Dialogue: Discreet solution lies in privacy code

By MICHAEL BARNETT*

We live in an increasingly open marketplace, so it seems a paradox that customers regard respect for the privacy of their personal information as more important than convenience and just as important as quality of service.

But in today's fiercely competitive environment, businesses must lift their game in every respect, including on privacy issues.

As good businesses know, if your customer wins, your company wins, too.

Creating value and top performance for paying customers is only one ingredient for success.

If the business is to succeed, those who work with you - your internal customers - must feel they are also getting value and respect.

Every business knows that paying customers have many other choices.

The onus is on the business to look after and respect the relationship with the client.

That relationship starts with openness and certainty.

They should also start with customers knowing that the communication they receive from a prospective supplier of goods and services is information they have volunteered to receive by providing specific information, not the result of shotgun, unsophisticated mailings.

If customers have their names and other details put on a list that is then circulated to others without their knowledge, they will question the level of respect that the prospective supplier has for the privacy of personal information.

More and more, businesses are learning why it is good practice to have a code on privacy and personal information - to ensure that customers know their names, addresses and other personal details will not be sold to anyone else.

The findings of Bruce Slane's survey, then, are no real surprise and reinforce the clear message that society is sending to business people: be customer-focused, be open and respectful with your customers in all respects of the relationship, do the right thing and be seen to do the right thing.

Similarly, with your internal customers - your employees.

In today's business environment there is intense competition for talented, multi-skilled staffers with flexible attitudes.

They are also sending a clear message to employers: be responsive to your staff's needs and values.

In practical recognition that staff are the most valuable asset of any business, more and more are adopting codes of practice that give value to broader lifestyle issues of work and family balance.

Here the privacy issues and attitudes go both ways.

To provide a work environment that values the work-family-lifestyle balance and assists employees to achieve that equilibrium, employer and employee must exchange information.

For example, if an employee is a parent whose work-family balance might be better supported if he or she sets up a home office for some of the day, the employer needs to know this.

What is normally regarded as private family information will need to be disclosed.

Otherwise how can an employer provide effective support for the employee to balance work and family needs.

Creating a workplace that values and recognises a work-family balance requires, I suggest, a flexible approach to privacy issues based on mutual trust: an employee must trust an employer to respect personal information and not use it for a different purpose.

But the employer must lead the process by setting an environment that invites trust and disclosure of private information - by communicating to staff a willingness to recognise the needs of spouses/partners, children and other family members in work and family relationships.

Clearly, respect for privacy of information is an important part of relationships between businesses and customers.

It may not be as well understood as it needs to be, but in acknowledging that, smart businesses will be motivated to do better.

* Michael Barnett is chief executive of the Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the EEO Trust.