Employee Surveillance Doesn’t Boost Productivity, but Breeds Resentment: Study

As more people have been working remotely over the last few years, some employers have turned to employee-tracking software to ensure that these staff are working while on the clock, and to boost productivity.

Tools like activity monitors and locations trackers, however, do not actually increase productivity and they can instead cause a backlash among workers, affecting job satisfaction and stress levels, according to a new poll.

Additionally, 26% of tracked employees said they distrust their employer and half of them feel pressured to work more hours, the survey by review website Software Finder found.

These findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of remote-employee monitoring and tracking, in light of the fact that one in four remote or hybrid workers are tracked.

What employers are tracking

Companies are mostly tracking workers to ensure they are staying productive and working their schedules. They employ a myriad of methods, including:

• Time-tracking software — Helps monitor when employees log in and out of work systems, and how they distribute their time across tasks.
• Screen monitoring — Offers real-time insights into employees’ screen activities, providing a glimpse into their work habits and efficiency.
• Keystroke logging — Tracks every keypress, offering data on productivity and potential security risks.
• Communication monitoring — Analyzes team messaging platforms to understand communication patterns, collaboration and information sharing.

Some employers also track a worker’s company-issued phone and computer locations.

Employee resentment

The survey found that:

• 53% of employees believe it’s a privacy violation for employers to track their activity.
• Three in four employees believe it’s a privacy violation for employers to track their location.
• 64% of untracked employees would recommend their company to others, while 58% of tracked staff would do the same.
• 36% of employees whose activity is tracked are currently looking for a new job, compared to just 18% of those who are not tracked.

Some employees have gotten wise and try to thwart software that tracks mouse movements by using “mouse jiggling,” a device or software that mimics mouse movement, or other software.

This prevents tracking software from detecting inactivity and makes employees appear active when they aren’t. The survey found that 17% of workers use mouse jiggling and that 12% don’t, but want to.

What you can do

All of the above said, remote-worker tracking can be a good thing if it’s implemented with care.

Insightful.com has this advice for companies that aim to track their employees’ work:

• Don’t track remote workers’ time outside work hours.
• Don’t install monitoring software on their personal devices.
• Don’t track remote workers without consent.
• Don’t use data to micromanage your employees.
• Don’t ignore signs of burnout in your staff.

If you do plan to implement tracking, it is important that you are transparent about the process. The review website recommends the following:

Set standards for remote staff. Make sure they are treated equally and entitled to the same break schedules and hours as their peers. Also, if you allow your office workers to chat with one another around the water cooler, you should allow the same deference to your remote workers who log into a social media account for a few minutes.

Encourage staff to raise questions/concerns. If you are implementing remote-employee monitoring, your staff will have many questions and concerns. It’s important that you keep an open line of communication with those who may feel that their privacy is being invaded.

Be transparent about the implementation of monitoring software, and cover the program in meetings with your staff and address their concerns.

After you’ve started using tracking software, you should hold a few meetings a year to check in with your workers about issues they may have. This will give you the chance to also adjust your tracking metrics.

Train remote employees. Your workers, supervisors and managers should know how to use the software properly and be familiar with its features and understand why it’s being used.