The problem of assessing productivity when working from home has both its best and worst moments, however it’s not exactly a Tale of Two Cities.
For many workers, having control over their work schedule is the best feeling in the world. The biggest worry for many firms is that they won’t be able to manage their workers’ schedules.
Employees worry that employers aren’t seeing how much more time they are putting in, and employers worry that workers are slacking off.
Technology follows next. While many workers are deeply insulted by this intrusive spying, some bosses want to install cameras on laptops to make sure workers are working.
How can both parties be satisfied?
The managing director of Netsurit (USA), Louwki Coetsee, has some opinions on the subject. In March, Netsurit, a 20-year-old company that works with numerous industrial firms, was inundated with requests for software that would facilitate remote worker management.
“Many companies were forced to manage a remote workforce with only a few days’ notice due to COVID-19,” Coetsee says. “There wasn’t enough time to implement a strategic plan that would both meet company objectives and take into account employees’ work habits.”
However, the main problem for Coetsee was that he didn’t want his program to follow the particular behaviors of employees, which was what the majority of software on the market did. “We don’t want to develop spyware that records screenshots of workers’ laptops and installs cameras on them. Therefore, we engaged an ethicist to assist in developing software that can consider privacy and cultural concerns while fostering a trusting environment between managers and staff.
Reed Blackman, Ph.D., CEO of Virtue, was hired by Netsurit as a result of this strategy of considering software applications through the prism of labor culture. Former Colgate University and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill philosophy professor Blackman works with businesses to integrate ethics into their corporate culture. Blackman assisted Netsurit in making sure that both employers and employees benefited from their technology.
According to Coetsee, many employers have told him that they are concerned about employee burnout, despite the fact that many people first believe that businesses are attempting to keep an eye on them to make sure they are functioning. According to Coetsee, “many people are putting in more hours because the lines between working hours are blurring.” “Managers must be aware of this information and, if required, offer additional resources. Additionally, workers must be at ease in establishing a healthy work-life balance.
Thus, the business developed what it views as a reliable and moral monitoring instrument. Reports on business applications and website usage are generated by the background-running program. The websites and apps that should be watched are up to the customers. Employees are given the necessary privacy when using non-work-related apps and websites since other apps and websites are disregarded.
We inform managers that this is one way to determine how much and where employees spend their time. In order to guarantee equitable workloads, we advise businesses to be extremely open and honest with their employees. A better work-life balance should be discussed if the individual is putting in excessive amounts of effort. Additionally, it is necessary to make adjustments if an employee is not given enough work. The workload can be calibrated by this system. However, it is but one piece of information that must be combined with other data to paint a complete picture.
Blackman made this exact issue in an article titled “How to monitor your employees while respecting their privacy“ by using Controlio that he wrote for the Harvard Business Review. “The trust between employers and employees could be undermined by surveillance… Workers who are now under increased surveillance say they are “extremely stressed out” by the continuous observation and are also scared to speak up, which is a surefire way to become unhappy and burn out, which, unfortunately, lowers productivity.
Be First to Comment