Small Business
The Pros and Cons of Tracking Your Employee's Every Digital Movement
Since the pandemic, employers around the world have needed to change how their employees operate. Remote work is very much here to stay, and organizations and employees can both benefit from the work-from-home and hybrid work revolution.
Since the pandemic, employers around the world have needed to change how their employees operate. Remote work is very much here to stay, and organizations and employees can both benefit from the work-from-home and hybrid work revolution. Cost savings, employee morale, and productivity can all be higher when employers grant this flexibility. Statistics show that 16% of companies are completely remote, 40% support hybrid office and remote working, and 44% do not allow employees to work remotely.
While there are benefits, there are also challenges. Employers worry about the cybersecurity risks of remote teams, and managers can find it more difficult to ensure employees are doing what they should. This environment has led to the rise of employee monitoring tools, which have mixed reviews from employees.
What Is Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee monitoring software tracks digital movements, ranging from general time-tracking to taking screenshots of an employee's computer several times per hour. Tracking tools like Hubstaff and BambooHR monitor many activities on a person's computer and send daily or weekly reports to the company. Items these tools can track include time clock, keyboard activity, keystrokes, mouse activity, websites visited, screenshots of the desktop, and apps used along with how long each was in use. The most invasive tools can even capture audio and video of the employee. Tracking can be visible to the employee or hidden, depending on the tool used and the ethical considerations of the employer.
Pros of Activity Monitoring Tools.
Helps Managers Understand How Employees Spend Their Day. Many tracking tools allow time to be tracked by project. This helps managers understand where employees are prioritizing their time and assists with ROI projections.
Reduces Non-Work Activities During Working Hours. About half of monitored employees spend three or more hours per day on non-work activities. When employees know their boss is monitoring app usage, they are less likely to spend work time on unrelated tasks.
Can Be an Easy Way to Track Time for Remote Workers. Smaller companies working with fully remote teams or freelancers may find tracking tools convenient. Employees can track their time at the click of a button, and employers can set hour-per-week caps and manage payments automatically through the app.
Cons of Activity Monitoring Tools.
Hurts Employees' Morale and Productivity. Many employees feel confined when monitoring is introduced. Morale can plummet, which takes productivity along with it. Instead of focusing on work, employees may worry about whether normal thinking time or a customer phone call will count against their productivity score. Some of the feelings employees can have when monitored include feeling betrayed, no longer trusted, a loss of company loyalty, and being treated like a number instead of a person.
Activity Monitoring Does Not Equal Productivity. Many tracking tools generate activity reports based solely on keyboard and mouse activity. But what if an employee needs to think through a workflow problem without using their mouse? What if a salesperson is on the phone with a customer and not using their keyboard? Zoom calls create a similar issue. The activity report does not capture this context and may give a low score to an employee who is actually working hard.
Costs Organizations Good Employees. Nearly half, 47%, of surveyed tech employees stated they would quit if their boss tracked them. Implementing monitoring can alienate good employees and make them feel untrusted and unappreciated. When you reduce everyone's contribution to a number of keystrokes, you constrain creativity. Good employees tend to stay with companies where they feel appreciated and have room to grow, and once that is gone, they are likely to leave.
Finding a Balance.
A few things to consider when finding the right balance include what you really need to track, whether all employees should be treated the same, what your employees think about monitoring, whether you are trying to solve a problem that does not exist, which features are unnecessary and can be turned off, and whether the tool is giving you accurate data related to actual productivity.
Get Expert Advice on the Best Tools for Your Business.
Cloud tools are an important part of your business and should be deployed thoughtfully. The team at Cyber One Solutions can help you evaluate the right tools and approach for your organization. Contact us today to schedule a chat.