Employee monitoring isn’t a new concept in the business world. As Gartner’s study shows, the number of employers implementing different employee surveillance techniques has increased from 30% in 2015 to 50% in 2018. And we’re talking about the pre-Covid-19 era statistics.
The Covid-19 outbreak has caused tectonic shifts in all the aspects of everyday life, forcing employees to embrace remote work as the foolproof way to keep their employees safe and sound, and their businesses afloat during the global pandemic.
Introducing employee monitoring into the workflow has become standard practice over the past two years that successfully bridged the gap between remote teams and their management, allowing employers to keep track of their employees’ performance, time, and product management.
Even though keeping track of remote employees’ productivity and efficiency is a justifiable reason for including employee monitoring software in your workflow, you need to make sure that you use this advanced technology transparently. By doing this, you’ll make the most of the entire monitoring process.
Namely, some employees regard monitoring as an intrusive practice that their bosses use to micromanage them, and have excessive control over their work. If you want to battle these misconceptions about employee monitoring, showing your employees how they can benefit from it, you need to be open and honest about your intentions.
Here you’ll find out why transparency is crucial when it comes to employee monitoring, and how it brings numerous benefits to your employees and company.
Transparency Increases Monitoring Acceptance Rate Among Workers
Business owners who monitor their employees’ activities secretly tend to justify this action by saying:
“What they don’t know, can’t hurt them.”
And this argument is wrong on so many levels. Covert employee monitoring will destroy employees’ trust, drive down their productivity, leading to increased turnover rates that may devastate your business in the long run.
If you want to prevent this worst-case scenario from happening, make sure to create an open and honest Employee Monitoring Policy where you will answer these burning questions:
- Why do you want to start monitoring your employees?
- What activities do you intend to monitor?
- How do you plan to use the data collected via an employee monitoring solution?
Make sure your answers are clear and concise, leaving no room for potential misinterpretations or misunderstandings. Once you show your employees that you intend to use employee monitoring only on company computers during work hours, keeping their private information off-limits, you’ll gain their buy-in on all company levels.
This understanding and acceptance of the transparent employee monitoring concept can be beneficial for your business in numerous ways.
Transparent Use of Employee Monitoring Systems May Increase their ROI
Everything in business revolves around profit. This said every business owner starts involving monitoring tools in their workflow, hoping this investment will pay off in the long run. Employee monitoring software will offer you a detailed insight into employees’ performance, allowing you to take steps and improve it on the spot.
Namely, you and your employees can analyze data to overcome specific roadblocks to productivity, optimize your business processes, contribute to the overall success, and increase profit.
In a nutshell, transparent employee monitoring allows you to make data-based decisions avoiding productivity pitfalls, and improve risk management strategies along the way. If you want to find out more about making well-informed business decisions by using a productivity monitoring solution, click here.
Transparent Monitoring Respects Privacy, Strengthens Trust and Encourages Autonomy
When you decide to be open and honest about employee monitoring and make the protection of workers’ privacy your top priority, you’ll gain their trust and confidence that they may benefit from this practice. Therefore, include a clear and straightforward section about privacy in your Employee Monitoring Policy, making sure that all their vulnerable data, like personal passwords and bank account details, stay off-limits.
Besides protecting your employees’ privacy during monitoring, you need to show them how this process can work in their favor. Namely, by using productivity monitoring tools, you won’t need to micromanage them, hovering over their heads all the time. This will provide a level of autonomy, many employees rarely experience in the workplace. This freedom to do specific things of their own accord, making work-related decisions without managers interference may boost your employees’ self-confidence and performance.