Monitor Employees Without Losing Their Trust
Every employer wants to have a complete image of what their employees are doing during working hours. Employee monitoring can be done using a variety of workplace monitoring methods to gather information on employees’ work activities and whereabouts. Especially when employees are working remotely, they worry that companies don’t know how much effort they are putting in. On the other hand, companies also worry that employees are not working productively as they are supposed to.
The fundamental goal for monitoring employees is to prevent anything inappropriate happening in the first place. With the help of technology, employers can actually manage their employees, keep tabs on their work, and help them increase their productivity.
What is Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee monitoring software is a technology that can give HR and business leaders the ability to track remote employees and to have greater visibility into how employees spend their time at home. The software can track employee time spent on apps and websites and gauge team productivity levels – which also involves observing employees’ online surfing and use of social networking and other non-work tasks.
While monitoring employees, maintaining ethics is critical, which is why it is important to choose a monitoring software that is not intrusive and allows employees to enjoy their privacy while they are not at work. There are many monitoring software available in the market that have stealth modes and spies on employee devices without letting them know. It captures everything that an employee does on their device, which is absolutely unethical and creates mistrust in employees. Monitoring should be conducted in a legal and ethically acceptable way, where you use the software only to understand exactly how your workers work without breaching their privacy. Companies should create a transparent employee monitoring system to establish a safe and productive workplace by following employee monitoring ethics. Such transparency is a good management practice that helps employees to understand why their company chooses to monitor them and why they have to install it on their work computers.
How to monitor employees maintaining their trust
Before you start monitoring your employees using software, you must build complete confidence and transparency between the employee and company to let them understand the benefit of it. You can provide motivational training and give examples of how a company values their productive employees.
- Explain the purpose of monitoring: To gain employee trust, brief your employees about why the company needs to know about their work activities. The software tracks information unbiasedly, so a manager will gain true productivity insight which will help him to identify true hard workers. Companies should appreciates the hard work to let them know you value them. To motivate them further, you should let them see the dashboard of the software you use and the information you will gather. When they see that the software only tracks reports about their work activities, it will motivate them to give maximum output and enhance productivity. Let your employees know that you trust them and are satisfied with their work. On the other hand, if you notice any mistake, you should handle it with positive feedback and motivate them to do better. Overall the positive mindset of management can help employees to accept the tool without hesitation.
- Avoid Micromanaging: Micromanagement is never liked by employees. As there is already a software tracking their work, you should give them the freedom for flexibility. Let your employees know what you expect from them, the way they should work, and the importance of delivering tasks within deadlines. Similarly, employees also should discuss openly with their manager and share their expectations from the company. This will help both sides to clear any confusion and help build trust.
- Respect employee privacy: Many employees consider the practice of employee monitoring as a privacy violation, which makes them uncomfortable and unhappy. Let your employees know the software you use is ethical and doesn’t hamper their privacy. They can do their personal tasks while the software off, during that time where the software is disabled and cannot track any data. Make sure that employees understand the monitoring process and agree to it. Monitoring employees without their knowledge or consent is a significant legal issue. Monitoring employees without their knowledge or agreement will result in a breach of trust between them and their employer and leads to a breach of privacy and personal data.
- Be Honest: When you are honest with your employees, it will automatically help you to build trust in the workplace. Trusting your employees plays a vital role in employee management. You cannot expect honesty from your employees if you are not honest with them. Honesty depends on the behavior of employees and the employer. Employees should work honestly and productively, and employers should appreciate them. At the same time, employers should understand no employee can give 100 percent all the time and complete everything on time. So accepting a few mistakes and delays can enhance your relationship further. Understanding your employees is a way of showing that you respect them and are honest with them, which helps build trust.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, monitoring your employees’ without breaking their trust is the essential building block for increasing employees’ productivity. So when you are choosing a monitoring software, please do proper research before you make the final decision. Always keep one thing in mind, good work ethics, encouragement, and flexibility can reduce various issues that make an employee unproductive. To increase employee trust, choose a software that gives you insight into your team’s work activity that is helpful for you to run your business. Increase your team’s productivity and gain their trust with CloudDesk employee monitoring software, which can be used to track digital activity of your employees from their remote location. Start your 14-Day Free Trial today so you can test out the innovative CloudDesk software and see how it will help you meet your business goals!
