Back in 2015, our company, GetApp, ran a survey to get business owner opinions about monitoring employee conversations on internal communication tools. The results came back with a "less is more " attitude: 43% of respondents said they do not monitor employee conversations on internal chat tools, believing it to be an invasion of privacy.

Employee monitoring laws are  complex. Where they're not regulated by industry or geography, they're open to interpretation and conjecture. As a result, companies struggle with how much is too much when it comes to monitoring employee conversations. As  data privacy concerns  continue to make headlines and  GDPR continues full speed ahead, we wanted to see if employers had the same cautious approach to monitoring employee conversations in 2019 as they did four years ago. We recently ran an expanded version of  the same survey, asking 173 respondents in management positions or above how they felt about monitoring employee conversations. To our surprise, respondents were far less likely to consider monitoring employee conversations as invasive: Compared with 43% in 2015, only 10% of respondents believed it to be an invasion of privacy in 2019.

With so much at stake, businesses need to find the right balance between protecting their company without infringing on the privacy of their employees.

The results: then and now

By all accounts, businesses are keeping a close eye on employee conversations as a way to protect their company and ensure productivity.

Of the 173 respondents surveyed, 72% have access to employee conversations taking place on internal communication tools. This is a jump from 2015, when only 56% of respondents had access to online employee conversations.

Notably, the frequency of time spent monitoring employees has also increased. Almost 50% of respondents who monitor employee conversations in 2019 say they do so on a daily or weekly basis, more than double the percentage who monitored with similar frequency in 2015.

What accounts for this jump? It's likely a combination of factors, including but not limited to:

• Technological advancements:  Technologies for employee monitoring  have improved over the past four years, making it less invasive and more cost effective for companies to deploy monitoring tools or adopt tools with built-in monitoring features.
• Shifting work culture:  Trends toward  remote working  and the  gig economy  make it more difficult to physically monitor employee activity.
• Regulation and data privacy:  Revamped regulations  such as GDPR  make companies more cautious about employees sharing sensitive customer data.

Our survey results support these last points. Nearly 30% of respondents said they monitor employees to ensure productivity, while 25% say they want to ensure that their employees are adhering to internal communication policies.

Monitoring in popular chat tools

According to our research, the three most popular chat apps being used by small business are Google Hangouts, Skype or Skype for Business, and Slack.

Here's how monitoring plays itself out in each one.

• Google Hangouts  stores chat history  in Gmail. Administrators can set rules so that users cannot change this setting, but the storage settings can be turned off by administrators so that chat history is not archived in Gmail.

• Skype  and  Skype for Business  (formerly Lync) has  monitoring features, mostly used for monitoring quality of experience and call detail recording. Skype for Business has more robust monitoring features, which include access to past conversations.

• Slack  allows  varying degrees of access  based on pricing plans. Administrators on the free and standard plan require a legal process and employee consent to export personal conversations, while Plus plan admins have access to a self-service tool which allows export of all data (including private direct messages between employees).

Where there are gaps in access, third-party tools can use a combination of screen monitoring and key logging to monitor not just employee conversations but any employee activity on their workstation. The key to monitoring is to find the right balance. To do that, you need to know the laws.

Navigating employee monitoring laws

It's hard to definitively say how much is "too much " when it comes to monitoring employee communication. Consider the landmark case of  Bărbulescu v. Romania  to get an idea of just how complex the subject of employee workplace monitoring can get. Former employee Bărbulescu was terminated after his company (Romania) found him engaging in online personal communication during work hours. This was strictly prohibited, and the company made explicit that his communication would be monitored to thwart this type of behavior. Bărbulescu appealed his termination, denying having had private conversations at work. The appeal was unsuccessful, as the company was able to prove that he was having these conversations with transcripts of chats that were collected while monitoring him. These transcripts led Bărbulescu to once again challenge his dismissal, this time for a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which encompasses the right to respect for private and family life, including through correspondence. In 2016, the court sided with the company, saying that it was not a violation of Article 8, predominantly because the possibility of monitoring had been disclosed to Bărbulescu upon employment. In 2017, however, the case was overturned and came out in favor of Bărbulescu, stating that Article 8 had in fact been breached. Although the monitoring had been disclosed, the scope of monitoring and the degree of intrusion were not justifiable by legitimate means. If even the courts have trouble defining what an acceptable level of monitoring is, how do small businesses navigate the nuanced world of employee monitoring? Very carefully.

No clear-cut rules

In heavily regulated industries such as finance, anything communicated within and between companies can (and in some cases should) be monitored. For everyone else, the waters get a bit murky. Privacy laws protect employees to a certain extent, but business is one area where privacy rules and regulations aren't always applicable. Some of the most common reasons for monitoring employees can include:

• Protecting proprietary company information.
• Checking for violations of company policy in regards to personal use of company hardware.
• Investigating complaints or claims of harassment or misconduct.
• Investigating potential criminal activity by employees.
• Accessing necessary business information that only certain employees have.

Europe and Canada have notably more stringent regulations when it comes to privacy and data protection, while the U.S. takes a more lax attitude. Certain states and provinces can have their own privacy rules as well. Here's a summary of some of the regulations around data privacy in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. and how they might be applied to monitoring employees in the workplace.

Best practices for monitoring employee communication

Company culture has a lot to do with whether your employees perceive monitoring as invasive. Being transparent from the beginning will ensure that employees don't feel as if they are "being watched. " Things to keep in mind when monitoring employee communication:

• Set usage rules:  If you don't want employees to use company-owned devices for personal use, tell them. Outline what is and is not acceptable use so that there are no gray areas (or the gray areas are smaller).
• Make monitoring explicit:  Tell your employees from the outset that you're going to be monitoring conversations. Write it in their employment contract so there's no dispute about disclosure if issues arise.
• Block specific sites:  If you're worried about employees wasting too much time on social networks or other sites, block these sites completely to avoid spending time looking to see if employees are using them.
• Adopt a "less is more" attitude: Unless you notice productivity issues, suspect abuse of company-owned machines, or are investigating specific issues, err on monitoring less rather than more. It's no longer 2015, but having a more cautious approach to employee monitoring will help you avoid potential privacy infringement.

This article originally appeared on the GetApp website. It is reprinted here with permission.  

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