Beachboard, who is a shareholder in the Los Angeles and Torrence, California offices of national employment law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., shared his model computer usage policy at the SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition held recently in Atlanta, Georgia.
Model Computer Usage Policy
This policy applies to all Company employees, contractors, vendors and agents with Company owned or personally-owned computers or workstations used to connect to the Company network.
Personal use is permitted provided:
- It does not interfere with the performance of the employee’s job duties and obligations; and
- It does not violate this policy or any other Company policy; and
- It does not interfere with the Company’s operation of its Information Technologies.
All Information Technologies, including the email system, are the property of the Company.
The Company (or its designated representatives) maintains the right and ability, with or without notice to the employee, to access and review any information contained on its Information Technologies, even if protected by private password.
Those individuals using Company’s Information Technologies have no expectation of privacy in connection with the use of such Information Technologies or transmission, receipt, or storage of information through the use of such Information Technologies.
It is possible that personal email sent from the Company’s system can be intercepted on the local system and on the Internet; therefore the user should not expect any degree of privacy regarding email messages of any type, including email messages sent or received through the Company’s email account or through a private web-based email account accessed using the Company’s Information Technologies.
Prohibited Uses:
- Excessive personal use of the Company’s Information Technologies.
- Using Information Technologies in a manner that violates the Company’s Confidentiality Policy.
- Revealing your account password to others or allowing use of your account by others.
- Sending or forwarding messages or materials containing abusive, profane or offensive language; ethnic or racial slurs; or any other message, remarks or materials that can be construed to be harassment or disparagement of others based on their sex, race, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, or religious or political beliefs.
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Blogging Prohibitions:
- Disclosing the Company’s confidential or trade secret information on a blog, or making any statements that violate the Company’s Conflict of Interest Policy.
- Drafting, creating or accessing any blog on the Company’s Information Technology system at any time.
- Representing that you are speaking or acting on behalf of the Company, or that you are representing or presenting the Company’s view unless specifically authorized by the Company.
- Using a blog to harass, defame, embarrass or attack any Company employee, contractor, customer or vendor.
Social Media and Professional Networking:
Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn encourage professional growth and relationship building. Be sure to make it clear to your “audience” that the views you express are yours alone and that they do not necessarily reflect the views of the Company. In addition, avoid disclosing any information that is confidential or proprietary to the Company or to any third party that has disclosed information to the Company.
Any employee who uses the Company’s Information Technologies in an inappropriate manner will be subject to discipline, up to and including discharge.
Setting up your organization’s policy? Worrying about internal equity? New ranges? Pay-for-performance? Wage and hour compliance?—challenges abound for every compensation manager. Every day brings new problem from within the organization and on top of that pile on whatever the agencies and courts throw in your way.
You need a go-to resource, and our editors recommend the “everything-HR-in-one website,” HR.BLR.com. As an example of what you will find, here are some policy recommendations concerning red-circle rates, excerpted from the website:
Red-circle rates are another story. Obviously, cutting the pay of an employee will not do much to gain acceptance for the new wage program, so alternatives have to be considered.
- One alternative is to “grandfather” the employee; this means allowing the employee to stay above the maximum until the person is promoted, terminated, or retired.
- Another approach is to freeze the employee at that red-circle rate until adjustments to the rate range finally capture the employee’s rate back into the structure.
- Still another approach is to increase the employee’s wage by only half of the adjustments made to the range, again, until the rate is captured.
A similar problem occurs with employees who are under- or overpaid in relation to actual performance. As defined, the minimum, midpoint, and maximum rates are each definitions of pay for specific levels of performance. So an employee performing 80 percent of the job duties at 80 percent efficiency under normal supervision and who is paid above the midpoint may have a pay rate similar to a red-circle rate except that it is within the rate range.
In this case, counseling and performance evaluation feedback are needed to bring performance in line with pay.
We should point out that this is just one of hundreds of analyses, checklists, training materials, job descriptions, and sample policies on the site.
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