Management
Judith Wright
Managing a Remote Workforce Employee monitoring in the new hybrid workspace Employers have long used electronic means to monitor employees while on the job. Computer programs help measure productivity, track project completion and monitor workflow. Digital tools help employers ensure security and protect proprietary information. While workers generally understand such tools are in use, many are not really aware of the extent of their own employer’s practices.
As employees settle into a more permanent pattern of working from home, employers are starting to adopt new methods for supervising workers and monitoring their activity. Thankfully, the threat of COVID-19 appears to be waning, children are back in school and new safety precautions have allowed workers to return to the workplace. But in the face of a shortage in manpower, some employees have demanded more flexibility to trade in the pre-pandemic, five-day commute in exchange for the ability to login from home. A recent survey found that 80% of fulltime workers expect to work from home three days or more per week. The 2020 State of Remote Work by Owl Labs also found that half of surveyed workers said they would not stay in a job that didn’t allow some flexibility to work from home. Those worker attitudes have put pressure on employers to allow some latitude in work arrangements. Employers have discovered cost savings from having fewer employees in the office full time, including lower utility bills and cleaning expenses, reduced square footage space, rent, maintenance and property taxes.
URL History
Monitoring the URLs workers visit has been a common employer practice for decades. Managers have long been interested in seeing where employees
Email, Keylogging and GPS Some employers have also developed a greater interest in monitoring social media activity. If an employee is accessing Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest on a company device, the employer can see how often and for how long.
While companies can certainly benefit from monitoring employee activities, these practices call into question management’s trust of its workers. The challenge for the
For some time, many employers have taken steps to integrate software to block undesirable URLs or to filter website access. In the past, such software was viewed as a security measure to protect sensitive data, but some employers now use it to deter employees from idle surfing altogether.
In recent months, providers have seen an increase in the number of employers using software to monitor the actual work activity of remote employees. Managers have accepted they can’t always interface directly with team members, so use of work flow software helps track employee activity, progress and output. This also helps the manager identity any employee who is getting off-track or pursuing the wrong priorities.
employer is to find the right
balance between information
gathering and needless spying.
To manage in the new age of hybrid work arrangements, many companies are reevaluating how to assess performance, including adopting revised methods for employee monitoring. While not a new practice, the way employees are monitored is being looked at through a new lens. How much monitoring is needed to effectively run the business and how much is an invasion of employee privacy?
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diversion, but it’s not uncommon to find that a less productive worker has been spending a disproportionate amount of time in unproductive internet activity. The URL history provides good evidence to the manager to take disciplinary action against the employee.
spend their time during work hours. It’s estimated the average U.S. worker spends 10% of their workday surfing the internet, shopping online or monitoring email and social media. According to a study done at the University of Nevada, such ‘cyberloafing’ results in lost productivity at an estimated impact of $85 billion a year. Modest interruption from the work schedule is probably a healthy periodic
Even before the remote-work trend, surveys showed more than half of employers regularly check employee
December 2021 • January 2022 • Hamilton County Business Magazine
