More than one in four businesses bought technology to keep an eye on and track their workers during the pandemic. Some employees are against the move because it affects their privacy, but enough of them see the benefits that they are going forward.
In what way do monitoring and analytics of employees look? For your business, should you think about it? But what is the moral way of doing that? Learn more about the tool and how it can be used honestly and how to determine if it is a good fit for your business by reading further.
What does it mean to watch and analyze employees?
“Traditionally, employee monitoring software such as Controlio has made people think of creepy things like spying on employees,” Brian Turner, Stu Robarts, and Barclay Ballard wrote at techradar. “But these days it might mean making sure the right people can use the right software.” Because of this, some types of tracking employees can be more like project management suites.
How could that look? Controlio, SentryPC, iMonitorSoft, and InterGuard are some well-known employee tracking programs. These are some of the things that these programs can do together:
Watch out for activities that users carry out, including things they type, activities relating to their photos and documents, searches on the Internet, downloads, and many others.
Once some activities have been detected, take screenshots.
Don’t let people into websites.
Turn off a computer from afar.
Run desktops from afar.
Turn the activity that is being watched into data that can be searched and used to make reports and alerts.
There are a lot of useful tools in these programs that can help you understand how your workers spend their time and how you can make them more productive. But these programs have some features that you might not want to use. So, a lot of tools for keeping an eye on employees lets you choose which features to use or not.
Is it worth it to get employee monitoring software when it comes to the serious privacy risks that come with it? What you need will decide. To help you decide, ask yourself these four things:
Is it okay? Keeping an eye on employees while they use company-owned devices is legal in Utah. But when an employee brings their own device to work, things get a little more complicated. This helpful piece on parrbrown.com breaks down the legal issues that come up with “bring your own device” policies.
Do you need it? Instead of watching employees all the time to make things safer, you might be able to set up systems that let you know when something seems fishy is going on. This way, you can then look into the employee in question. Or, instead of monitoring software, you might be able to fix your lack of efficiency with better communication and a change in policy.
Does it mean bad things for our culture? If trust and freedom are important parts of your culture, then surveillance might make those parts less strong, which could even cause your best employees to leave the company.
Do we need more work to get done? According to http://matchr.com, monitoring may be a good idea if there are problems with productivity and it’s clear that the problem is inappropriate use of electronics at work. “Keeping an eye on how electronics are used could be a good way to boost productivity if done right.”
How do you watch and analyze your employees in an honest way?
Once you know that employee monitoring software is right for your business, the next step is to set it up in a way that is morally sound. Making yourself ask the questions above is a good place to start. After that, state clearly the purpose of such monitoring which will benefit both the business and the employees.
These guidelines should help you while conducting the monitoring process:
Make your employees aware of what you are going to monitor. Your complete transparency will definitely help you establish a strong team as they will be aware of your expectations and realize the importance of certain procedures including the security measures and correct use of working time.
Do not micromanage or spy on your employees. You may control literally anything that they are doing; however, it would be more efficient to just monitor some specific behaviors which are important for achieving the KPIs of your initiative.
Treat your employees’ privacy with respect. Do not monitor any behavior except that which has any impact on your business and do it only within working hours.
Make yourself available to discuss. Let your staff get used to the new method and solve any issues that they have regarding it. Also, keep in mind that monitoring software only gives you a small picture of how well your workers are doing. Don’t forget about the people involved, like reports from managers and feedback from workers.
“How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing” author Adrian Swinscoe says, “Any monitoring tools that are introduced should have a value proposition for the employees at their core.” Keep this in mind at all times. No matter how well you explain and agree on what the value proposition is for the employee, any use of tracking tools will be seen as intrusive or as surveillance.
Software for keeping an eye on and analyzing employees is now very powerful and can tell you a lot about how they act. Watching your employees can make your business safer and more productive, but it might not be right for you. If you decide to go through with it, make sure you follow the best ways to monitor employees in an honest way. This will help both you and your employees.
