Employee monitoring

Employee monitoring is the act of monitoring employee activity. Organizations engage in employee monitoring to track performance, avoid legal liability, protect trade secrets, and address other security concerns. The practice may impact employee satisfaction due to its impact on privacy.

Employee monitoring software

If employees use company computers for their work, companies often utilize employee monitoring software that allow them to track everything employees do on their computers. For example, what emails were received, what applications were used and what keys were pressed.

Telephone tapping

Employees' phone call details as well as actual conversations can be recorded during monitoring. The exact number and duration of each call, and the idle time between calls, can go into an automatic log for analysis.^[1]

Video surveillance

One of the most effective forms of employee monitoring is through the use of video surveillance equipment. Video feeds of employee activities are fed back to a central location where they are either recorded or monitored live by another person. "This is a benefit because it provides an unbiased method of performance evaluation and prevents the interference of a manager's feelings in an employee's review (Mishra and Crampton, 1998)." Management can review the performance of an employee by checking the surveillance and detecting problems before they become too costly.^[2]

Location monitoring

For employees that do not work in a static location, supervisors may choose to track their location. Common examples of this are delivery and transportation industries. In some of these cases the employee monitoring is incidental as the location is tracked for other purposes, such as determining the amount of time before a parcel will be delivered, or which taxi is closest.

Employee surveillance may lead to an executive's decision on whether to promote or demote and employee or in some cases even fire them.

Different techniques can be used, e.g. employees' cell phone or mobile phone tracking.

In arenas where employees are not paid to their full labor product, mass video surveillance is an industrial organization method deployed as a psychological tactic upon the proletariats psyche. Conceived by F. W. Taylor, though not available for many decades thereafter, video surveillance ensures near perpetual activity, or maximum exploitation. This method is favored in hotels to monitor housekeeping staff.

Employee privacy and ethical issues

Employee monitoring often is in conflict with employees' privacy.^[3] Monitoring often collects not only work-related activities, but also employee's personal, not related to work information. Monitoring does not mean that there are no limits to what should be collected. Monitoring in the workplace may put employers and employees at odds because both sides are trying to protect personal interests. Employees want to maintain privacy while employers want to ensure company resources aren't misused. In any case, companies can maintain ethical monitoring policies by avoiding indiscriminate monitoring of employees' activities.^[4] The employee needs to understand what is expected of them while the employer needs to establish that rule.

Legal issues

In Canada, it is illegal to perform invasive monitoring, such as reading an employee's emails, unless it can be shown that it is a necessary precaution and there are no other alternatives.^[5] In Maryland everyone in the conversation must give consent before the conversation can be recorded. The state of California requires that monitored conversations have a beep at certain intervals or there must be a message informing the caller that the conversations may be recorded, take note that this is not informing the company representative which calls are being recorded. Other states, including Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado and New Jersey, also have laws relating to when a conversation can be recorded

The following uses of employee information are generally considered legal:

• Find needed business information when the employee is not available.
• Protect security of proprietary information and data.
• Prevent or investigate possible criminal activities by employees.
• Prevent personal use of employer facilities.
• Check for violations of company policy against sending offensive or pornographic email.
• Investigate complaints of harassment.
• Check for illegal software.

According to Computer Monitoring: The Hidden War Of Control,“The employer of today has the ability and legal right to read e-mail, review files stored on a company computer, examine computer usage, and track individual employee computer activities. The idea of anonymous actions is an illusion. Every action between a network and the computers connected to it can be tracked. Every action by an individual worker on a computer can be tracked, analyzed and used against the employee. The protections and freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are there to protect the individual from the Government and do not generally apply to the normal employee/employer relationship.”^[6]

Financial benefits

Employee Monitoring can be used to monitor the safety and productivity of the employees but it also may help businesses financially. From the dishonest unethical employee who steals time and money from the business to the redefining of unprofitable processes in monitoring employee actions, employee monitoring allows for the growth of financial profits from a small investment. The monitoring of employees can help in the production of employees and it can help as protection in litigation by employees for job related issues such as failing to perform, illegal activities and harassment claims. According to the American Management Association almost half (48%) of the companies surveyed use video monitoring to counter theft, violence and sabotage. Only 7% use video surveillance to track employees’ on-the-job performance. Most employers notify employees of anti-theft video surveillance (78%) and performance-related video monitoring (89%), (Retrieved from the article The Latest on Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance on humanresources.about.com)^[7] In an article in Labour Economics, it has been argued that forbidding employers to track employees’ on-the-job performance can make economic sense according to efficiency wage theory, while surveillance to prevent illegal activities should be allowed.^[8]

See also

• Surveillance
• Mass surveillance
• Workplace privacy

References

1. SHERMAN, MARK. "GOV'T OBTAINS WIDE AP PHONE RECORDS IN PROBE". Retrieved May 13, 2013.
2. Gordon Amsler; Henry Findley; Earl Ingram (January 1, 2011). "Performance Monitoring: Guidance for the Modern Workplace". Supervision. p. 16.
3. Mishra, J. M. & Crampton, S. M. (1998). "Employee monitoring: Privacy in the workplace?". SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075). 63(3), 4.
4. Burks, F. Ethical Issues & Employer Monitoring Internet Usage. Chron.com, 2010.
5. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/supreme-court-rules-employees-have-right-to-privacy-on-work-computers/article4625660/
6. Kevin, P. P., & Tammy, Y. A. (2011). Computer monitoring: The hidden war of control. International Journal of Management and Information Systems, 15(1), 49-58. Retrieved from http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/IJMIS/article/view/1595
7. "Training Solutions for Individuals, Organizations and Government Agencies".
8. Schmitz, Patrick W. (2005). "Workplace surveillance, privacy protection, and efficiency wages". Labour Economics. 12 (6): 727–738. doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2004.06.001.