Computers, internet and phone usage policy

What is a computers, internet and phone policy and when should you use it?

Use this template to set out your policy regarding computer, internet and phone usage for employees.

This policy covers issues like security, unacceptable use and the monitoring of use by employees within your business.

Having such a policy in place is advisable for all those who use computers, the internet, email or phones, (even those who use their own devices), in the course of carrying out their contractual duties for you.

It helps to protect both your business and your employees from various risks like losing or leaking important information or getting your computers infected with malware.

It guides your employees on how to use their work computers, the internet and phones and what to use them for.

We recommend that you do not give it contractual status in any employment contract that you put in place, but that you do reference it in that contract, make clear that the employee is expected to comply with the policy and that you have the right to update or revise it, in your discretion and when you want to.

It is up to you whether you want to extend this policy to non-employees.

There is no obligation to do so.

It is worth pointing out, however, that contractors (including freelancers) working for you should be using their own equipment, unless you have particularly specialist equipment requirements.

What else should you consider?

It’s advisable to put a social media policy in place also, even if your business doesn’t use social media.

Because your employees almost certainly do, so you need to set rules around its use.

If you don’t have one already, you can use our social media policy template to get started.

Alternatively, you could wrap the content of that policy into this one.

We have referenced a simple social media policy in this template.

Requiring the employee to sign this policy

While you’ll typically keep an unsigned version of this policy within your employee handbook (or with the group of employment policies that make up your employment policy suite), we recommend that you also ask employees individually to sign this policy when you provide them with a mobile phone.

Their signature creates a contractual agreement between you both that gives you the right to deduct the costs of personal usage of the phone from their monthly salary.

Without this signature, you do not have that right, as the policy itself generally does not form part of the employment contract between you and the employee.