In a previous post, we discussed some survey results from a recent Blind report, which showed that 25.8% of employees feel their employers go to unreasonable lengths to monitor their online activity. Blind also cited research from SAGE, which shows that two-thirds of employers utilize some form of electronic monitoring of employees.
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We also discussed the potential negative impact this kind of monitoring can have on employees in terms of job satisfaction and productivity. Employees who feel like they are being watched to an unreasonable degree will likely chafe under what they feel are repressive conditions. Their job satisfaction may lessen, and as a result, their productivity may drop, and they may even leave the company.
So, what can companies do to ensure their employees aren’t sluffing off without making those same employees chafe under excessive supervision? Here are some tips.
Lead by Example
As with any office behavior, your leaders and managers set the tone for the rest of the organization. If they are seen slacking off or wasting company time, others will take their lead.
Focus on Performance
While many employers might have a fundamental “moral” issue with employees wasting company time, what really matters for the bottom line is the employees’ performance overall.
Would you rather have an employee who regularly takes long breaks and leaves early but always completes his or her work on time and at a high quality or an employee who never takes breaks, works long hours, but consistently underperforms?
If employees feel like rules are being enforced just to have rules, they will likely chafe. But if you can show an employee that his or her performance is suffering and it is likely—at least in part—due to spending too much work time on non-work-related activities, it’s a much stronger argument for greater monitoring and enforcement.
Try to Be Employee-Specific
One trap many companies fall into is adopting a blanket policy applicable to all employees in response to the behavior or actions of a subset of employees or even an individual employee.
If you don’t have a companywide issue with inappropriate Internet use, why make a companywide policy for greater monitoring of Internet use? Instead, focus on correcting the behavior of the people who are truly the problem. This prevents nonoffenders from feeling they have been unfairly targeted for greater supervision.
Monitoring employees to make sure they are doing their jobs requires a careful balance: If there’s not enough monitoring, they may start to slack off; if there’s too much, they might become dissatisfied and less productive, causing your efforts to backfire. Finding the right balance may not be easy, but it’s definitely an important balance to achieve.