More Companies are Using Technology to Monitor Employees
Employee surveillance is the use of various techniques at offices, and other workplaces to collect information about the activities and locations of employees. More companies are adopting the latest technology to monitor employees to improve productivity and safeguard corporate resources. The main intention is to prevent unacceptable behavior in the workplace.
International Data Corp (IDC) made research on a workplace and reported that 30 to 40 percent of employee internet access time was not work-related. Other statistics signify that 21 to 31 percent of members of staff had sent emails revealing sensitive information as trade secrets, intellectual secrets, outside of the corporate network; 60% of all online shopping is made during work hours. In the United States of America, the yearly loss in output through online goldbricking is estimated at 40%.
Surveillance methods include Hidden Camera, Voice Recording, GPS Tracking, Keystroke Logging, Wiretapping, and Internet Monitoring which include monitoring of employees’ website surfing, instant messaging, email, and interaction on Social Networking sites.
One important reason for the surveillance of employees through the latest technology is restricting them to use their respective types of equipment. It is legal for employers to observe employee’s use of corporate-owned smart-phones, laptops, computers, and other devices during duty timings. The issue of legality becomes murky when business owners observe staff using corporate-owned types of equipment outside of work hours or using their own devices during work hours.
Before positioning an employee surveillance program, you should elucidate the terms of acceptable and unacceptable use of corporate resources during duty hours and build up a comprehensive Acceptable Use Policy AUP that staff must agree to. We have world-class devices for monitoring employees. For further details click here.
More Companies are using technology to monitor employees:
Hidden Camera, GPS Trackers, and Voice Recorders are the devices that signify to a new era of a connected workforce, but some of the experts say that these technologies also put employee’s privacy at risk.
For example, a recent official document submitted by technology giant Amazon depicts a variety of Hidden cameras, Voice Recorders and GPS Trackers that could watch employees’ tasks. A leading technology company based in Wisconsin Three Square Market commenced an optional Hidden cameras program for its employees in July 2017. UPS owns sensors on its delivery trucks to track the opening and closing of doors, the engine of the vehicle, and whether a seat belt is clasped.
Sam Bengston, a software engineer at Three Square Market, said he eagerly willing to be embedded with a microchip.
He had not even considered not doing it; he further said that he used the chip to swipe into secure rooms and log into his computer. It had been a suitable and positive experience. These innovations can blur the line between security risks and better output.
Mr. Daniel Ives tech industry analyst from GBH Insights says that across companies, across the world, employers are looking to have a more interconnected workforce. Big tech companies are seeking methods to give employers a leg up and data insight into their operations and employees.
But those insights may come after breaching employees’ privacy.
Ives further says that from an employee and a personal data perspective, that information is very important. If that information goes into the wrong hands, it is no different than a major security violation.
Paula Branter a senior advisor at Workplace Fairness, a non-profit public education and advocacy organization that works to uphold and guard employee rights said, “People do not comprehend that there are not a lot of laws guarding privacy in the workplace. Part of the concern is that members of staff may not even be alert to how all the data is being tracked and how it is being used.
Companies are keeping their employees under vigilance more closely to judge their performance and boost the efficiency of their company after gathering all the data about the activities of workers. Modern technology provides a facility to Owners of companies and businesses to go far beyond the age-old clock-in/clock-out tools.
CBS reports that numerous companies are also tracking employees through apps on their phones, Hidden cameras, Voice Recorder, GPS Tracking. When they exit from they can be aware of their whereabouts. The TV further reports that some companies are essentially monitoring all the sites employees visit on their browsers, every knock they put as they type it in.
Most often, managers use the technology to judge employees’ productivity, help workers focus and measure how they spend their time on the clock. A lot of employees waste time in many ways such employees of many companies come late, leave early or playing fantasy football or other computer games on their computers all day instead of giving attention to their work. So, the latest technology is the best solution for employers to monitor the activities of office workers and other employees.
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One California worker was captured by a hidden camera that she was misusing PC of the company and wasting the time of the organization in playing games in-office time. Such activities can be noticed by the use of the latest technology.
There are several demerits and negativities of using such things. The actual drawback and the thing that I don’t think we have thought through is what is changing in the American economy is machines and robots taking away jobs. And what humans can do best is think artistically, think thoughts outside of the box, think things machines can’t think, think things robots can’t think. And to do that you need liberty, you need some elasticity.
CBS further reports that the recent New York Times Article investigating Amazon’s workplace and management techniques as an example of how monitoring employees may depress morale. The television channel signifies another negative aspect of monitoring the staff that places, where a lot of latest surveillance technology is used, can lead to unhappiness so managers may not know this. Other companies such as Netflix and Google pursue a more relaxed school of thought. Netflix gives vacation whenever you want while Google has very tranquil policies on how you spend your time; they encourage day-dreaming.
