The new trends of the work environment where employees are isolated from each other through remote work, new problems of organizing work arise before many employers. Even though some people associate technology with the ability to control workers and ensure productivity, this approach can become counterproductive. Here is why implementing technology to spy its home-working employees can be a bad move.
Why Using Technology to Spy on Home-Working Employees May Be a Bad Idea?
1. Erosion of Trust and Morale
Any good working relationship is built on trust. The moment employees are conscious that their workplace activity is closely monitored including keystroke loggers, screen monitoring, or webcam surveillance feelings of mistrust creep into the workplace. This can lead to resentment and demoralization making what was once a collaboration into a team that is scrutinized and felt underappreciated.
When employees feel they are being watched they tend to demotivate, and lose what is associated with the company. Contrary to top management’s expectation that high levels of monitoring promote creativity and commitment, they breed fear and anxiety. Reliance is mutually exclusive and whenever employers opt for surveillance rather than dialogue, they are likely to destroy it beyond redemption.
2. Privacy Issue and Legal Issues
Intrusive employee monitoring is an issue because of privacy rights of the employees. Laws like GDPR in Europe and other privacy laws around the world set measures for collection and protection of data. Violators of these regulations could be brought to books; be charged legal consequences or receive hefty fines or both.
Also, being a teleworker, an employee has some rights to privacy while performing the work. Many software utilities that have the ability to monitor key presses, mouse activity, or record sound and/or video where permission has not been granted are questionable in their use and may therefore be somewhat unethical. In some cases, employees may even resort to lawsuits if they feel that their privacy has been infringed on. There are a number of employee monitoring tools. Check a few examples here. You have to choose the right one that maintains the regulations. For example, the monitoring tool from EfficientLab is an effective and ideal tool to use.
3. Small Chunks of Work and Other Related Consequences
Unlike the reasons for surveillance, over-monitoring will discourage productivity. Constant feeling of being watched puts stress on a worker, which affects a person’s ability to think and firsthand creativity. The use of surveillance can make the employee focus more on the ability to look busy and by doing so, reduce the quality and even innovation that is expected to be offered.
A fear based workplace result is unhealthy because it disengages the creativity of its employees and they are reluctant to take risks and experiment. On the other hand, management that believes in employee’s ability to schedule their own time leads to improved morale, which in turn results in higher productivity levels as well as more creativity.
4. Damage to Company Reputation
Reputation is a form of capital, storytelling about intrusive employee surveillance loses this capital rapidly. Employment seekers are more focused on the company’s policies with regard to work-life balance, respect their privacy, and integrity. If a company is associated with micromanaging or spying on its employees they will find it very difficult to attract the brightest employees and cadre retention will become an issue.
Thirdly, clients and partners can be concerned with companies that harm their employees. Public controversy about corporate privacy invasion can continuously affect a company’s reputation and partnerships in the future.
Where Vigilance Fails: Toward a More Reflexive Picture of Monitoring
Instead of resorting to intrusive surveillance, companies can adopt more positive and effective approaches to ensure productivity and engagement:
Set Clear Expectations: The first principle to be followed is setting specific objectives so that subordinates know what is required of them.
Foster Open Communication: Dedicated check and balance and feedback enhances understanding and accountability of the teams without necessarily quelling the freedom of the employees.
Promote Work-Life Balance: Because people work better when they feel that they have an employer’s confidence and are appreciated, knowing that employee performance can improve enhances its performance.
Fly-on-the-wall surveillance of employees working from home might sound like the easiest way to keep them on task, but it has one enormous snag. Thus, organizations need to work on trust, transparency, and other healthy practices at work helping a remote employee remain motivated and willing to perform a task.
