I Spy . . . Workplace surveillance is coming to small and midsized businesses.

Not sure what your employees are up to during working hours? Bigcompanies are doing everything from installing monitoring softwareon employee computers to hiring undercover actors to pose as newhires and collect evidence of wrongdoing. But what are smallercompanies doing?

Only about 20 percent of employers actively monitor e-mail andInternet usage, while another 20 percent are thinking about it butnot actively monitoring, according to Mallary Tytel, president ofHealthyWorkplaces LLC, a workplace issues consulting firm in Bolton,Connecticut. In fact, 50 percent of employers monitor employeesonly if a complaint or problem arises. "It depends onresources," notes Tytel. Small to midsize companies are morelikely to use technological surveillance (i.e., computer spyprograms), as they're more readily available than undercoverdetective agencies, which can get a bit pricey.

But smaller companies can readily monitor e-mail, Internet,telephone, PDAs and even GPS systems in company cars while anemployee works off-site. David Fertell, president of Pearl SoftwareInc., a manufacturer of employee surveillance software inExton, Pennsylvania, says the trend has moved away from blockingemployee access to inappropriate sites to actually watching whereemployees spend their time online. "Employees were findingways to get around filters," he says.

Monitoring can happen either covertly or out in the open, sayexperts, but the thinking as to which is better is mixed. Someadvocate secretly monitoring employees, while others believecommunicating openly with employees about monitoring policiesfosters a more productive working environment. Says Tytel,"[Monitoring] policies should be part of the employeehandbook."