Member Article

Employees more likely to be given a ticking off over office chores than GDPR

25% of UK employees have been challenged for not emptying or loading the dishwater, compared to only 14% who had been told off for poor handling of confidential data, according to a new study.

The poll, conducted by office equipment specialist Fellowes, aimed to look at whether GDPR is being taken seriously by UK office workers since its introduction in May of this year.

Fellowes found that nearly 9 in 10 (86%) UK office workers were more likely to be giving a ticking off for forgetting to do menial tasks than they were for complying with GDPR.

The data, collected from over 1,000 UK office workers in July 2018, also revealed that workers were challenged more often about missing deadlines and being late (17%) than ensuring they are compliant with new GDPR legislation.

What will concern business leaders most is that, despite the potential risk of huge fines, 54% of workers said they had seen personal or confidential data they shouldn’t have, while 33% of workers admitted they have left confidential or personal data unattended.

Digital security amongst employees was also cause for concern, with 45% who claimed to have sent a confidential email to the wrong person and 61% who had received an incorrect email from the someone they didn’t know.

Darryl Brunt, Country Head UK & Ireland at Fellowes, said:

“It’s a worrying sign that companies in the UK are more concerned about office chores than GDPR, which could cost businesses millions of pounds. One in ten workers don’t know who is responsible for GDPR within their business, and the truth is, protecting confidential data is everyone’s responsibility. It’s also troubling to see that almost one in five workers haven’t been given a concrete policy for handling GDPR. This has to change, or businesses will pay the price.”

Fellowes’ ‘Keep It Confidential’ team looked at how offices in London were handling sensitive information, following the GDPR roll-out and found documents displaying private details including business contracts, printed emails and handwritten notes. Worryingly, these documents displayed client information including names and addresses, financial details and even bank statements, as well as contracts detailing business agreements.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adam White .