said it was the Legal Departmentís responsibility. Almost 5% said compliance fell under Security, and 17.7% indicated ìotherî, which included IT, Corporate Auditing and Records Management.
When it came to the number of employees per organization charged with employee compliance programs, the numbers were markedly similar for those that had privacy departments and those that didnít. Eighty-one percent of organizations without an employee privacy department said that one to five employees were assigned to privacy compliance programs, while of those with a designated department, 74.5% had one to five employees. Almost 8% of those in the former group had six to 10 employees, while 11.2% had more than 10. In the latter group, 13.7% had six to 10 employees and 11.8% had more than 10.
The study also explored the education and degrees/licensure or certifications required for those dedicated to managing employee privacy issues and the reporting structure surrounding such positions. Regarding the need for a law degree, 34.6% of companies with a CPO said a law degree was a requirement for the position.
Other trends that surfaced in the survey results surrounded the monitoring of electronic communications, the effect of monitoring on morale, and the impact of emerging technologies such as blogs and GPSs on privacy.
For more information about this study or to receive a full copy of the results, please contact Greg Pernula at (727) 345-2226.
70% of companies report that their organizations have no privacy department
Despite increasing concerns surrounding employee privacy and compliance issues, 70% of recently surveyed companies indicated that their organizations had no privacy department
