Is Employee Monitoring Rises Productivity or Just Breaching Privacy?

Workplace surveillance is on the rise due to the expansion of technological devices and gadgets have been deployed at business organizations. Every employer at business firms is working through cell phones, tablets, and computer machines connected to the cyberspace in particular. The Business organizations that are running with plenty of employees seem difficult to keep an eye on every individual within the working hour.  Resultantly, employees at the workplace do plenty of activities that really go against the book rather than by the book. They used to of wasting time within working hours, disgruntled employees even try to temper the company’s owned secret data stored into the digital devices. Therefore, employers at the end of the day left nothing, but to impose monitoring on employees to the fullest.

There are plenty of arrangements that the business owner can do in order to boost the productivity of the employees and can prevent time wasting and fishy activities of employees. Employers can install video cameras, listen to the surrounds of the employees, track emails sent/received, record and listen to the cell phone live incoming and outgoing calls and as well as spy on computer devices. However, employers even can use GPS tracking, according to Workplace Fairness.

• Almost 80% of the well –known companies are monitoring their employees’ emails, internet, and phone calls, according to the American Management Association that has been conducted a survey of workplace surveillance and monitoring.
• Stats say that since 1997 the percentage was only 35% of companies were used to of keeping tabs of employees. But over the years with the bombardment of the tech –devices at the workplace it is on the rise when office emails and internet become common things.
• AMA has conducted a survey on 1627 large or small business organizations including the members and clients that is nearly a quarter of U.S workforce.
• Survey further says employers of the companies have increased the spying on employees across the board. So, 63% of employees are spying on internet usage and 47% monitor emails, cell phone calls, browsing activities respectively.

Companies usually gathered the monitored data of employees in order to punish transgression. Almost a quarter of the companies says they have fired plenty of employee due to times wasting and fishy activities of employees. This is why workplace surveillance on the rise. Moreover, employees usually get involved in misusing office emails, internet and 65% of the ill-disciplined workers, according to the AMA survey. Moreover, these days’ companies are used to of block websites on computer devices that are inappropriate or unauthorized.

On the other side, when it comes to emails sent/ received on the company’s owned laptop and a desktop computer or cell phone or employees have visited sexually explicit material and got downloaded. Then cyber –attack can happen and you can lose your company’s data stored into the devices within no time, Eric Rolfe further added that.

At the workplace, there is a thin line between one’s personal and professional life, particularly at the workplace. However, most of the employees really cross the line and get engage in some directions where personal activities are being carried out at the workplace and within the working hours. Therefore, employers, these days have to protect business intellectual property and have to prevent goldbricking habits of employees at the workplace using the company’s owned devices. Moreover, employers can identify rouge employees before they become security threat.  Now the question arises the privacy of the employees could breach by the employers and it is largely illusory these days. Employees used carried out activities on company’s belongings including personal ones and employers, on the other hand, have a legal right to monitor their activities within the working hours. However, most of the experts do believe that spying at workforce could breach their privacy but boost up productivity.

Workforce needs to be managed at the workplace because it is the need of the hour. If an employer is paying their employees according to the working hours then employees need to be productive according to the given company’s standard. On the other hand, employees seem to engage in personal activities such as wasting time in personal social media chats and cell phone calls or in emails. Then the productivity of the company goes down and ultimately employers may suffer from the heavy loses.  Taking too much snacks breaks and getting involved in data breaching activities can put the business firms at risk. Therefore, employers have to monitor the surround conversation of company’s owned devices, have to use the GPS tracking tools to get to know about employees location history that is been deployed outside the company’s premises.

Moreover, employers have to create data backups in order to prevent data stealing or to retrieve data if something went wrong with the company’s secrets. Employers have no choice but to keep an eye on the employee’s activities. They have to remotely control the company’s computer front camera to know about their employees’ activities. Screen recording of computer machines is been very effective for employees to know what they are up to the company’s belongings.

Tracking cell
phone calls in real time also make the difference that how an employee is dealing with the client and further they cannot leak the company’s secrets to someone. Blocking websites on company’s computers prevent time wasting activities to the fullest. Remotely captures screenshots of digital devices can hold an irresponsible or rogue employee to be accountable at any point in time. So, all these employee surveillance factors ultimately protect and prevent illegal activities and further boost the productivity of the business. Put your employees also beneficial against the workplace harassment, because female employees over the years have been the target worldwide. On the other side modern technology empowers employers to remotely get to know about the illegal activities happen on company’s devices with mighty alarms activated on the devices in terms of compute monitoring apps.

The question arises with the use of monitoring apps or technologies how it will impact an employee’s perception. The continuous data gathering of employees ultimately beneficial for an employer, but it may become the major cause of privacy breaching. Obviously, no one would like to track their personal life activities and employees will definitely consider it invading of privacy.

According to the study conducted by CEB, most of the employees will consider it unacceptable or they may have mixed opinions for their employers to read their personal text messages, chat conversations and shared media files. However, employers should respect the element of privacy and they should act according to the LAW. They should take proper consent of the employees that if they use the company’s owned devices they will be under surveillance within the working hours. Further, employers can take written agreement not to use the company’s owned cellphones, tablets, and laptop and desktop devices for personal activities.