Should You Use Employee Monitoring Software?

I have heard concerns from business leaders during the pandemic that they don’t know if remote employees are working.  They are concerned that if employees are working from home, it's easy for them to hide from their manager and not be held accountable.

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Many businesses have not had an effective system in place for monitoring remote employees. In one instance, employees would send an e-mail in the morning to ‘clock in’ and another at the end of the day to ‘clock out’, which of course is totally inadequate.

In terms of what they measure, employers need to consider what really matters. It’s not about attendance, it’s about outcomes - what an employee delivers in collaboration with their team. The workplace has changed, and the new normal has to be based on trust and results.

A 2020 Gartner survey of executives at 119 companies found 60 percent of companies are using technology-based tracking tools to monitor some of their hybrid or remote employees.

Remote monitoring software is promoted as a useful tool for helping employers track productivity, and to help managers ascertain where improvements can be made to workplace processes. However, they also present a privacy issue. If you choose to use them, you need to be completely transparent with employees about what is being monitored, and why.