Dear Cypress Ghana Blog Readers,
Working in an office (or anywhere else) has a lot to do with relationships – how you relate to your customers, clients and colleagues. The best relationships are healthy, effective and based on honesty, respect and trust among other things.
As part of the trust factor, information about and between customer, clients and colleagues would often need to be shared and some of this information will require it being held confidentially! This issue needs to be given the attention it deserves.
There is no quicker way to break trust than causing another to lose confidence in you and or your practices regarding making certain information available only to a specific group as opposed to everyone.
In today’s competitive environment, Confidentiality in the office is more important than ever, as, if business critical information gets in the wrong hands, it can lead to loss of business clients among other things. Due to increased use of smart phones, recording gadgets and the internet, the extent and fast rate at which a lapse can cause damage is huge.
Imagine if the financial records of a bank’s clients get into or medical records of patients are left around to any and everyone to peruse. What would details of a new product or service from your company being prematurely leaked mean in terms of months worth of resources being wasted or personal, sensitive information held by Human Resource department getting into the wrong hands do to a good reputation?
Working in an office (or anywhere else) has a lot to do with relationships – how you relate to your customers, clients and colleagues. The best relationships are healthy, effective and based on honesty, respect and trust among other things.
As part of the trust factor, information about and between customer, clients and colleagues would often need to be shared and some of this information will require it being held confidentially! This issue needs to be given the attention it deserves.
There is no quicker way to break trust than causing another to lose confidence in you and or your practices regarding making certain information available only to a specific group as opposed to everyone.
In today’s competitive environment, Confidentiality in the office is more important than ever, as, if business critical information gets in the wrong hands, it can lead to loss of business clients among other things. Due to increased use of smart phones, recording gadgets and the internet, the extent and fast rate at which a lapse can cause damage is huge.
Imagine if the financial records of a bank’s clients get into or medical records of patients are left around to any and everyone to peruse. What would details of a new product or service from your company being prematurely leaked mean in terms of months worth of resources being wasted or personal, sensitive information held by Human Resource department getting into the wrong hands do to a good reputation?
A great deal can be done to reduce these high risks posed to your business or organization:
Have staff and contractors sign confidentiality agreements to protect against theft, negligence and a possible claim on innocence and ignorance.
Recognise the value of intellectual property and in the case of contractors, make it clear and document who has the rights to these.
Have measures in place to protect access to information and sensitive locations as necessary; passwords, safes, locked draws (keys accessible to interested parties), codes, firewalls, Closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
To protect information, educate personnel on the importance of adhering to procedures which should form part of operational guidelines along with the policy and processes governing these.
Use watermarks marks and labels to identify confidential information as such and dispose of sensitive information responsibly – shred paper rather than just tear or scrunch before putting in a waste paper bin.
Finally, bear in mind that the way you treat information held about your staff who are the ‘internal customers’, will influence how they treat external customers so take confidentiality seriously internally too; salary, date of birth, medical data and other personal information held by HR and superiors should not be negligently discussed with unconcerned parties in or out of the work environment.
There are exceptions which may include information required by authorities so may fall under a legal obligation or those which are to be disclosed in the interest of preserving life. Know what the correct position is and do the right thing – it pays to be competent when it comes to confidentiality.
Treat your desk area with due care and discipline – it will help you to perform better at work and give a professional impression!!!
By Jennifer Agyeman
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