Establish a policy that addresses company-provided property. A property and privacy policy will help avoid claims that you committed an invasion of privacy by searching the property.

For example, if you review email messages received or sent by employees using a company email account, the privacy policy becomes useful when you must address potential theft or require monitoring or investigating an employee’s use of the property.

An employer property policy is available as part of CalChamber’s Employee Handbook Creator®. Visit our online store to find out more about how to easily create your employee handbook.

Your property policy should:

List all company-owned facilities and property available for the employees to use (for example, desks, computers and so on).
State that the property belongs to the company.
State that company property is subject to inspection by the company at any time.
List when employees can and cannot use your property. For example, you can state that employees cannot use copiers for personal reasons, such as copying flyers for a non-company activity.

Establishing Company Property and Privacy Policies

Monitoring Employees