Monitoring Remote Workers is a Touchy Subject

With so many employees still working remotely, organizations have turned to technology to ensure that their workers are actually… you know, working. While the need to know what your employees are up to throughout the workday is important, there is now a discussion happening on whether or not this violates employees’ privacy.

It should be mentioned, first off, that monitoring employee activity is nothing new. Businesses have been monitoring their in-house networks since they gained the ability to do so. This is usually done not out of a need to spy on employees or guarantee productivity, but as a security means to make sure workers are not doing anything that puts the organization or its network at risk.

However, this hasn’t stopped some employers from going too far with this practice, and there is some debate over what exactly “too far” is. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in both remote work and monitoring of employees while performing said remote work. Employers simply want to know how employees are using their time. For an example of how these numbers looked before the pandemic and during the pandemic, let’s take a look at research performed by Opinium. According to a survey of 2,400 employees, 32 percent of employees are being monitored at their jobs as of October. The numbers in April were 24 percent, showing a significant increase.

Furthermore, according to HR departments, employee monitoring is far more prevalent than those numbers showcase. Respondents in HR and IT both indicated that monitoring is currently happening within their organizations at 69 percent and 63 percent respectively. So, it is safe to say that the majority of employees are being monitored in some way, whether they know it or not. This creates issues of trust and transparency within organizations, both of which can be hard to get over to work towards a common goal. 

How you monitor your employees is none of our business, but we do think it is important that you are monitoring your network, especially to aid in network security. If you would rather take a hands-off approach to monitoring your network so that your employees don’t villainize you, then Network Solutions Unlimited can help by assisting you with monitoring services and solution implementation. We can discreetly keep an eye on your infrastructure and keep it safe, even from your own employees.

To learn more about comprehensive our remote monitoring services, give us a call at (217) 428-6449.