Most Employees Are Open to Digital Monitoring (Under the Right Circumstances)

If you asked your workers to provide their feedback on digital monitoring, do you think they would be in favor of it or against it? A survey indicates that perhaps digital monitoring is not the controversial topic it was once considered in the workplace, at least to a certain extent. The catch? Monitoring has to give them opportunities to improve their job performance, and it shouldn’t get in the way of them doing their jobs.

The survey, conducted by Gartner, found that an overwhelming majority of workers, 96%, would be willing to accept electronic monitoring of their work if they were also offered opportunities for training and career development. Other notable numbers include the 33% who would accept monitoring if it helped them learn more about their jobs and the 30% who would be open to monitoring if it meant more proactive IT support.

Gartner’s survey looked at 4,861 full-time knowledge workers using digital technology from September 2022 through November 2022. These workers were employed by companies with over 100 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, India, and China. Of course, the type of monitoring did matter in whether or not employees supported it. For example, monitoring done to discover who is or is not working or who is showing up to the office is a great way to achieve the opposite of your intended results with monitoring. If the technology is used in a way that can help monitor progress toward goals and outcomes, however, it’s much more widely accepted.

The biggest takeaway from the study was the reasoning behind why monitoring might be effective for IT teams. Lane Severson, a Gartner senior director analyst researching digital employee experiences, claims in the report that digital monitoring can make it much easier for IT administrators to discover points of “digital friction,” or places where the technology is getting in the way of productivity or operations. There are three types of digital friction that monitoring can help address:

• Application friction: A business’ applications are not working properly, leading to your employees not being able to perform their duties.
• Skills friction: The applications are working properly, but the employee does not have the skills or knowledge to make proper use of them.
• Process friction: A business’ applications are working properly and the employees know how to use them, but the processes associated with that application conflict with getting the work done.

BNMC can help your business remotely monitor its infrastructure so that you can know where your operations are being held up due to technological inefficiencies. We can work with your team to help it implement innovative and strategic new technology that supports your business’ expected operational outcomes. To learn more about how we can support your company’s vision for its employees and its future, reach out to us today at (978) 482-2020 for a free consultation.