Performance tracking can come in any variety of forms, and any form of performance tracking can be defined by answering two questions:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nearly every company makes general assessments of an employee\u2019s productivity: usually by measuring hours worked and comparing them to the total amount of work completed.<\/span><\/p>\n However, in the last decade, new technologies have given companies the ability to track and measure employee activity at much higher levels of granularity.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, organizations nearly always track their employee\u2019s time at work. Until recently this was only feasible at a very low level of granularity, by using time cards that let employers view employee work in blocks that begin with clocking in and that ends with clocking out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over the past ten years though, new technologies have enabled companies to collect employee work time with a much higher level of granularity, by using software installed on employee devices to detect when an employee has gotten out of their chair to use the restroom, or when they have looked away from their work to respond to a text.<\/span><\/p>\n These new suites of monitoring software are designed to give employers an extremely fine-grained view of any aspect of their employees\u2019 lives that could possibly make contact with their work activities. Today <\/span>nearly 75% of companies in the U.S.<\/span><\/a> use some form of highly granular employee surveillance program.<\/span><\/p>\n As with any new technology, this new capability comes with both benefits and risks. On one hand, these technologies offer sensible ways for employers to ensure workers\u2019 time isn\u2019t being misspent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, some can cross the line by infringing on employee\u2019s rights to privacy, by monitoring things like their bathroom usage, or simply create unfair or unrealistic work expectations, by penalizing employees for sitting still, or taking their eyes off their screen.<\/span><\/p>\n It is widely agreed upon that there is <\/span>some<\/span><\/i> moral line that employers should not cross when keeping tabs on employees. And there is a <\/span>growing awareness<\/span><\/a> that many of these employee-monitoring practices <\/span>can cross a moral line<\/span><\/a>. Where is that line, though, and how do we stay on the correct side of it?<\/span><\/p>\n Tracking employee performance offers plenty of benefits to employers. Even employers with the most benevolent interest in their employees\u2019 privacy might implement versions of these programs because they allow companies to keep constant track of how their data is being used, which can be essential in handling data breaches or compliance audits. They could also remotely control computers to help troubleshoot emergency problems, or analyze employee activity to determine a baseline for employee productivity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is easy to see the appeal of these benefits. And because more data generates more insight and better decisions, it is easy to understand why corporations would invest in tools that give them as much information as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is hardly a new business practice. There was once <\/span>an entire division of the Ford Motor Company<\/span><\/a> established in 1913, called the Ford Sociological Department, that was charged not only with tracking employee performance, but with <\/span>secretly surveilling employees off the job<\/span><\/a>, to determine whether employees were drinking alcohol, practicing good hygiene, or having what Ford considered \u201cappropriate\u201d marital relations.<\/span><\/p>\n Ford\u2019s employee surveillance practices were extreme and invasive violations of employees\u2019 basic rights to privacy and to freedom from discrimination. Today, however, companies can simply purchase software that gives them much more data on their workers than Ford\u2019s Sociological Department could have ever collected. And in many industries, highly granular forms of employee tracking\u2013even when off the job\u2013has become the norm.<\/span><\/p>\n Since 2018, 94% of major corporations reported that they track, at a minimum, their employee\u2019s internet history, phone use, and emails. Many of them go further, requiring installation of monitoring software on computers and phones that give employers <\/span>a wide range of capabilities<\/span><\/a>, including:<\/span><\/p>\n Employers have a justified interest in knowing certain things about their employees\u2014whether they are spending their time on the job appropriately, whether they are handling company equipment properly, and, to some extent, even whether their employees are physically healthy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So how do we know when performance tracking goes too far? There are a few questions that can help answer that question in most cases:<\/span><\/p>\n Some companies have implemented systems that detect when an employee goes to the bathroom, or goes longer than a few minutes without using their mouse or keyboard, and then deducts time from their pay. It is not difficult to imagine even more extreme uses, like tracking employee\u2019s eye movements and refusing to pay employees for time when their eyes were closed too long, or not focused on their computer screen.<\/span><\/p>\n To sum up, the practice of employee monitoring is so pervasive at this point that it\u2019s simply the norm for large companies. The software is constantly becoming more sophisticated, and the benefits to companies have become so attractive that it\u2019s nearly impossible for leaders to justify <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> using it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is a major moment in the history of corporations, and while companies will generally benefit, it\u2019s inevitable that some will go too far, and damage their public image, their relationship to their employees, or their organizational culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To ensure we don\u2019t cross the ethical line in our data collection, business leaders have to do four things:<\/span><\/p>\n These four commitments will help you avoid the pitfalls of overzealous employee surveillance, while still getting the most valuable insights out of these new technologies. Because ethical business is, in the end, just smart business.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a leader who wants to put these principles into practice in your own organization and increase employee performance, you can dive deeper into this subject and others with KnowledgeCity. Our courses on <\/span>Evaluating Employee Performance<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Individual Performance Measurement and Management<\/span><\/a> help you learn new skills, and are designed to be <\/span>easily accessible regardless of whether you’re working remotely, in-office, or with a hybrid model.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Avoid Becoming Big Brother: How to Earn Trust by Tracking Employee Productivity Ethically Tracking employee productivity is essential for any company that wants to continuously improve….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[4001,4003,126,34,4000],"tags":[445,266,178,4208],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Professional](\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Avoid-Becoming-Big-Brother-1000x667pix-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDefining Employee Performance Tracking<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Pros and Cons of Employee Performance Tracking<\/b><\/h3>\n
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When Does Performance Tracking Go Too Far?<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Conclusion<\/b><\/h3>\n
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