Confidentiality In The Workplace
Confidentiality
-It is the protection of personal information.
-It refers to not discussing internal going on sweet coworker. In other
instances, it refers to not sharing trade secrets and other company
information with competitors, the press or anyone outside of your company.
The types of information that is considered confidential can include:
1. Name, date of birth, age, sex and address
2. Current contact details of family, guardian etc.
3. Bank details
4. Medical history or records
5. Personal care issues
6. Service records and file progress notes
7. Individual personal plans
8. Assessment or reports
9. Guardianship orders
10. Incoming or outgoing personal correspondence
Other information relating to ethic origin, political opinions, religious or
philosophical beliefs, health or sexual lifestyle should also be considered
confidential.
Maintaining confidentiality include:
1. Separate folders should be kept for both all employees form and
employee medical information.
2. All confidential documents should be stored in locked file cabinets or
rooms accessible only to those who have a business "need-to- know".
3. All confidential information should be protected via firewalls, encryption
and passwords.
4. Employees should clear their desk of any confidential information before
going home at the end of the day.
5. Employees should refrain from living confidential information visible on
their computer monitors when they leave their workstations.
6. All confidential information, whether contained on written documents or
electronically, should be marked as "confidential".
7. All confidential information should be disposed of properly.
8. Employees should refrain from discussing confidential information in
public places.
9. Employees should avoid using email to transmit certain sensitive or
controversial information.
10. Limit the accusation of confidential client data (e.g., social security
numbers, bank accounts, or driver's license numbers) unless it is integral to
the business transaction and restrict access on a "need-to-know" basis.
11. Before disposing of an old computer, use software programs to wipe
out the data contained on the computer or have the hard drive destroyed
three categories:
1. Employee information
Minutes states have laws which govern the confidentiality and
disposal of "personal identifying information"
a. An employee's social security number
b. Home address, telephone number
c. Email address
d. Internet identification name or password
e. Parent's surname prior to marriage
f. Driver's license number
g. Employee medical and disability information
2. Management Information
Confidential management information includes discussion about
employee relations issues
a. disciplinary actions
b. Impending layoffs/reductions-in-force,
c. Terminations
d. Workplace investigations of employee misconduct
3. Business Information
We often times refer to confidential business information as
"proprietary information" or "trade secrets". This refers to information that's
not generally known to the public and would not ordinarily be available to
competitors by illegal or improper means.
a. Common examples of "trade secrets"
b. Business plans
c. Financial data
d. Budgets and forecasts
e. Computer programs and data compilation
f. Client/costumer lists
g. Ingredient formulas and recipes
h. Membership or employee lists
i. Supplier lists
Importance of Confidentiality in Professional
1. Professionalism
To maintain a general degree of professionalism, it is important that your
personal details remain personal. Disclose your personal details to only a
few people and that two with discretion. Getting over-friendly with
colleagues is a major cause of office issues.
2. Safety
Personal details like annual income, marital status, remuneration, if
revealed, can be misused to cause trouble to you or your organization.
3. Security
You may have access to sensitive information of the organization and
some of your personal details, like date of birth, could be your access code.
In this case, maintaining confidentiality becomes important for the security
of the information that is at your disposal.
