Quick Tips: Designing Effective Monitoring Training September 02, 2008
By Sarah Boehle
• Make it mandatory. Ensure that every employee, from the CEO on down, attends monitoring training. If your workforce comprises remote and/or international workers, consider developing a live Web-based version of your classroom training to ensure everyone can attend.
• Go live. On-site, classroom training is the most effective way to ensure workers truly understand your policy (see p. 27 for tips on creating a monitoring policy) and have an opportunity to get their questions answered, says Nancy Flynn, ePolicy Institute executive director. If you must conduct asynchronous training, however, she recommends adding testing to your course and requiring employees to demonstrate they understand the policy before they can move on to subsequent course modules.
• Allow ample time for Q&A. Florida Commission on Human Relations MIS Manager Frederick Smith and Communications Director Leah Barber-Heinz, for example, say they spend almost two hours during each training session answering employees' questions, clarifying the agency's policies, and addressing workers' concerns.
• Explain the law. "I always start out the training by letting employees know that when they walk through our doors, they should surrender all expectations of privacy," says Smith. "I tell them that under Federal law, everything they do on their work computer can be monitored."
• Sign on the dotted line. Make sure every employee is holding a hard copy of your policy during training, advises Flynn, and have everyone sign and date an acknowledgement stating they attended training, have read and understand the company's policies, and agree to comply with them.
• Use constant reminders. Smith advises using your software to help you raise workers' awareness of monitoring. Whenever employees at the Florida Commission on Human Relations log on to their computers, for example, a popup notice reminds them that their activity can be monitored. Flynn also recommends sending out frequent e-mail messages, as well as posting notices on your company's intranet system, to remind employees of your policies and of management's commitment to enforcing them.
• Keep training up to date. As new threats emerge, and as your policy changes, don't forget to provide employees with up-to-the-minute policy updates and refresher training.
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