Employee Surveillance Software Usage Spikes As Work From Home Is More Widespread

 

A new study indicates that, as more workers do their duties from home, an increasing number of companies are utilizing employee surveillance software. 

Managers fear that the employees will not show the same dedication or determination when working from home and, with 77% of workers wanting to continue the practice at least once a week, the implementation of surveillance and tracking programs was a way to assure operators yield. 

Companies like Prodoscore or TransparentBusiness registered record growth periods after the coronavirus pandemic, with more than a 500% rise in users and active accounts. 

“Prodoscore takes several data points, be it a CRM tool that they are currently using, a phone system like a Vonage, an email system, it could be G Suite or Microsoft 365. We aggregate all those data points in real-time, the proprietary dashboard that provides them a weighted score, all of it is recorded.”

Prodoscore CEO Sam Naficy

This is a real opportunity to reshape the work environment, and mutual trust is necessary to do this. Google Trends shows concerns about more and more workers googling employee monitoring. There is a need for a full transparency policy in place when it comes to monitoring products of the workplace. 

Jamie Woodcock, a senior lecturer of people and organizations at The Open University, posed a series of questions related to the subject. 

“Will it benefit people who are working and are now able to work in new ways? Or will it benefit employers who will find new ways to get the most out of people’s time they’ve bought to make people work even harder?”

Jamie Woodcock

Depending on the company policy, both options are valid in the real world. Some companies will find ways to use a heavy hand. Others will find a way to improve the work environment and collaboration between management and employee. Overuse of employee surveillance software can lead down some dark roads and extreme dissatisfaction. Indexing every keystroke and action, and then compiling it into pure numbers, is a sure way of losing any humanity in the office.