Privacy - EE Address & Phone #

BankHR

We are a small, community bank that has historically always had a sense of family and being close knit. Of course today we are much larger than we were 10-15 years ago and as such, some of that is (slowly) changing.

There has been a historical practice of the Marketing department sending out flowers, cards, etc. to employees who have births, deaths in the family, are in the hospital, etc. They have always obtained the address and phone number data from HR for this.

In addition, the president's secretary requests a list of employee addresses and phone numbers from HR at least a couple of times a year as well. This is normally used for the President to send personal cards at birthdays, anniversary dates, after major work accomplishments, holidays, etc.

My question - is HR allowed to give out employee data like addresses and phone numbers to be used for "on behalf of the company" purposes, or for no purpose at all? This information is not shared with bank customers obviously nor is it made public for all employees to see.

Would love to know your thoughts/practices on this. Also - any relevant law that already speaks to this?

Thanks.

dixied

Our H.R. department has the responsibility of sending flowers to employees and retirees for funerals, births, hospitalizations, etc. We normally are informed of these occasions due to needing to change benefits or complete paper work for FMLA, STD or LOA's.
We do provide employee addresses directly to our CEO at Christmas.

ray a

Our policy is the same as dixied's.

Gillian3

You might want to do a search. This has come up before. My concerns have to do with privacy and whether or not it can be maintained when others have the information. I know of one situation where an employee was stalked and murdered by an ex. who found out where she lived due to an employee list getting into the wrong hands. Privacy is almost impossible to maintain but the more that information is shared the easier it is to be compromised. The last time that I dealt with this some years ago, the executive officers insisted that they needed the information for purposes similar to yours. I explained my concerns, but they weren't persuaded.

HRinGA

ours is the same as well. HR sends the flowers, etc.
But my company is a little bigger than yours and my President only sends cards to senior management during Christmas. But still, he gets those addresses from us (HR).

lhill

Our problem is that we have about 5 - 6 employees whose religion dictates that they do not observe birthdays or Christmas. What do you do about that? Should we have them sign a preference/permission slip when they are hired to address this?

Gillian3

No, just don't send them the cards.

LivindonSouth

It is not up to an employer to track religious preferences and observances. Nor is it your responsibility to try to keep up with who may or may not want a card on a special occasion. If your practice is to send them to employees, send them to employees. If they don't want to prop it up on the counter, let them throw it away after they open it. It's not that people are offended by the cards....in some circumstances, they just simply don't celebrate. Does Gillian3 suppose they might faint dead-away if you wished them a happy day or gave them a cupcake?




Disclaimer: This message is not intended to offend or attack. It is posted as personal opinion. If you find yourself offended or uncomfortable, email me and let me know why.

Gillian3

Only if their religious beliefs are otherwise. I doubt they would faint dead away but might be p-----.

JM in ATL

Does your policy state how that information should be handled? As long as all parties involved know that it is confidential information and/or should be destroyed or returned to HR to be destroyed - it shouldn't be an issue unless an employee explicitly states that this information isn't to be shared under any circumstance.

If you haven't educated those who receive that information with the proper procedures, I would suggest that you send out an email or memo stating the nature of such information and how to handle it.

Also, be sure that if anyone, including the CEO asks for anything other than address/phone number such as SS#'s, DOB's, etc., make sure you deliver it by hand to that individual and that the individual has a need to know for that information and that it should not leave the building.

Taking it home is not an option due to the FACTA regulations. If someone should take such information home they would not be properly securing the information from others who could access it. I know it's a bit extreme, but with identity theft as the new designer crime, it's not unheard of.

Judith

If you are a small company why don't you just inform the ees of the use of their address for company reasons. If the employee objects don't pass their info along.

HRLASS

We are a fairly large company and flowers, memorials, etc. are handled by either direct supervisors or department administrators. Because in both the legal and HR departments we can be called at any time, employees are requested to supply home and cell phone numbers and contact information, updated periodically. In the past, employees have refused to supply addresses, only P.O. boxes at best. As that does not conflict with our need to reach them, we respect that and do not send things to their home except cards through the mail. We do not request any of this info through HR but from the employee directly, based on business needs, and any requests to keep such information private are respected.