Companies in the United States lose between $450 billion and $550 billion annually due to the lower productivity of disengaged employees. If you’re worried about your workforce’s performance, it may be time to consider employee monitoring software to improve your company’s resource allocation and bottom line.

Are you thinking twice about monitoring your employees?

You’re not alone.

Employee tracking has a negative connotation as most people equate it with micromanaging. This management style has been known to drive 69% of employees to consider quitting. It is also a contributor to low morale, high turnover, inefficiency, instability, and lack of continuity.

Does that mean employee monitoring should be avoided?

With the right strategies and tools, you can make it work for you while keeping employees happy. Join ControTask as we offer insights into the pros and cons of employee monitoring. If you’re going to implement it, do it right and be armed with sufficient information.

What Is Employee Monitoring?

Employers need to measure productivity to get a clear picture of their team’s performance and efficiency. It also helps them identify areas of improvement so they can make the required operational changes that will pave the way for higher profits.

However, measuring productivity can be challenging and the techniques vary by industry.

With remote work quickly becoming more popular, particularly in knowledge-based industries, it has become increasingly important to evaluate teams’ activities, assess behavior, and collect proof of work. Having these insights will help you eliminate patterns of inefficiency and improve your team’s productivity.

Types of Employee Monitoring

There are many types of employee monitoring, but these are most commonly used:

Monitoring Emails

Did you know that, on average, employees check their email 36 times per hour?

Considering that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to a task, it’s important to set up a mail server monitoring software to visualize email activity and curb distractions. Because emails can also contain malware attachments or links with malicious codes, this due diligence can also safeguard your personal information and the integrity of your computer networks.

Video Surveillance

In 2023, 38% of employee monitoring tools included video monitoring. That number has now jumped to 42.42% and it’s easy to see why. Video surveillance doesn’t just help monitor operations; it also provides a layer of protection against theft, burglaries, and attempts to sabotage company property.

Keylogging Solutions

This type of surveillance is often limited to IT monitoring and the collection of feedback during software development. It allows you to track and record the keystrokes users make on their devices. However, its use often falls in an ethically questionable gray area as it can also record sensitive information like login credentials and credit card numbers.

GPS Tracking Software

This type of tracking is typically used to track the activities of employees who work in emergency departments and hazardous conditions such as police, firefighters, and military personnel. It’s also a nifty tool for businesses that offer bike and car rental services as well as courier services because it allows them to see their workers’ efficiency, verify working hours, and increase their accountability on the job.

Tracking Employee Time

Time-tracking tools have become increasingly common as they have the potential to increase productivity by 80%. By allowing employers to see how many hours employees actually put in on specific projects, they can be smarter about the allocation of resources while ensuring employees are compensated fairly and accurately.

Recording Phone Conversations

Companies, particularly those in the communication business (read: call centers), use this type of monitoring for quality control. It helps them identify issues in performance and diffuse customer complaints before they need escalation.

What Are the Pros of Employee Monitoring?

Here are some of the most notable benefits of investing in employee monitoring.

Increases Revenue

Employee monitoring minimizes pinch points, improves productivity and efficiency, and streamlines workflow. Because it helps you identify bottlenecks in your workflow, it can also reduce redundancy, leading to higher revenue.

Improves Productivity

Employees are 7% more productive when they know they are being monitored.

This is because tracking software makes them more mindful of their actions, reducing precious time they might waste on non-work-related tasks. Getting insights into how they spend their time and how they interact and communicate with their team will also allow you to distribute workloads more evenly, assigning the right number of tasks according to employees’ capabilities and skill sets.

Heightens Employee Retention

When you use employee monitoring software to keep track of your workers’ activity and reward them for their contributions, you increase their morale. It can lead to a lower turnover rate, helping you save 1.5 to 2 times their annual salary.

Increases Employee Engagement

Many organizations fail to implement employee monitoring because they feel it reduces engagement. Contrary to popular belief, it can actually give you insights into common signs of disengagement so you can take the required action to improve the workflow, minimize process inefficiencies, and reap better output.

Ensures Operational Compliance

Employee monitoring keeps track of your team’s activities, ensuring they follow the industry standards and regulations during work.

So, if there is a data breach, violation, or suspicious user activity, you’ll know exactly who violated the policies and shared your private information with outside parties. You can also spot threats before they become an actual, full-blown problem.

It can be an incredible tool for preventing insider thread issues.

What Are the Cons of Employee Monitoring?

There are two sides to using employee monitoring: the good and the bad.

We’ve listed the most common drawbacks here so you can make more informed decisions about implementing the right software for your business.

Creates Distrust

Employee monitoring can undermine morale as it can be a sign to your employees that you do not trust them. Moreover, a study has shown that monitoring employees can make them more likely to break your rules compared to those who aren’t being monitored. It can cause stress and anger, and lead to increased turnover. But before that happens, they’ll take unapproved breaks, work at a snail’s pace, and even steal your resources.

Privacy Concerns

Because employee tracking systems like keylogging can record sensitive information like bank details, medical records, and social media credentials, it can violate employees’ privacy and expose them to hackers. That’s why it’s important for companies to use tools that redact these critical bits of information to ensure safety.

What Does Effective Employee Monitoring Help You Accomplish?

Effective employee monitoring focuses on outcomes, with insights from employee activity. It does not seek to micromanage, which causes issues with employee motivation, morale, and retention. When employed with transparency, it helps:

  • Ensure compliance

  • Improve quality control

  • Optimize resource allocation

  • Make employees more focused

  • Enhance customer satisfaction

Moreover, it also helps enhance security within the system.

Tap Into the Many Benefits of Employee Monitoring With ControTask

As you can tell by the pros and cons of employee monitoring, it can be a delicate subject that needs to be introduced properly. But if you’re transparent with your employees and prioritize their performance and well-being, you can create an environment that’s conducive to success.

And that’s where ControTask can be of aid to you.

We provide useful features like real-time and cloud-based operations monitoring so you can efficiently track employees’ productivity. The best thing is you don’t need administrative overhead to reap its benefits. So, if you’re looking to improve the way your employees work, choose one of our packages and get started today.