When employees leave, company information leaves with them

A good topic for a future blog post will be a review of the technology that might prevent this from happening: a recent study revealed

“Of about 950 people who said they had lost or left their jobs during the last 12 months, nearly 60 percent admitted to taking confidential company information with them, including customer contact lists and other data that could potentially end up in the hands of a competitor for the employee’s next job stint.

….

“Most of the data takers (53 percent) said they downloaded the information onto a CD or DVD, while 42 percent put it on a USB drive and 38 percent sent it as attachments via e-mail….”

Symantec, who commissioned this study (and which through a string of acquisitions has become a major vendor in the information management realm), just happens to be one of a number of software vendors who provide DLP (“data loss/leak prevention/protection”) solutions that can inhibit this sort of thing.

Meanwhile, over at RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry, the CEO isn’t shy about admitting that they record ALL company calls on the theory that everything employees say on the job is the company’s intellectual property.

I’m not an advocate for “big brother” work environments because I think there can be a strong relationship between genuine trust and employee productivity and creativity. Nonetheless, I have to admit that employees who are convinced that they will be held accountable for what they do with company information will be more conscientious about how they handle it.

Yet another topic for a future post will be examining how important information is misplaced when employees shift to new projects, positions, or companies.