How Your Business Can Check on Productivity Without too Much Digital Surveillance

"In an age of ubiquitous digital workplace tools that can help with pretty much every task, it can be tempting for employers to lean into monitoring apps that keep a weather eye on exactly what employees are doing during work hours. There's an argument for this kind of surveillance, since it can help accurate task tracking for accounting reasons, and spot people who are genuinely slacking off or being problematic in other ways,"

"In the GAO report, researchers note that more employers are using these tools thanks to the popularity of remote and hybrid working models, and because the number and capabilities of the tools have expanded, HRDive reports. This kind of "bossware" can "provide employers with information to help improve their operations," the researchers wrote, adding a cautionary note that "some worker advocates," have "questioned whether employers can use these tools in ways that negatively affect workers.""

"Digital surveillance apps do have the potential for positive impacts on workers' mental health, such as "increasing workers' sense of safety," the report notes, but on the down side they can also drive up employee stress and anxiety levels. More concerningly, the team also concluded that there are health risks inherent in this kind of software, namely that it can "increase workers' risk of injuries by pushing them to move faster to meet productivity metrics.""

Employers increasingly use digital monitoring tools to track remote and hybrid workers and improve task accounting. These tools can identify underperformance and flag potential mental health issues like burnout or boreout. Digital surveillance can increase workers' sense of safety for some, but it can also raise stress, anxiety, and push employees to speed up, raising injury risk. Surveillance may create unrealistic productivity expectations, for example imposing delivery timeframes that ignore traffic or a driver's condition. Employers must weigh benefits against health and operational risks before deploying pervasive monitoring.

Read at Inc