How to Monitor Remote Employees Without Damaging Team Morale
Employee monitoring is a contentious topic. On the one hand, monitoring your employees’ workflows helps ensure that teams are working appropriately when on the clock. However, employee monitoring can also be construed as a symptom of managerial distrust.
When done correctly, employee monitoring can be highly effective. And it doesn’t have to break everyone’s spirits. In our current climate, with more and more of us working remotely as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it’s much more challenging for employers to discern whether or not employees are pulling their weight away from the office.
As such, employee monitoring is becoming an increasingly essential workplace practice. At the end of the day, managers still need control over teams and projects. But how can we monitor our remote employees without doing serious damage to team morale?
In this article we’ll be divesting our top tips for effective remote monitoring that will boost productivity without eroding that trust and respect of your employees.
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What is employee monitoring?
Employee monitoring is a term used to cover any kind of employee surveillance. In other words, the different ways in which employers track what their employees are doing at work. Employers will collect data about their employees’ computer usage, productivity, location, and various other activities in order to better understand how they are using their time at work.
Types of employee monitoring include:
- Web activity monitoring
- Computer activity monitoring
- Call queue monitoring
- Email monitoring
- Keylogging
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But why do employers do this and what is the purpose of workplace surveillance?
We choose the best enterprise network security products for our businesses, so it follows that we should employ the best in-house processes as well. There are many different reasons why employee monitoring might be useful for an employer.
Surveillance helps employers monitor their networks and manage employee bandwidth usage. It notifies employers of any unproductive (or inappropriate) web activity. And it prevents insider security threats in the form of data breaches or misuse of sensitive data or information.
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It’s not solely about catching employees who are abusing company time, though. Employee monitoring can also be used to help improve workflows by informing improved workforce management solutions. Likewise, it can save companies money when used to figure out which of the company software assets are actually being used (and which could be scrapped).
For instance, call management systems and monitoring tools are also incredibly useful for remote contact centers. FCR is a key priority for customer service teams. What does FCR stand for? It means First Call Resolution. In other words, when it comes to customer service, reps aim to resolve any questions the first time round. Monitoring remote service reps is a great way to monitor the extent to which FCR is actually being achieved on a daily basis.
So all in all, employee monitoring offers many different use cases. In just a moment we’ll be sharing our secrets to effective remote employee monitoring. First, though, let’s discuss some of the pros and cons you might encounter when you start monitoring your employees regularly.
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Pros and cons of employee monitoring
There are certainly many use-cases we can think of that make employee monitoring an attractive prospect for organizations. But the territory comes with its pros and cons.
If you do choose to start monitoring your remote employees, it’s imperative that you do it right so that your employees don’t start to feel disrespected, violated, or distrusted. After all, 63.3% of companies now admit that retaining employees is harder than hiring them in the first place.
Employee monitoring — the pros
- Increased productivity
- Enhanced performance
- Discover employee strengths and weaknesses
- Can be used to prevent workplace harassment
- Helps invoice pay-by-the-hour jobs
- Deterrent against time wasting
- Improved security against internal threats (e.g. PCI compliance)
Employee monitoring — the cons
- Employees feel distrusted
- Increased employee turnover
- Analyzing the data takes time
- Threatens employee data privacy
- Additional costs — surveillance software, data analysis software, etc.
- Where to draw the line — many of us use the same devices for work and personal use
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How to monitor your remote employees without damaging their morale
With remote work on the rise, monitoring our employee workflows is likely to become common practice. With teams working from home, employers can be forgiven for feeling a little anxious about employee activity. As such, digitally enabled workplace monitoring tools are becoming more and more commonplace.
According to a 2019 Accenture strategy report, 62 percent of companies started using new technology tools to collect data on their employees. Since the pandemic, the surveillance of workers with digital surveillance tools has quickly gained traction.
The question we must ask ourselves now is, how can we monitor our remote employees the right way? Employee monitoring doesn’t have to be (in fact it shouldn’t be) intrusive. There are plenty of ways to keep tabs on your teams without stepping out of line or violating their rights.
- Transparency
If you’re introducing employee monitoring systems for your remote teams, remember to be 100% transparent about it. There’s no point trying to avoid the topic, or worse downright lying about it. This is guaranteed to shatter your employee’s morale as soon as they find out. Be upfront with your employees. Tell them what software you will be utilizing, how it works, why you’re doing it, and be clear about your expectations.
