Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to speak at the Tri-State SHRM Conference held at Foxwoods Resort Casino.  The session was led by Marc Kroll of Comp360 and I thank him publicly for both the invitation and the coordination. But a post about the great work that HR consultants like Marc do is a topic for another post.

If there was a phrase that I’m sure HR personnel never thought they’d hear discussed at a Human Resources conference it would’ve been “data privacy”.  After all, shouldn’t that be something for a Information Technology summit?

But in presenting the topic: “Pirates of the Data Stream: HR’s Role In Securing Corporate Information” to a full room,  it confirmed what I had been seeing anecdotally — that HR personnel have an increasing role in making sure company data remains private.  I was approached aftewards by several people who appreciated the focus on the topic.

There were several suggestions we talked about in detail at the conference.  I’ll highlight just a few things we discussed:

  • Have a policy. Yes, it’s a cliche. But you still need one.  And make sure it’s workable.   Your policy is no good if no one follows it.
  • Train and educate your workforce (with particular emphasis on your senior executives) on the need to take reasonable steps to protect confidential company data.  This can’t just be for new employees, but needs to be an ongoing effort.
  • Audit yourself to determine where your data leakage is coming from. And don’t just focus on the electronic data; your personnel files in paper format still need to be secured as well.  Consider hiring a third-party to help find the holes in your data storage.
  • Use agreements with restrictive covenants that prohibit employee use of confidential data not only when the employee is working for you, but also when the employee leaves.

And lest you think that this is mere scaremongering, the headlines from this morning illustrate that this issue is continuing to move to the mainstream: Target’s CEO stepped down because of a massive data breach last fall.

Human Resources has a significant role to play in preserving company and employee data.  It’s time to begin the discussion at your company if you haven’t already.   If you need assistance in that endeavor, consult your lawyer or your favorite HR consultant.