5 Methods for Monitoring Your Employees the Right Way

February 21 2020 - There are various reasons why you will want to monitor your employees. After all, they are the most important asset for your business. If your workforce fails to function in an effective manner, your company will follow suit.

By monitoring employees, it gives you a greater insight into their productivity, health, and efficiency. For instance, a worker might seem to be getting along diligently with their tasks. Yet in reality, they could be browsing their social media feeds or playing solitaire. There's also the possibility of them failing to meet compliance regulations or breaching security.

Thankfully, there are various methods available, both traditional and technology-driven, that ensures you can effectively monitor your employees the right way. Here are five such methods:

1. Drug testing

You have to guarantee all of your employees are working in a safe environment. One way of doing this is by opting for random drug and alcohol testing.

Although this can be somewhat disruptive to the work environment during testing, it can help to identify any problems with your employees - the type of problems which could truly disrupt your business if they are left to linger. Plus, efficiency can be boosted with the use of drug testing software. This software allows you to schedule drug and alcohol services with ease, and employees can quickly find their test results online.

There are many advantages when opting for drug testing, although it is particularly advantageous when recruiting new workers. With a pre-employment drug test, you have the ability to identify problems before any contracts are signed - and dodge a bullet in the process.

2. Watch your employees

Simply observing your employees with a close eye can be a significant help when effectively monitoring employees. For instance, instead of relying on the feedback of customers, simply watch your staff interact with a client for a few minutes. Analyzing their demeanor and conduct directly will offer greater insight than several different customer feedback surveys.

With that said, one pair of eyes can only do so much. To help with forming a more valuable opinion, gather intelligence about your employees from others. This could be coworkers, vendors, customers, and so on. Remember: never simply accept one opinion as fact. Someone could have an ulterior motive for discussing an employee in either a positive or negative light. However, if there's a common theme in the feedback, it's certainly something to take into consideration.

3. Utilize self-monitoring tools

With the rise of remote work, it's more imperative than ever to utilize self-monitoring software. If your employees are working away from the office, it's difficult to track their progress properly without the right tools.

Thankfully, there are various different self-monitoring tools available. These tools allow employees to maintain activity logs, which gives supervisors an insight into whether they are meeting deadlines or not. These logs also supply information about a worker's entire workday, such as when they take breaks or become distracted.

4. Avoid being too obsessive

When monitoring your employees, it can become all too easy to go too far. Just keep in mind: you're only monitoring their work - it shouldn't be a rigorous surveillance mission. The last thing you want to do is spy on your workers and cross a line with their privacy.

When monitoring, you only need to collect information which is necessary. There's no need to keep track of their Internet usage for example. If you have a real concern about workers accessing certain websites, you can always block any undesired content.

5. Always be clear with your employees

If you want to avoid building distrust and friction between you and your employees, it is vital that you are always clear with your monitoring intentions. Before you start monitoring them, always let them know what's in store. Even if you use random drug testing, you need to let them know this will pop up from time to time in the future.

As for keeping track of emails, team communication, and activity logs, your intentions should be stated as soon as possible.

In summary

Monitoring the activity of your staff members is a necessity in the world of business. Not only does it assist with enhancing productivity levels, but it also boosts safety, compliance, and overall profit margins. Nevertheless, you cannot go too far with your monitoring efforts. Employees will accept that they are being watched in terms of their work. Yet if you want your workforce to feel comfortable and trusted, you cannot be too stringent when monitoring their activity.

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