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Collecting employees' personal email addresses
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Collecting employees' personal email addresses
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Our workforce is largely composed of entry-level, hourly staff with no work email addresses. However, as we introduce new talent management systems, we're finding it difficult to communicate important
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » Collecting employees' personal email addresses
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Collecting employees' personal email addresses
posted at 8/6/2009 9:17 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 8/6/2009 Last: 8/6/2009 |
Our workforce is largely composed of entry-level, hourly staff with no work email addresses. However, as we introduce new talent management systems, we're finding it difficult to communicate important information to our employees. For example, we'd like to send registration confirmations from our LMS or internal application acknowledgements from our ATS. Is it appropriate for us to collect and use personal email addresses for these purposes? Our legal team is rightly concerned that this may be looked at by employees as "off-the-clock work", so how do we walk that line? |
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Collecting employees' personal email addresses
posted at 8/6/2009 11:37 AM EDT
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Posts: 3870
First: 2/12/2002 Last: 11/2/2009 |
Your legal time is right to be concerned.
You can either rely on the antediluvian methods used before the age of the PC (paper forms) or, if you must go online, then provide a few workstations for the employees to use during regular work hours. That'll mean providing them with email addresses as well and allowing them time to log on and do whatever it is you require of them. |
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Collecting employees' personal email addresses
posted at 8/6/2009 1:33 PM EDT
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Posts: 1103
First: 3/16/2007 Last: 8/19/2011 |
I went through this with a recent employer. We decided that employee communication meant doing more than sending an e-mail with little opportunity for Q&A. Consequently we relied on Weekly meetings that managers had with their employees. Our truly remote employees had company e-mails so they received theirs that way and then their weekly phone meetings took care of verbal interaction.
It was very effective for us. |
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Collecting employees' personal email addresses
posted at 8/10/2009 1:48 PM EDT
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Posts: 217
First: 3/22/2005 Last: 8/29/2011 |
We will begin collecting personal email addresses as talent comes to our organization so we can communicate with them during the screening to on-boarding process. Even our hourly employees come to us through an ATS so they have to have some personal email address.
But you're speaking abaout employees after they are hired. I'd suggest giving everyone a work email address for just this purpose and provide a place and station for them to use. If you're using an LMS then they have to be able to access a computer for learning. I guess I am of the belief that just because someone is classified "hourly" in many organizations that somehow justifies treating them as second class citizens. Paying them for training or reviewing their training plan, providing them access to great in-house communications, even looking at events coming up around the company, make employees feel more connected to their company and more productive. |
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