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Covert recording of staff by mystery shoppers
[ch 5: pages 47-48]A number of employers, notably in the retail banking sector, have also engaged in covert recording by mystery shoppers. This is seen as especially intrusive for customer-facing staff, and is a particular cause of concern for unions.
Covert recording by mystery shoppers at Lloyds Banking Group is currently being challenged by the Accord banking union.
Despite withdrawing earlier plans to introduce this practice in the face of union opposition, the bank introduced covert monitoring in 2012. This was extended in 2014, and in 2015 the bank said it would also use recordings from covert monitoring for coaching purposes. The bank had previously said that monitoring was justified by the need to ensure compliance with tighter regulation of the banking sector. Accord argued that by saying that the monitoring would now be used as part of the performance management process, this previous justification by the bank had lost all credibility.
The union also argued that the monitoring did not meet the “exceptional circumstances” justification for covert monitoring under the ICO Code, but the bank claims that the monitoring is not “covert” because staff have been made aware that monitoring may occur, even if they don’t know when this is taking place.
At the time of writing, the union was planning to submit a complaint to the ICO regarding the bank’s actions, while the bank was suggesting that a joint union-employer submission could be made to the ICO.
Covert recording at Lloyds Bank
The covert recording process was explained to LRD by Accord assistant general secretary Paula Tegg. The practice is undertaken by undercover assessors who go into bank branches on the pretext of opening an account, or applying for a loan, mortgage or other financial product. This requires an interview by a member of staff which is then secretly recorded.
In such interviews, staff will endeavour to put customers at ease, making small talk about their personal lives for example, reflecting the bank’s wish for staff to appear “down to earth” in their approach to customers. Members have reported feeling “really abused”, “violated” and “humiliated” to find that they had “been sitting there having chats with people they thought were genuine customers”. A number of members reported feeling undermined after years of loyal service and good performance ratings.
Members have also complained about an invasion of privacy, particularly given that these interviews are then being listened to by other people, and even played back in training sessions. In some cases, the conversations are played back by actors in training sessions, but there are also reports of the actual recordings being played.
Some members also report no longer being able to relax, and feeling “on guard” when interviewing “customers”, making it rather difficult to appear “down to earth” as requested by the bank. Some staff have asked to be moved to other positions in the bank to avoid being subjected to this form of intrusive monitoring. The union has supported a number of members in taking grievances over the issue, but none of these grievances have been upheld.