Tag: employers beware

Employers Beware - Messaging Apps on Personal Phones for Work Communication A recent fine issued to an investment management company may make many employers wish to consider their policies regarding employee use of messaging apps on their personal devices. An investment management company was fined a total of $200 million by the SEC and CFTC for failing to track employees’ messages that were subject to record-keeping rules. Though the company did possess rules forbidding employees from using personal messaging apps for business communications, it was still held liable due to its failure to suitably supervise employees and enforce compliance with data retention policies. This should remind employers of the importance of supervising employees’ use of personal messaging and ensuring compliance with record-keeping rules. According to the government’s investigation, more than 100 communications from employees concerning meetings with clients, market strategies, and market events failed to be recorded in violation of SEC and CFTC record-keeping requirements. In the wake of this investigation, the SEC has announced that it will be looking at whether other brokerages have suffered from similar issues. This same issue is very real in many industries that have been faced with the issue that employees are increasingly using personal handheld devices for workplace communications rather than company email and messaging platforms, which will generally be automatically archived. This requires companies to consider how their employees are using personal devices when designing and enforcing policies for retaining data. This should include policies that regard how employees are to communicate. The employer, in this case, had such policies; however, the SEC and CFTC found that they had not enforced these policies suitably, illustrating the importance of ensuring that employees are supervised and compliant with these policies. The employer’s failure, in this case, came to the attention of regulators when in response to a subpoena, it failed to produce communications with a third party. However, regulators knew that they existed due to certain communications received from this third party. Issues such as these can result in costly litigation, sanctions, and closer regulatory scrutiny in the future. Interested in learning more about Pre-employ's background checks? Talk to Sales today.

Tag: employers beware

Employers Beware – Messaging Apps on Personal Phones for Work Communication

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