Employee Performance Monitoring System

An employee performance monitoring system gets treated as a performance tool. Where it observes what somebody does rather than what they produce, it is surveillance, and surveillance is regulated separately.

Several Australian states and territories have workplace surveillance legislation covering computer and email monitoring, cameras and vehicle tracking. Requirements differ, and notice obligations are common. Privacy law applies as well, because monitoring generates personal information.

Two practical consequences. Introducing monitoring quietly is a poor idea legally as well as culturally. And what you collect becomes a record you have to hold, secure and be able to produce.

Take advice on which surveillance legislation applies to each of your workplaces before switching anything on, since the rules differ across states and territories.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner publishes the Australian Privacy Principles. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s privacy training course and HR policy templates.