The Pros & Cons of Monitoring Employees

If you’re starting to notice a lack of productivity among your staff, it may be a good idea to start monitoring your employees. While this may have negative connotations among staff, it’s important to understand how productivity aligns with task completion.

For example, you may find that staff are being as productive as usual, but aren’t completing some tasks, due to them being given more tasks than usual.

Or you may find that productivity has dipped, giving you the opportunity to find solutions to encourage better quality of work and increase production.

What is employee monitoring?

Employee monitoring is a type of surveillance where employers gather performance and productivity metrics. This includes monitoring device activity, app usage and location tracking.

GPS tracking

GPS tracking is great for companies that have employees who travel a lot. It can help them see if staff are meeting their working hours and making deliveries on time. Through this, employers can view an employee's location, track routes and mileage and verify their working hours from a central location.

This can also help keep employees safe as you’ll know where they are in case of an emergency.

Internet usage monitoring

Monitoring internet usage can include logging social media usage, recording browser history and taking screenshots of employee monitors at different intervals.

Employee monitoring apps can gauge the bandwidth of an employee’s internet to see if they’re using any applications or sites they shouldn’t be. 

Email monitoring

Email monitoring can protect companies from malware malfunctions and viruses. It can also be used to keep an eye on the quality of messages sent to both employees and clients, to ensure brand reputation is being preserved. 

Recording phone conversations

Usually, recorded phone conversations are used for training purposes, but they can also be used to deter staff from having personal conversations on work phones. This therefore prevents time fraud within companies. 

Monitoring software and app usage

Monitoring software and app usage can be used to view what is helpful, distracting and unnecessary for their staff.

However it’s not just about viewing employees' day-to-day work routines, it can be used to make better decisions on software purchases. 

Tracking employee time

Time tracking software is a great way to view when staff have been late, taken a sick day or have not turned up to work altogether.

It will also help employers spot potential burnout, understand how much time is spent on certain projects and tasks, and give them the ability to generate timesheets that help them pay staff accurately.

At Payescape our Time and Attendance software can help you understand trends in employee attendance, helping you boost productivity and efficiency in your company.  

Keylogging solutions

Keylogging is the monitoring of keystrokes made on a device. This can help employers track productivity within the workplace through understanding how often the keyboard is used. 

Video surveillance solutions

Video surveillance is a fairly obvious solution, utilised by many companies for security purposes. For example, risk management teams usually view footage to make sure no theft or violence has taken place in the building.

The pros of monitoring employees

Both employees and employers can benefit from staff monitoring, as they can: 

Create clarity on expectations

When staff have clear expectations, they know exactly what you expect of them, reducing the chances of productivity and efficiency dropping within businesses. 

Improve employee recognition

When companies are tracking their staff’s tasks, work attendance and productivity, it makes it easier for managers to recognise those going above and beyond and delivering excellent quality work. This can then improve employee satisfaction and confidence, helping to instil a great company culture and further boost productivity. 

Provides a clear path to promotion

Being able to view who regularly completes tasks on time and to a great standard as well as who continually shows up to work, can make it easier for employers to make informed decisions about who deserves a pay rise or promotion. This can encourage employees to perform better to increase their chances of achieving a higher level role, while helping companies improve their productivity rates.

The disadvantages of monitoring employees

While there are some disadvantages to monitoring employees, they revolve around negative staff perceptions, which is something you can easily solve. 

The stigma around monitoring employees

While monitoring processes are in the best interest of employees, many people have negative views about it. This is due to some staff feeling as though it can weaponise the working environment as it can put them in positions of being criticised or judged unfairly.

As a manager, you need to be transparent with employees about how they will be monitored and how the data will be used to help them feel more comfortable about the process being used. 

Staff feel as though they can’t be trusted

Some employees feel as though their superiors don’t trust them if they are being monitored. However, companies should stress that it can help improve productivity, manage workloads better and reduce burnout, showcasing that it’s actually being put in place to help them thrive both inside and outside of work. 

Concerns around employee privacy

Keylogging can be a huge concern for staff as it can track and save passwords and banking details. To make employees feel more comfortable you should explain how information is collected and how it’s used.

Due to this, it’s important that companies show staff that their personal details are blurred out when keylogging is monitored.

How can Payescape help you monitor your employees?

Here at Payescape, our Time and Attendance software can help you track your employee's attendance, helping you prevent time fraud. This can also help you track trends and understand whether particular staff members are missing work days regularly without informing their manager or HR.

This also gives you the opportunity to see if employees are suffering from burnout and if they’re falling behind due to having too much of a workload. 

So if you’re looking to introduce employee monitoring in your workplace, get in touch with Payescape today to see how we can help.