How the Hidden Camera, Voice Recorder, and GPS Tracking work:
- Hidden Camera is powered by batteries; many truly necessitate be unconnectedly plugging into the wall or otherwise attaching to an electric system. They do use wireless communication, nonetheless, which means that you do not have to use a cable from the camera to the receiver. This may make them more suitable to use and easier to hide.
- Highly Digital Voice Recorder comes in two forms; a dedicated recorder designed chiefly to record voice and other sounds or a built-in app on a smart-phone. However, hinging on your available sound equipment, you can also capture voice from several other audios and recording devices.
- There is a global network, of 30 satellites at the altitude of 20,000 kilometers from the orbiting it, called The Global Positioning System (GPS). In the past, it was specially designed for the military of the United States of America but now anyone can take benefit from it. A handheld GPS unit or mobile phone can collect the radio signals that the satellites broadcast.
How companies monitor employees:
Employers can set up video cameras to read email, and postal mail and observe computer usage and phone. Companies use GPS Tracking to monitor their employees at their workplace.
The workplace is full of examples that in some way settle on whether your work performance speeds up. Like production line employees that forced to work at a certain rapidity and call centers that track length of time on the phone. Employers and Bosses of companies and businesses also have access to company emails and computers.
Major tech companies often apply for tentative patents, and it is unavoidable that tracking will take on new shapes.
Employees Accept Tracking Technology:
Accepting privacy invasion to some extent has increasingly become part of the job. People are just accepting this trend as something they have to do to keep their job. In other words, this is lost in battle according to some experts. Paula Branter a senior advisor at Workplace Fairness noted that data is already being gathered about people’s activities and saved under unknown conditions. In some cases, employees choose to be observed.
More than 45 of Three Square Market’s 80 employees agreed to have GPS Tracker. The CEO of the company, Todd Westby said that with the advancement of the Global Positioning System Technology, employers have extraordinary access to their employees’ locations. For several years, many companies in the United States of America have been able to track their mobile or field workers’ whereabouts through GPS devices in vehicles. With more recent technology, companies can track whereabouts through Global Positioning System applications in Company Bosses’ smart-phones. But tracking presents threats employers need to comprehend so they can estimate whether the latent benefits offset the significant threats. Tracking workers’ whereabouts and activities through the Global Positioning System can have many benefits for companies. For taking the benefit of this latest technology for increasing efficiency in your business you can confide over our quality products. Visit our website and see the details of our quality products.
Companies are taking the following Advantages by Monitoring:
Surveillance of employees sounds as if the organization has no trust in its employees. However, lots of advantages come with setting up surveillance equipment in your business. Some of these advantages are not even advantages to a company rather they are advantages to the employees themselves. The boss of a company can’t monitor his employees all the time. The purpose behind Monitoring Employees is to let the employer know what is going on in your business in your absence.
- When a company has surveillance on your employees throughout their duty time, the company can catch mistakes or errors that may take place in the workplace in the day. Whenever you mark an employee committing a mistake, you have a chance to get in touch with him forthwith, identify his mistake, and compel him to correct the mistake on spot. On the other hand, you can note this experience and present it before the employee next time as a performance review.
- Companies are adopting technology to monitor employees to improve employer-employee relationships. You can note down the errors of employees and rather than pointing out immediately, you can discuss with them later at the right time. The habit of seizing upon erroneous employee may create fear and ungainliness and employee becomes uncomfortable and nervous about committing mistakes. This can lower the productivity of an employee.
- Voluntarily or involuntarily employees may violate safety rules which may be harmful to them and got seriously injured. By having a surveillance system, a boss can monitor any security issues that occur, including little safety dangers on the floor or overhead, especially for work atmospheres prone to security hazards, such as storehouses and construction sites.
- You can mark members of staff breaching company policies. There will always be deceitful employees – especially if you have a large company that has a lot of employees. In this example, you want to be able to catch these employees who often wrongly believe that they are above the regulations. You want to grab them in the act of violating company policies in the absence of administration. By monitoring them, you might be able to grab the culpable employees and instantly implement disciplinary measures.
- Another benefit that brings companies to use the latest technology for surveillance is an improvement in production rates. The manner an employee spends his time in the office has a major impact on the productivity of your company as a whole. By monitoring employees, you can see what they are doing with their time, which assists you to work out ways in which you can make your members of staff – and the office as a whole – more productive. For surveillance products visit our website.