Is employee monitoring the price workers are paying for remote work?

“Hi, it seems kind of quiet. Are you still working?”  

For many remote employees, monitoring software sends a signal that their managers do not trust them. Others see it as an acceptable trade-off for working from the comfort of their home, pointing out that remote monitoring isn’t all that different from your boss glancing at your screen as they walk past your office desk. 

While some managers may be enthusiastic about the possibilities of monitoring software, is it the best way forward for your organisation? There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get into it.

What is remote employee monitoring? 

Remote employee monitoring means using software to keep track of a worker’s attendance, productivity, HR compliance and prevent insider threats. There are several ways to do so including keystroke logging, GPS-based location tracking, screen recording, and webcam or microphone activation. 

Employee monitoring rose sharply during the pandemic and appears to be here to stay. One of the most comprehensive surveys by Capterra in late 2020 found that 59% of small to medium-sized Australian businesses use some form of software to monitor remote workers, while a 2021 Herbert Smith Freehills report put worker location monitoring in Australia as high as 91%; well above the global average of 79%. The global market size is predicted to reach almost US$7 billion by 2028. 

Is remote employee monitoring legal in Australia? Yes, but there are some (limited) protections under State acts. Employers in NSW, for example, must give employees 14 days’ notice before implementing any form of workplace surveillance. The Workplace Privacy Act 2011 (ACT) in the ACT regulates the collection of workplace surveillance and covers optical devices, as well as tracking and data surveillance devices. Victoria has its own protections, with the Surveillance Devices Act 1999 (Vic) making it an offence to carry surveillance in certain workplace situations.

Why some organisations choose remote employee monitoring

Organisations can implement employee monitoring software for many different reasons. Some may be focused on attendance while others are more concerned about HR compliance or cybersecurity. Key advantages include:

• Enabling remote work: The apparent loss of control involved in the shift to remote work has been challenging for many managers, especially those who favour a more hands-on approach to managing their teams. Employee monitoring software is one way to overcome this reluctance to embrace the remote work trend, making remote work more mainstream within many organisations.
  
• Attendance tracking: Are they working or not? Employers can use employee monitoring software to track and record work hours to help reduce unauthorised absenteeism and enable accurate payroll tracking for casual staff. It doesn’t have to be passive monitoring either: time tracking can prompt inactive employees with automated alerts and help managers spot overworking to prevent burnout.
  
• Activity monitoring: We all know that sitting in front of a screen doesn’t necessarily mean an employee is being productive. Activity monitoring enables employers to track employees’ email, website, applications, instant messaging, video and voice call usage with real-time analytics.
  
• Insider threat detection: While 90% of insider attacks result from human error rather than malicious intent, insider threat is a major cause for concern for cybersecurity teams. Remote employee monitoring is used as one of several risk mitigation techniques and involves file transfer tracking and alerts when unauthorised users attempt to access sensitive files. Some software options enable remote controls to stop the data breach from taking place.
  
• Productivity: Not everyone finds it easy to be self-motivated and accountable when working alone. In a psychological rule known as the Hawthorne Effect, workers increase their productivity when they know they are being observed. Some software options can even generate a “productivity score” for each employee.
  
• Reporting: A common feature across most remote employee monitoring tools, reporting enables managers to analyse productivity, spot red flags, make changes and provide accurate, objective feedback.
  
• Project management: Remote monitoring can help managers spot instances where employees are struggling with tasks but are reluctant to ask for help and intervene with extra assistance or reallocation.

The dark side of remote employee monitoring

Opinions are sharply divided over the use of remote employee monitoring. If employers decide the technology is necessary, it must be implemented with care to avoid employee backlash and concerns about intrusiveness and a loss of privacy. Common arguments against the software (often referred to as “Bossware” or “Spyware”) include:

Remote monitoring encourages poor management practices: Best-practice management is trending away from command-and-control and towards delegation and empowerment. Yet remote monitoring technology appears to double down on micromanagement – a court-recognised form of workplace bullying. A survey reported by Forbes found that 71% of employees believed micromanagement interfered with their job performance, 85% said it impacted their morale, and 69% considered changing jobs due to micromanagement.

A trust deficit. Interestingly, both sides of the debate talk about trust in remote employee monitoring. Advocates claim remote monitoring helps build trust by providing evidence that workers are being productive, while critics believe the software sets a tone of distrust, erodes the manager-employee relationship and creates a hostile work environment. Emerging counter-technology. Concern about the negative consequences stemming from an “away” status led to a market for mouse jigglers and other devices or downloads to fool remote monitoring software by keeping computers awake. While companies will be able to detect if the software is turned off, sophisticated users are ring-fencing monitoring programs so they can operate unobserved in a separate window. 

The answer is to focus on outcomes over output

While it is understandable why some managers would turn to monitoring technologies, it can also result in managers focusing on the wrong things. Just because it is easier to measure time spent on the tools does not equate to great work being produced. The reports produced by these technologies need to be viewed as one part of a greater picture, and people need to feel they are working in a psychologically-safe environment to produce their best work.

Great managers focus on outcomes over output. This approach involves stepping back, delegating responsibility, empowering teams and trusting them to deliver high-quality results on time. Regular check-ins are important, but the details – how they work, where they work and time spent at the keyboard – are not, and should not, be a proxy for performance.