Remote Monitoring Your Staff & Trust: The Right Balance

With the help of technology, you can monitor your staff’s activity and productivity while they are working remotely. This concept has been there for a while, but it has gained tremendous popularity since COVID-19 hit globally. Businesses and other organizations were forced to work from home to help curb the spread of the virus. Businesses were already going through tough times, but working remotely added to the stress. It became difficult to keep a track of what the employees were doing at home, or how much time and effort were they putting into their work. Due to working from home, many businesses suffered due to the inefficiency of their staff, therefore, these businesses and organizations resorted to monitoring their staff remotely.

However, there are some issues with monitoring your stuff remotely; there are some ethical concerns that have been raised. Monitoring your staff’s computer use might be an example of invading their privacy; many concerns have been raised regarding this. If the right balance is found, it would be beneficial for the staff and the organization both. From the looks of it, it seems as if remote working is the new norm, and organizations cannot incur any losses due to the inefficiencies of their staff.

SHOULD I BE MONITORING MY STAFF REMOTELY?

Pre-COVID, when your staff was working under your nose, things were going smooth. You could easily track their emails, meeting records, social media accounts, timesheets, and the utilization of the workspace, but with remote working, it has become difficult. In the office, you were still monitoring your staff, but the way it was done, was different- it did not seem to be too intimidating. However, with these software and technologies, monitoring your staff does seem to be intimidating.

To ensure the employers and employees are ethically on the same page regarding remote monitoring:

1. Both parties must accept that working from home is the new way to work.
The COVID-19 situation is not getting better any time soon, therefore, the employers and employees should compromise and come to grounds that work the best for both parties. If employers want to monitor their employees, then they must compensate the employees by providing them with lesser working hours or a flexible schedule.

2. There should be dialogue to ensure that the employees are well aware of the benefits of monitoring the organization
Employers need to discuss with their employees how this monitoring is a modified version of the monitoring they experienced in the physical workspace. Employees must also be briefed about why the organization needs to monitor them.

3. The employees must be informed about sufficient safeguards to prevent any episodes of abuse
This is usually the main concern of employees, and they must be ensured that the data collected will be encrypted.

4. The level of monitoring depends on one’s designation at work
Although it may seem a little unfair, employees on higher posts will be monitored to a greater extent, than the junior level employees.

At the end of the day, an employer would ask for a certain level of efficiency from their employees. Since the employees get paid for their work, they would have to provide that level of efficiency to their employers. If the employer assures his staff that the data will not be misused and will be encrypted, the employees would be more comfortable with remote monitoring.

HOW IS REMOTE MONITORING DONE?

There are various software and tools that can be installed to help monitor the employees while they are working from home. There is a thin line between work-related surveillance and personal surveillance that must not be crossed.

Remote monitoring can be done in the following ways:

1. Time spent on apps, email, and other websites.

2. Take pictures through the webcam periodically.

Software installed can be logged out by the employee’s system, by the employee, to allow them some space to complete non-work-related tasks with full privacy. Before the installation of this software, the employees are given advanced notice for remote monitoring, promising to protect their privacy rights of the employees.

FINAL THOUGHTS

With trust and acceptance, employees and employers can work around and make remote monitoring possible. During this pandemic, the sales of remote monitoring tools and software have increased sharply. Companies and organizations could not compromise on the work efficiency of their employees and had to purchase this software. There are many companies available in the market that offer this remote monitoring software. One such reliable company is DigAptics, which provides the best software for remote monitoring, suiting every business of all sizes. Contact a member of their team to discuss things further.