One of the keys to the success of companies is to monitor the productivity of employees and work to increase it, in order to achieve the company's goals and reach the appropriate level of productivity to achieve those goals.

As a definition of employee control, we can say that it is any process related to collecting information about their activities, and it is not only primarily collecting information, but also serving the goals of automating work, reducing the causes of distraction, and ensuring that work resources are used in the right place, according to the Financial Management Magazine. (FM-Magazine).

Why do companies monitor their employees?

There are several reasons why companies use monitoring programs or methods within the work, including helping to identify errors and locations of difficulty in performing work or some tasks, increasing the efficiency of resource distribution and making administrative decisions related to employees, and helping supervisors to prepare objective and accurate reports on the work environment.

Also, one of the reasons that companies may pay to monitor their employees is to collect and analyze work-related data to obtain a clear picture of its progress, help manage the salary scale and incentive system, find out the truth in the event of any conflict between employees, and enable supervisors to provide immediate support to employees in case they need that.

Surveillance increases during pandemic days

The global demand for employee monitoring programs increased in the period after April 2020, according to a report by Clockly, especially for employees whose nature of work allowed them to stay at home and work remotely due to the Corona pandemic (Covid-19), so the importance of monitoring Employees to ensure that they perform their work well and maintain the required level of productivity, and the use of monitoring tools ensures that work controls are maintained and employees are fully committed to its rules.

Despite this growth in demand and use, these technologies may not always bring a positive impact to the work environment, and may pose a legal or financial risk to the business or damage the company's reputation.

While the cost of these methods is relatively low, they do not necessarily lead to a significant increase in the value of the returns, due to the negative impact they have on the spirit of work and motivation of workers.

Global demand for employee monitoring software increased due to the Corona pandemic (Shutterstock)

What do companies use to monitor their employees?

There are many and different methods of employee control.

With the increase in the transition to the mode of remote work, there was a need to adopt methods of monitoring employees to maintain work order. The Washington Post website mentioned some of these means:

1- Collaborative tools:

It is a software that is used jointly by a number of employees working on the same task or project. These programs provide information and statistics about the entry and exit of employees, work time, downtime, and the amount of work completed during a certain period.

2- Internet browsing history:

By obtaining this record, it is possible to determine whether the employee is wasting time in a wrong place, so it is possible to know the sites that he enters and spends a long time in and filter these sites on work devices to prevent access to them.

3- Webcam:

This method enables supervisors to determine if an employee is on site by taking a picture through the camera at certain intervals, and it may extend to recording short videos or live broadcasting through them.

4- Keyboard activity and word alerts:

The keypad entries of employees are recorded and collected and analyzed, this enables to know what content the employee writes and determine if it is relevant to the work or not.

It is also through a certain software that monitors the words entered by the employee on the keyboard, and when there are certain keywords, an alert is sent to the supervisors to deal with the matter.

5- Email and chat content:

Companies monitor the content of e-mail sent and received by employees, and determine if it is work-related or poses a risk, in terms of corporate information leakage or other risks.

6- Geolocation tracking:

This method extends outside the work area for employees in offices, through the “GPS” chip in mobile phones, it is possible to know the whereabouts of employees around the clock, and this case may be considered a violation of the privacy of employees in some cases, especially outside workplaces.

Webcam Enables supervisors to determine if an employee is on site by taking a picture via the camera at certain intervals (social networking sites)

Employee Monitoring Rules

Federal rules and laws in the United States give supervisors the freedom to monitor their employees without informing them, while concealing the extent and means of monitoring.

However, in some cases and depending on local laws, this control cannot be implemented without first obtaining approval from the staff.

Surveillance and workplace privacy laws emerged as a result of the (electronic communication privacy) movement in 1986, which allowed companies to monitor verbal and written communications of employees, but this was conditional on the company providing a legitimate reason directly related to the work.

Nevertheless, the previous laws may sometimes be deceptive, when obtaining the consent of the employee to monitor him, the matter may extend to personal monitoring, and this constitutes a violation of the privacy of individuals in their personal lives outside work.

On the other hand, monitoring must be within reason. For example, it is not permissible to put a video surveillance system in certain privacy places such as bathrooms or dressing rooms, but rather it is limited to public places only, such as the workplace and places of large gathering of employees, otherwise companies will face lawsuits It will cause her great loss and greatly damage her reputation.

Risks and downsides of employee monitoring

Despite some positive reasons for applying control methods at work, it has risks and negative aspects as well.

Accessing employee information more than necessary has its risks, it must pass in plain sight of supervisors personal information of employees, such as bank data, personal email, medical records and other health information. It has ominous consequences for the company's business and reputation and may mean its end.

There are negative effects on the productivity of employees when they feel watched, they generate mistrust and suspicion from their supervisors (Shutterstock)

Another negative aspect is not on working individuals but on the company itself, which is the time and effort spent in collecting, analyzing and absorbing information about employees, although analyzing this information to benefit from it is important, this process takes effort and time.

There is also a negative impact on the productivity of employees, when they feel monitored, they have a feeling of mistrust and suspicion by their supervisors, and this leads to a decrease in their enthusiasm for work and a decrease in their returns, creating a charged and tense atmosphere at work.