Employee monitoring is becoming increasingly common across many sectors. With many organizations allowing remote or hybrid work, leaders often feel the need to keep tabs on how employees optimize productivity and engagement. However, with technology giving us easier access to relevant data, many businesses also monitor employee activity in the office.
While employee monitoring may begin with the best intentions to improve efficiency and maintain accountability across the workforce, it can raise concerns and create bigger problems. Fortunately, it's not the only solution to help organizations build a better team.
Let's look at the ramifications of monitoring from an employee's viewpoint. No matter your goals for implementing monitoring technology, very few team members will view it positively. Your employees are adults, and keeping tabs on how they work isn't appealing. It's a form of surveillance that can significantly reduce employee satisfaction.
No one wants to feel like their every move is under examination. Over time, this sense of constant scrutiny can lead to increased turnover rates and a gradual erosion of the trust you've built with your workforce.
Successful organizations have a strong culture of trust between management and employees. Using monitoring tools ruins that, causing your team to become suspicious of your motives. In terms of productivity, monitoring may have the opposite effect you want. That surveillance demotivates workers, creates unnecessary stress that could impair efficiency and breaks down otherwise strong communication channels.
Ultimately, activity doesn't always equate to productivity. Monitoring tools have a fundamental flaw in that they can't quantify the quality of work performed. As a result, employee monitoring often yields few results while leaving a trail of mistrust in their wake.
Employee monitoring is invasive, creepy and often ineffective. Here are a few things you can do instead to boost productivity in your organization without sacrificing privacy or breaking the trust of your employees.
One of the best ways to achieve the goals that employee monitoring software often promises is to focus on the outcome rather than the activity. As mentioned earlier, activity doesn't always equate to great results. All your employees do things differently. They have unique strengths, weaknesses and approaches to doing their job.
Focusing on outcome-based performance rather than daily activities maintains trust, showing your team that you believe they can manage the details required to meet company objectives. It also allows you to develop strategies for improvement and gain more insight into the journey employees take to accomplish goals rather than the day-to-day logistics.
Because your workforce is so diverse in their approach to work, outcome-based performance is the only true way to understand how engaged, productive and effective your team is.
Employee monitoring may gather data to provide superficial insights. However, that data often doesn't correlate to the quality of end products, nor does it help leaders understand how teams are remaining productive. One way to learn more is by utilizing data-driven team insights.
Platforms like Worklytics allow you to gather real-time anonymized data about your team's workflows, collaboration efforts and more. Uncover information about work habits and analyze metrics about in-person meetings, email communication, online interactions and more. Because the data is anonymized, you're not invading your team's privacy. Instead, you're collecting work insights to learn more about how everyone stays productive, helping you learn more about common processes, identify areas that lag behind and see how it all affects your organization.
There are many problems with employee monitoring, but one impact that leaders often don't see coming is the breakdown of communication and feedback. Constructive feedback is key to team growth and cohesion. However, putting employees under surveillance often discourages them from speaking up about issues and concerns.
Transparent and open feedback can transform organizations for the better. Employees who regularly give and receive feedback won't feel slighted or demotivated by performance evaluations or criticism. A culture of transparent feedback creates a never-ending push for improvement, individually and collectively. It's a great way to remove egos from the equation and make your team more open to receiving feedback that helps them flourish.
Detractors of employee monitoring often cite the lack of autonomy that comes with that level of surveillance. Employees want to feel they have control over meeting objectives and contributing to the organization's bottom line. Having deadlines and responsibilities is okay, but you should allow your team to figure out how to fulfill their obligations on their terms.
Encourage goal-setting. Rather than micromanaging every aspect of an employee's day, provide goals you want them to meet and give them the autonomy to take things from there. Set goals frequently and make a habit of discussing them openly. You can set short- and long-term goals, granting your employees recurring wins as they work toward those larger objectives.
Work burnout is a real issue that many face at some point in their careers. It can be debilitating. Not only does it put their mental health and well-being at risk, but it can also interfere with their success in the work environment. If left unaddressed, you can lose valuable employees and top talent. Consider integrating tools to learn more about your workforce's overall well-being and engagement.
Analytics platforms can provide more visibility into the underlying factors that cause stress, anxiety and burnout. Learn what's causing employee satisfaction and well-being to plummet, identify the workplace distractions causing workers to lose focus and more. Great tools can help you develop data-driven strategies to combat stress factors, allowing you to be proactive about your team's well-being while doing what you can to create a happier, healthier and more conducive workplace.
Despite the growing prevalence of employee monitoring tools, far better alternatives can provide results without fostering a culture of mistrust or suspicion. Your employees are your organization's most valuable asset and deserve more than nonstop surveillance. Focusing on outcome-based performance, setting goals, giving your employees autonomy and fostering a culture of transparent feedback goes a long way.
It's fine to strive for improvements in productivity and efficiency. Leaders should want to build a stronger team. However, you don't have to resort to monitoring to get there. Remember that your employees are complex humans. Something as fundamentally flawed as activity monitoring will do more harm than good. Instead, utilize team insights and learn more about how they approach their jobs to create the change you want to see.
Let Worklytics help you better understand your workforce. Worklytics is an analytics platform focusing on people-centric data. Use fully anonymized data to learn more about your team and how they work. Get actionable insights that make a difference while maintaining trust. Worklytics can help leaders like you improve the employee experience, create impactful initiatives and empower your team to reach their full potential.
Book your Worklytics demo today to learn more and see how workplace insights can benefit your organization.
