In today’s world of increasing surveillance, most individuals aren’t aware of their daily activities that are monitored. In such a scenario is it so wrong for an employer to monitor its employees? There is no right answer to this question. However, as improved software tools make it increasingly easier to do this remotely, it certainly is very tempting.
Employers pay their employees and earn profits based on their productivity and hence, it is natural for them to make an attempt to maximize productivity.
Gartner’s report in 2020 posited that almost 80% of corporations would implement employee monitoring applications by 2021. While there may not be anything wrong with implementing employee monitoring software, companies must keep certain best practices in mind to make sure this is useful for them.
Clear Objective
Companies often implement software to emulate what their peers are doing without a thorough analysis of their own requirements. This not only reduces efficiency but also results in excess costs for no good reason. Hence, before one implements monitoring software for employees such as Workpuls, one must be aware of exactly what they want to achieve from the same.
Do they want to manage employees better, keep them off unproductive websites or improve efficiency by identifying best practices for meetings and schedules? Setting out with a clear goal in mind is the way forward.
Transparent communication
While an employer is entitled to monitor its employees, it can go south very easily. Employees can see excessive monitoring as a breach of their privacy and feel cornered. They may even cheat the system just because their employer got their hackles up. Hence employers must communicate their monitoring methodologies and with good communication express their reasoning so that the entire team is on board.
Avoid excessive monitoring
While it might be tempting to buy all the features of a monitoring application and then track each and every move of your employees, it is not recommended to do so. Too much information collection will require sifting through huge volumes of data as well. It may also make your employee feel suffocated. Excess monitoring also makes it difficult to build an environment of trust for all stakeholders.
Make use of data collected
Often implementing such software leads to no change because the data that is collected is not used. Thus, companies must make a concrete plan of metrics they will track and how they shall be used for analysis and further improvement. Companies can use this data for a score of things in addition to ensuring that their employees are productive. They can identify the best time to set up catch-up calls, identify downtimes and give breaks to their employees. Good usage of this data can make both the employer and the employee happy.
Cover legal bases
While employers have full rights to monitor their employees, it is important to get legal permission from their employees to do so. Without even meaning to, they might be violating some individual right which can land them in a legal mess. Hence, when selecting a monitoring software it is important to get the required consent of the stakeholders.
