Should You Use Software to Monitor Your Employees?

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​Monitoring your employees with software can be beneficial, if it’s done with strategy and the right intentions. From the logistics to implementing and communicating it, to dealing with potential issues, there is a lot to keep in mind to ensure employee monitoring software is effective for accomplishing your goals, rather than a distraction or a detriment to morale. Consider these factors when determining monitoring your employees with software is right for you.

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• Purpose

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Clarify why you would be interested in installing an employee monitoring software to figure out if it would be the optimal solution for your needs. What type of activity do you want to track and why? And how often will you be checking it (i.e., settling flags that will alert you to suspicious activity versus checking it manually on a regular basis)? This will help you determine how employee tracking software will fit into your overall leadership goals.

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• Transparency

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Being open with the use of employee monitoring software is important, or else it can cause a deep distrust of management if it’s kept secret. Before you implement the software, develop a written policy. Include it in the company handbook and share it company-wide. Transparency is key to ensuring that the monitoring software doesn’t negatively affect morale among employees.

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• Privacy Laws

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The biggest potential downside of using monitoring software for your employees is running afoul of privacy laws. While employees typically shouldn’t have the expectation of privacy while using company resources, you should still verify federal and your state’s privacy laws to ensure your monitoring process adheres to them.

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• Security

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Another possible risk to keep in mind is that, through tracking employee behavior, you may intentionally gain access to very personal data about them. It is up to you to implement solutions for storing the data from your software so that it is as secure as possible from hackers, and not used in a manner internally that could be considered discriminatory (i.e., information about employee’s religion or health).

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