Confidentiality in the Workplace

Workplace confidentiality can be

defined as keeping the employee,
customer and client information
private. Usually it is seen that
organizations take a number of steps to
ensure that client information remains
confidential but when it comes to
employee information, they may not
be so particular.
However, this thought process
needs to be changed and the
employees need to understand
its importance, only then can
they expect their staff to treat
client and customer information
with care.
 Importance of Confidentiality at
Work
Confidentiality is of paramount
importance. It is the employee’s
responsibility to treat all the
information in the workplace with
care and caution.
An employee should be prudent enough not
to disclose any information that the considers
sensitive and confidential, to a third party,
until and unless the employee has consulted
and taken permission from his supervisor
regarding the same. Also one should refrain
from sharing any personal details with fellow
colleagues at work. This helps to maintain a
professional attitude at work.
 How to maintain confidentiality in
the workplace?
The HR Department should devise
strategies and guidelines to ensure that
workplace confidentiality is maintained.

Here are some effective steps which can be

taken to protect information:
 The human resource professionals
should take necessary steps to
prevent the misuse of information
that is personal.
 Once the policies are devised, the
next thing to do is to communicate
the same to all employees,
supervisors and managers.
 It is very important that the employees know
which actions of theirs will be considered as
a bread of confidentiality and what will be the
consequences of the same, to deter them from
doing so.
 With most of the information these days
stored electronically, to ensure its safety,
sophisticated electronic methods such as
firewalls, password protection, encryption,
etc. should be adopted.
 Disposing off sensitive
information in the right manner,
if it’s not required anymore is
equally important.
 Conflict Resolution Techniques:

 Listen, then Speak out.

 Be impartial .
 Do Not Postpone Conflict
Resolution.
 Promote teamwork.
 Broadcast praise.