Means of monitoring employees .. Does it increase productivity or eliminate privacy?

 

One of the keys to the success of companies is to monitor the productivity of employees and work to increase it, in order to achieve the company's goals and reach the appropriate level of productivity to achieve those goals.

As a definition of employee monitoring, we can say that it is any process related to the collection of information about their activities, and it is not only primarily collecting information, but also serves the goals of automating work, reducing the causes of distraction, and ensuring that work resources are used in the right place, according to the Financial Management Magazine. (FM-Magazine).

Why do companies monitor their employees?

There are several reasons why companies use monitoring programs or methods within the work, including helping to identify errors and locations of difficulty in performing work or some tasks, increasing the efficiency of resource distribution and making administrative decisions related to employees, and helping supervisors to prepare objective and accurate reports on the work environment.

Also, one of the reasons that companies may pay to monitor their employees is to collect and analyze work-related data to obtain a clear picture of its progress, help manage the salary scale and incentive system, find out the truth in the event of any conflict between employees, and enable supervisors to provide immediate support to employees in case they need that.

Surveillance increases during pandemic days

The global demand for employee monitoring programs increased in the period after April 2020, according to a report by Clockly, especially for employees whose nature of work allowed them to stay at home and work remotely due to the Corona pandemic (Covid-19), so the importance of monitoring Employees to ensure that they perform their work well and maintain the required level of productivity, and the use of monitoring tools ensures that work controls are maintained and employees are fully committed to its rules.

Despite this growth in demand and use, these technologies may not always bring a positive impact to the work environment, and may pose a legal or financial risk to the business or damage the company's reputation.

While the cost of these methods is relatively low, they do not necessarily lead to a significant increase in the value of the returns, due to the negative impact they have on the spirit of work and motivation of workers.