Business owners in the Santa Fe area need to think carefully about trade secrets and trade secret protections when they have work-from-home employees. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in substantially more employees working from home, and many of those employees continuing to work from home as businesses have reopened and workplaces have returned to a new normal during the ongoing pandemic, more employers are realizing that they need to consider additional trade secret protections. When an employee is working remotely, certain trade secrets of your business could be affected. Our Santa Fe business litigation lawyers want to tell you more about trade secrets and what steps you should take to protect them when you have employees working from home.
More Employees Are Working From Home
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significantly more employees working from home, and not just in the short term. The Pew Research Center reports that, before the pandemic, working from home was not particularly common. About 20% of all employees across the U.S. worked from home for a majority of their working hours. Yet since the pandemic has begun, and even as more businesses have begun to return to some version of “normal,” a striking number of employees continue to work remotely. Approximately 70% of American employees now work full-time remotely, according to the Pew data.
While work-from-home employees might not be engaging in any behaviors that they realize could put trade secrets at risk, it is critical for businesses in New Mexico to take steps to protect trade secrets. For example, employees who work from home might use personal computers for business emails, or they may be using networks that do not have the same types of protections that you have at the workplace. In some cases, employees may be printing materials and leaving those print-outs in places where others can read them, or they may be conducting Zoom meetings with clients or customers that can be easily intercepted or hacked. Accordingly, you should know that data breaches can be a notable risk when you have work-from-home employees, and employees could unknowingly be putting other trade secrets at risk of interception, as well.
Ways to Protect Trade Secrets
If you have employees who work from home—regardless of whether remote work began prior to or during the pandemic—you should take some steps to ensure that your trade secrets are protected, such as:
- Place controls on Zoom or other video conferencing platforms you use so that only employees can login to meetings;
- Evaluate your current workplace policies and employee manual to determine whether you need updates to your remote work policies, which may include requiring employees to conduct all work-related business on work devices (i.e., employees cannot use personal computers or phones for work purposes);
- Make sure to inform employees clearly of any new work-from-home policies and to provide appropriate trainings; and
- Consider specific confidentiality agreements for employees working remotely.
Contact Our Business Litigations Lawyers in Santa Fe
Do you have questions about trade secret protections, or do you have concerns about trade secret misappropriation? One of our Santa Fe business litigation attorneys can speak with you today. Contact Slate Stern Law for more information.