New research has revealed that more than half of UK’s bosses want to collect information on staff who regularly work from home, such as the amount of time spent on laptops each day and email sending behaviours to identify staff at risk of burnout.
Currently, only three in ten (28%) leaders say their organisations are using software to monitor the productivity of home workers, confirmed the study from CIPD and HR software HiBob. The survey, part of the CIPD series called Technology, the workplace and people management’, highlights that workplace context, such as job level and sectors, can influence attitudes towards collecting information on home workers, and whether any monitoring software is used.
MONITORING HOME WORKERS
The survey of over 2,000 bosses, revealed that 55% were in favour of least one measure to monitor homeworkers. This included:
- Tracking the amount of time spent on billable tasks for clients (24%).
- Observing email sending behaviours, but not content, to identify if an employee is at risk of burnout (24%).
- Recording how much time employees use their work laptop each day (22%).
- Sending automatic alerts to managers if employees work outside normal working hours (18%).
- Passively monitoring website activities e.g. Time spent on non-work-related websites (18%).
TESTING ETHICS
The survey found that senior bosses (CEO, partner, owner, etc) are more likely to agree that collecting information on home workers is acceptable, compared to senior managers. HR staff are less comfortable with these measures, than non-HR. Interestingly, 39% of bosses don’t feel it’s acceptable to collect information on regular home workers.
Although many bosses agree with collecting information on home workers, CIPD and HiBob urge employers to be clear on what they are monitoring as hybrid working continues. Employers must consider its purpose, and be clear to staff about what is being monitored and why.
“The move to increased hybrid and remote working has fuelled the debate on employee monitoring practices and what is acceptable,” shared Hayfa Mohdzaini, Senior Research Adviser at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development. “Depending on the context, collecting information on home workers can be a positive thing, supporting employee performance and wellbeing, by identifying signs of excessive workloads and burnout. And certainly, it can be necessary in specific roles and industries, for example where there are billable hours. However, when used without a clear reason it will likely be treated with suspicion by employees.
CALL FOR TRANSPARENCY
Mohdzaini recommends that employers be transparent about “what they’re monitoring and why”, and consulting with staff to make sure these measures are necessary and relevant to their role. “Employers need to demonstrate how any monitoring software used can benefit employees, while also respecting their privacy and encouraging a culture of trust,” added Mohdzaini.
Ronni Zehavi, CEO and Co-Founder at HiBob agrees: “It’s understandable for businesses to want to gain insight into what their staff spends time on or how long anything takes them to do, but collecting more information than is needed to fulfil any audit purpose could undermine trust and impact the relationship between staff and employers, irrevocably damaging employee engagement – the cornerstone of any HR strategy.”
Click here to access the research.
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