A security surveillance system is extremely useful for protecting your business from outside threats, but should it be used to check on employees? First, let’s take a look at what you can and can’t do legally when it comes to using surveillance to monitor your employees.
Is it legal to watch your employees on camera?
The answer to this question depends. You must have a legitimate reason to use surveillance on your employees, and you must abide by your state’s privacy lots. In most states, these privacy laws prohibit the use of cameras in bathrooms, breakrooms, and other areas where it would be reasonable to grant employees privacy. Check the laws in your specific state for more details on this.
If you follow the privacy laws in your state and notify your employees that you are using surveillance, then in most cases, you have a legal right to use surveillance. However, there are some instances when you may not be able to, such as for monitoring union activity. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibits this.
Monitoring Employees with Your Surveillance System – the Pros
Legal issues aside, should you actively monitor your employees if you can? What are the benefits of doing this? Let’s take a look.
Reduced theft
Workplace crime is real. Employee theft costs businesses over $50 billion dollars every year with small to midsize companies being most vulnerable. Theft can be anything from swiping office supplies to stealing valuable assets. However, if employees who know they are being watched are less tempted to commit a crime against your company.
Improved time management
Employees who know they are under surveillance are more productive. They don’t want to be seen slacking on the job, and so they are less likely to do so, especially if you use the information you collect from surveillance to provide feedback to them. This not only improves productivity, but it serves as a learning experience to manage their time better.
Using Your Surveillance System to Monitor Your Employees – the Cons
So is there a downside to using surveillance to monitor your employees? Not necessarily, but there are a few things to be mindful of. First, having a surveillance system in place could bring out the deviousness of some employees. They may make a sport out of trying to beat the system. In fact, they could become so focused on finding a “weak spot” that they lose focus on their actual job. Fortunately, if you are monitoring them, you can address this issue.
Secondly, you’ll need someone to monitor the system. You could do this yourself, but this may be very time consuming – and you’ve got enough responsibilities already. You could also hire someone to monitor your surveillance system. But this could get expensive unless you work with a surveillance company that includes cost-effective virtual guards to monitor it for you.
Pro-Vigil Provides a Cost-Effective Solution to Monitor Your Business and Employees
With Pro-Vigil, you can feel confident that your business and your staff are being watched. With features such as virtual security guards and video surveillance monitoring, you can have peace of mind knowing that your valuable assets are protected from both external and internal crime.
Pro-Vigil views over 1 million events per day and prevent crime in 97% of all instances. We are the undisputed leaders in the security space. Visit our website to get a free quote.