What’s more, there’s no need to be dictatorial about it. Employee monitoring shouldn’t be a scaremongering task. Encourage feedback and conversation. Find out how your employees feel about the change and use this information to build a system that everyone is comfortable with.
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2. Step by step
Don’t rush the process. Give your employees lots of prior notice before introducing any monitoring software. This will give you time to gauge your employees’ feelings about the situation and engage in open, honest discussions about your intentions. If you’re already using a project management software, it might be worth discussing how you plan to introduce surveillance into this.
Once everyone is well informed, introduce monitoring solutions gradually. There’s no point sending your teams into a frenzy of panic. Don’t start tracking their every move all at once. Instead start with something small — email tracking, for example — and see how it goes before introducing any additional features.
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3. Improve > remove
The reception of your monitoring program will have a lot to do with management’s attitude to surveillance. Surveillance can be approached two ways; as a weapon or as an aid. We should always try to aim for the latter. Instead of using your new surveillance software to punish individuals for their remote productivity problems, try to use these tools for productive improvement.
For example, if Clive from accounts is spending too much time scrolling through his emails, there’s no need to single him out for immediate disciplinary action. Rather, it might be time for some team training about how to boost daily productivity and focus.
Remote working is no excuse. Thanks to fantastic video conferencing technology, it’s easy to conduct group training sessions online. You’ll tackle the same problem, but Clive won’t resent you for it.
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4. Avoid overreliance on technology
When we assess our employees based on data-led analyses, it can actually make us more demanding than we ever were before. People quickly become numbers. We can forget that they are humans. It’s so important to allow your employees a reasonable degree of flexibility in their workday.
People aren’t robots and our individual workflows differ depending on our individual skill sets, personalities, and productivity styles. Just because we can now see exactly what everyone is up to at every moment, it’s important to remember that not everyone will be working at 100% every minute of every hour of every day. The transition to remote work has been challenging for individuals and institutions alike.
If your employees’ workflows seem to have suffered, consider whether or not a shift to remote management might be to blame? Figuring out how to manage previously in-house teams can be a real struggle. You might find that your problems are solved simply by implementing a new remote management tool.
5. Have a clear monitoring policy
When it comes to monitoring our employees digitally, the lines are somewhat blurry. That’s why it’s so important to have a clear and detailed remote work policy written up in full. And make sure it’s legally binding. Sharing this policy with every member of an organization is the best way to maintain transparency, trust, and agreement.
Be clear about exactly what tracking methods will be used, and how they will inform employee reviews. In fact, why not involve your employees in the policy writing? This will ensure that the workplace remains a trusting and inclusive space where everyone’s best interests are taken into account.
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6. Business activities only
Surveillance tools are designed to monitor the efficacy and suitability of employee actions whilst at work. But what about the managers deploying these monitoring software solutions?
It’s not just employees who need to be held accountable for their actions. When we choose to use surveillance tools it is absolutely vital that we use them in accordance with ethical best practices.That means monitoring business activities only.
It is nobody’s business what Sally the customer service rep is doing on her day off. It’s fine to monitor her work on your customer service platform, but that’s where it must stop. Plus many of us utilize the same devices at work as we do off the clock. Drawing the line between what it’s okay to monitor and what should remain private is critical.
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7. Build a culture of trust
Lastly, remember that these changes are likely to cause a degree of anxiety amongst your workforce. As such, it’s important to prioritize workplace culture even more during this time. Building a culture of trust is a continuous process that requires actionable steps.
As the new policy is integrated into daily work life, be open to alterations, suggestions, and feedback. Then act on it. This will enhance performance and ensure that your organization retains a trusting and inclusive culture.
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Monitoring your remote teams the right way
As remote working becomes the new normal, employee monitoring is set to become increasingly commonplace. This marks a big shift in the employee-employer dynamic and must be treated with a great deal of openness and sensitivity if it is going to be a success.
Employee surveillance doesn’t have to destroy team morale. Done the right way, monitoring tools can be used for productive outcomes that improve employee experience for everyone.
Bio:
Victorio Duran III — RingCentral US
Victorio is the Associate SEO Director at RingCentral, a global leader in cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions. He has over 13 years of extensive involvement on web and digital operations with diverse experience as web engineer, product manager, and digital marketing strategist.
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