Avoid These 4 Mistakes When Tracking Remote Employees

It’s only natural to have some trepidation when letting employees work from home. Won’t they play video games, watch Netflix, not get dressed, and still get their paychecks? Thanks to many remote monitoring tools, mistakes when tracking remote employees have become less stressful for company leaders. But how should we monitor remote employees? What should we keep tabs on? What’s off-limits? And how do you navigate the various grey areas?

Read on to find answers to these most pressing questions — and more.

Mistake #1 – Not Being Transparent With Employees

According to Stacy Hawkins, a law professor at Rutgers Law School, “Anyone working in IT can tell you that if you are working in the employer’s place of business using their equipment, you are getting monitored.” Mistakes must be avoided when tracking employees.

This reality extends to remote work, as the place of business becomes anywhere with an internet connection. Despite monitoring becoming a staple of modern work, it is vital to remain transparent about its use.

It is essential to let our employees know that we are using tracking software—not just that you are using it but how you are using it. This way, you provide employees with a better sense of security, show how you respect their privacy, and involve them in the process.

Remote tracking software

Remote tracking software provides many insights, including the websites employees visit, their tools, and how they use their time throughout the day.

While this is done to increase productivity and support employees, it’s essential to be transparent about the process. In the minds of some employees, a lack of transparency can fuel an air of distrust.

To support transparency, communicate to your employees the use of monitoring software, including what will and won’t be captured. Gaining employee consent to monitoring should also be part of your onboarding process.

Transparency must also be part of the ongoing daily use of monitoring software. Make your monitoring policies easily accessible in your employee handbook. Make communication two-way by setting up a feedback method through which employees can ask questions about your company’s monitoring policies.

Finally, perhaps the most excellent transparency you can provide employees is giving them access to their monitored data. The best monitoring software will allow employees to see their data, helping instil trust and fuel their growth.

Mistake #2 Not Securing Employee Data

According to a study, 58% of top managers have mistakenly tracked employees by accidentally forwarding critical data to the wrong individual. This shows just how susceptible employee data is in the modern workplace and can lead to a loss of confidence from workers—or the loss of the workers themselves.

A 2020 Forbes article showed that 52% of employees prefer workplace safety over promotion. Thirty-three per cent of workers prefer security to career advancement or salary increment. This indicates that data security is a high priority for modern employees.

The risks of exposure lie not just in data management but also in its collection.

Capturing Private Information

When tracking remote computer work, there is a real risk of capturing private information such as passwords, banking details, or other personal information.

But how do companies monitor work from home and avoid capturing this sensitive data? Well, there’s no escaping; it’s a balancing act. But the answer lies with technology.

Firstly, it’s important to state that your goal shouldn’t be to monitor every employee’s activity. This isn’t a source of greater productivity. And it’s likely going to mould us into micromanagers. And micromanagement has many shortcomings, including:

• Killing team spirit
• Hampering employee engagement
• Constricting employee creativity

Monitor Performance and Productivity

Rather than trying to capture every action every second, the goal is to monitor performance and productivity in aggregate. To automatically capture work-related activity, parse out the non-work activity and then create a total picture of productivity based on the remaining insights.

Leading remote tracking software simplifies capturing these behavioural insights and offers flexibility when managing employee data.

For instance, you can set screenshot-taking frequency, blur screenshots, and customise settings to capture personal activities.

Mistake #3 – Measuring the Wrong Metrics

There is almost no limit to the data that can be captured throughout the workday.

So, what metrics should you measure while tracking work-from-home employees?

Most obviously, attendance and time spent clocked in are the starting points. This verifies that employees are working the number of hours they are required to work.

However, meeting working duration may not be the biggest concern when considering why remote work monitoring is crucial.

Yes, time clocked in is essential. However, what employees do during this time is even more significant to your team’s success.

It would help if you prioritised your team’s time use and worked most efficiently. To do this, it’s essential to focus on the bigger picture rather than fall into the trap of watching and analysing employee time.

Undiagnosing our definition of the remote workforce can help us get the correct data. The starting point must be setting clear project goals for employees to accomplish, against which they can be measured using monitoring data.

Knowing what to track is easy when you understand why you are doing so. So, what are the most critical metrics for remote employee tracking?

Below are the primary goals when monitoring remote work tools:

• Determining team and individual productivity
• Ensuring appropriate company resource usage
• Having proof work is being completed
• Benchmarking employee performance
• Identifying areas where extra training and support may be needed

Mistake #4 – Breaking the Law

One of the mistakes when tracking employees is a failure to understand employee tracking regulations, which is a time bomb. This is because monitoring and employment laws differ from country to country.

In the US, for instance, you can monitor our organisation, not the employees’ organisations. Rules vary depending on the state. You can track employees secretly in some states, while some require employee notification.

The laws are more severe in Australia. Employers must notify team members at least two weeks before installing and using tracking software.

In Malaysia, employers can monitor employees, but not before forwarding them a written notice of how they intend to track them.

Remote employee tracking has limits on what information you can gather. Russia, for instance, prohibits employers from monitoring phone calls. One may not monitor employee computer usage, emails, or calls in Finland.

As you can see, the laws around monitoring differ drastically depending on your jurisdiction. It’s simply not possible to capture every nuance in this article. So, when implementing monitoring software, you must seek legal advice as part of the process.

Knowing the legal requirements of worker tracking within your locality is vital. Doing so ensures you won’t violate the law and cost yourself valuable time, resources, and dedicated employees.

Wrapping Up

Employee monitoring is undoubtedly here to stay as a staple of remote work. When done responsibly and transparently, monitoring helps teams become more productive and supports employee performance and well-being.

So, when monitoring your team, avoid making mistakes when tracking remote employees and use the advice above to navigate the four most common pitfalls. You’ll be on your way to a more productive and engaged team when you do.