Privacy vs. Productivity: Why Does Monitoring Employees Backfire?
In today’s privacy-conscious world companies are constantly monitoring employees in a way that is transparent and minimally invasive, keeping employee privacy as a top priority. The practice of employee monitoring has become increasingly common- and astonishingly expansive- which has made it easier for managers to monitor employees in the office and remotely. And for employees, when they know managers are watching them, they could become more productive and waste less time. But is that actually the case?
Unfortunately our experience of working with companies using CloudDesk employee monitoring software tells us that this is not the scenario in every company. Numerous research studies show that trust is a significant factor in employee performance. So, how can you make your team feel trusted when you are constantly monitoring them during work hours?
Here at CloudDesk, we believe in maintaining a balance between protecting your company’s fundamentals and the privacy of your team members. As a manager you have to play the vital role of supporting to your team to do their best while ensuring they are staying productive in their given task. Every effective manager has a set of practices in place to monitor employees. The reason for increased scrutiny is clear: preventing waste time and improving performance.
Why does employee monitoring backfire?
There are a number of reasons why employee monitoring can backfire, they include:
- Feeling of constantly being monitored could cause increased anxiety and stress among employees. Which could be harmful to the overall productivity of the employee performance.
- Too much monitoring can make employees obsessed about the minor details, which could lead to a feeling of being micromanaged.
- Due to excessive monitoring employees may feel a lack of privacy, or mistrust that may cause employees to look for another organization, which would hugely affect your retention rate.
How can you avoid these pitfalls and still run your employee monitoring program?
These tips will reduce impacts on employee privacy and help employers maximize the convenience of their employee monitoring policy.
- Be transparent : Employees who are not aware that they are being monitored, why they are monitored and how they are monitored are less likely to accept this procure. So the first step is to let the employees know that the company has a monitoring policy and how it works. Ensure workers know why you are monitoring them and how the software will be used only during their work hours. A fully transparent method will make employees comfortable, while avoiding the chance of mistrust. It is also a good practice to give employees access to their own data so that they also know what is being reported.
- Monitoring, not surveillance: Monitoring can be quite addictive unless there is a control. To get rid of unnecessary monitoring avoid micromanagement. As a manager you need to understand that the whole idea of monitoring is to ensure productivity and not to find flaws. It is absolutely unnatural to expect that employees will always be highly productive.
- Have policies in place: Document your monitoring policies and give your employees a copy of it. You can also discuss them with your employees and receive their feedback on the policy for further strengthening of understanding.
- Use dedicated tools: Use software that is actually secure for your employees, many software have stealth options which is an unethical practice. Your concern towards their privacy will help build up trust between you and your employees. Make sure to use a software like CloudDesk that can track all the major metrics required with the acknowledgement of your employees, without disturbing the privacy of employees.
Remember employees can’t perform at their best when they become exhausted both mentally and physically. Good work ethics, encouragement and opportunities for flexibility can reduce these issues. To increase trust, choose a software that gives you insight of your team’s activity so that you can see if they need help delegating tasks or adjusting their workload. There’s no need to watch everything your employees are doing. Choose to only monitor worker output without sacrificing trust and privacy, expect to see positive payoffs in many ways you expect.
Increase your team’s productivity 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!
