General News
How to Address Data Privacy Concerns in the Workplace and Maximize Employee Trust
By Andrew Bourne, Region Manager, Africa, Zoho Corporation
As businesses look to overcome the challenges of 2020, they’ll have a number of goals in mind. For some, it will be about survival while others will work towards rebuilding and reversing any losses they might have made in 2020. Whatever state a business finds itself in this year, it cannot afford to ignore data privacy as a key priority especially, now that global and local news networks are covering online privacy quite extensively.
In fact, if a business really cares about having a successful 2021, it needs to prioritise data privacy as its number one focus. Doing so won’t only help businesses side-step some of the issues and expenses associated with data breaches, it’ll also help increase brand confidence among customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Employee privacy should hold the same importance as customer data privacy
Safeguarding employee privacy is becoming critical in a world that’s going all-digital, in order to cater to an increasingly mobile and highly distributed workforce. A recommended step for a privacy-first approach is making sure that your employees’ personal information is stored in a secure, encrypted server. Aside from that, here are a few basic practices you can follow to ensure secure handling of employees’ personal data:
1) Constantly communicate and ensure your employees are always in the know – When onboarding new employees and whenever changes are made to policies, employers should clearly spell out their data collection and monitoring practices. Businesses should require employees to review the policy and also consider posting a detailed ‘privacy notice’ on internal forums for quick reference.
If your recently instituted COVID-based health and wellness programmes include the additional collection of new datasets like travel history and family health statuses, then the general consent proffered by the employment contract might not suffice. Plan beforehand and try to obtain specific consent from employees through advance notices.
2) Conduct privacy impact assessments for your third-party technologies – As we become more reliant on third-party video conferencing tools and remote collaboration applications like Zoom, Slack, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, it becomes necessary to reevaluate the vendors’ privacy policies and understand how these platforms handle your employees’ data. In most cases, the long-winded privacy statements never give us a clear picture of what the tech giants do with the collected data or if they employ safety measures such as end-to-end encryption and host-proof hosting.
3) Deploy employee monitoring tools judiciously – Remote working has sparked an ethical debate about whether employers should use remote monitoring software to supervise workforce productivity levels. Today, we have tools that randomly take screenshots of employees’ device screens and even monitor how much time they spend on certain websites.
While workplace analytics is critical to scrutinise collaboration patterns and will inevitably become an integral part of HRM strategies, imposing privacy-invasive tools into your employees’ life can result in a severe backlash down the line. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario either. In October just last year, H&M was fined US$41-million for violating its workers’ privacy.
The all seeing eye
While it is vitally important to know what is going on in your business, using potentially invasive monitoring tools to measure work hours or monitor background activity doesn’t instil confidence or trust in employees. It’s not a perfect metric to measure productivity and work effectiveness. Instead, consider quantifying workforce performance based on output quality and timely accomplishments and for any form of monitoring, it always is best to provide your employees with an opt-in before execution.
Protecting your most valuable asset
It’s become almost a cliche to say that employees are your most valuable asset. Truth is, they really are. By protecting the privacy of your employees, you demonstrate your commitment to them as an employer and cement a culture of company loyalty. This, in turn, will make it simpler to attract and retain top talent, something that’s vital to remaining competitive.
Ugo Nwokolo, Nollywood actor, has shared a controversial opinion on internet fraud, saying it has been keeping the nation’s economy afloat amid a tougher economic climate.
Ugo Nwokolo, Nollywood Actor
Nwokolo made the assertion in a video interview currently circulating on social media.
According to the actor, the cost of living and soaring house rent have made life unbearable for legitimate income earners.
He said high rent in major cities like Lagos and Abuja has edged out those earning N50,000 and N90,000 monthly.
Nwokolo said, “Personally, I think Yahoo has helped keep the economy afloat. Do you expect a civil servant to afford house rent of N3 million or N5 million in Abuja?”
The actor maintained that only the rich, including fraudsters, could meet up with the rising cost of living.
“If you go to Lagos now, the least you’ll see for a two-bedroom apartment is about N7 million or N8 million. Who is supposed to afford it? The civil servants? Of course, it’s the fraudsters,” he stressed.
However, he argued that he was not justifying crime but merely stating fact.
“I’m not justifying crime, but yes, Yahoo is helping the economy. How do you expect people to live in this kind of economy?” he said.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, plans to dedicate one-third of his wealth to charity as part of his succession plan, Halima Dangote, his daughter, has revealed.
Aliko Dangote
Halima, a trustee of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg published on Tuesday, saying the billionaire had secured the support of his family to commit 33 per cent of his estate to philanthropy.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth is estimated at $35.1 billion, meaning one-third of his current wealth would be worth about $11.7 billion if his fortune remains at that level.
Halima explained that her father views philanthropy as a key part of his legacy and has incorporated it into the family’s long-term succession plans.
She said Dangote had structured his estate to ensure that charitable giving continues across generations, particularly in areas such as healthcare and education.
“He sort of put all the structure in place whereby we focus a lot on health and education. He actually donated 25 per cent to the foundation. If you look at it, it is what we call in Sharia Code in Islam; it means he has donated 33 per cent of his whole inheritance to his foundation,” she said.
Halima added that Dangote believes giving back is central to the success of his businesses and the family’s values.
She said the billionaire asked her, her two sisters, and his mother to sign the agreement allowing 33 per cent of his inheritance to be dedicated to humanitarian causes.
The planned donation builds on Dangote’s longstanding philanthropic activities through the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which was established in 1994.
According to Halima, the foundation received an endowment of $1.25 billion about a decade ago and has since received an additional $700 million in funding.
She said about 70 per cent of the foundation’s spending goes to programmes in Nigeria, while 20 per cent supports projects across Africa, with the remaining funds directed to initiatives in other parts of the world.
The foundation’s interventions focus on healthcare, education, nutrition, and humanitarian support, including partnerships that contributed to the eradication of wild poliovirus in Africa.
Dangote’s planned charitable commitment adds to increasing global attention on billionaire philanthropy.
Although the proposed 33 per cent allocation is below the 50 per cent commitment associated with the Giving Pledge, it would rank among the largest philanthropic commitments announced by an African billionaire.
Earlier this year, Dangote was named among the world’s most influential philanthropists by TIME magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list, recognising the impact of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which reportedly spends more than ₦50 billion annually on programmes across Africa.
Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), has said that there are plans for Nigeria to begin to generate electricity from nuclear sources.
Mr Anthony Godwin Ekedegwa, chief executive, NAEC stated this when he recently visited Mr Umar Yusuf Girei, acting managing director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA),in Abuja.
He was at NIWA’s office to solicit the support of NIWA in achieving the numerous advantages of using nuclear energy technology in the country.
According to him, the partnership of critical stakeholders in Nigeria will position the country well in developing and maintaining its nuclear power plant.
The NAEC chief said Nigeria intends to begin the generation of electricity from nuclear sources instead of fossil-based power plants and hydro-based power plants, stressing that for Nigeria to develop, there is a need for the country to diversify its energy needs.
In his remarks, Mr Girei assured NAEC of his agency’s readiness to collaborate on the advancement of a nuclear power plant in Nigeria.
He promised the full support of NAEC for the success of a nuclear power plant in the country, saying that as the organisation saddled with the responsibility of regulating and developing Nigeria Inland Waterways, his entity is strategically positioned to play a critical role in the federal government’s quest for sustainable energy through the new technology.
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