Why Employee Surveillance & Productivity Monitoring
is Actually Backfiring

“Trust is the ground of the group. If trust is broken, you know you’ve got work to do.” 

– Lori Hanau, Global Round Table Leadership Founder & CEO

Based on the soaring popularity of employee surveillance software and productivity monitoring, trust unfortunately seems to be lacking in this new world of work. With the surge of remote, hybrid, and asynchronous workplaces due to the pandemic, managers may have positive intentions for implementing these types of solutions, such as having a better understanding of how employees spend their time or even offering personalized wellness recommendations, yet most employee monitoring tools are focused on tracking performance, increasing productivity, and deterring rule-breaking.

Software applications like ActivTrak, Controlio, Veriato Cerebral, and others offer employers “unmatched visibility into employee activity and communication” through keystroke logging, screenshots at timed intervals, remote desktop control, and even webcam capturability. And while the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 is a federal law that allows employers to monitor their employees’ verbal and written communications under certain circumstances, the ethics as well as the efficacy of employee tracking are currently under close scrutiny.

For example, recent studies show that increased monitoring actually leads to more of the type of behavior that employers are trying to mitigate—not less. “Employees who know they’re being surveilled are more likely to take unapproved breaks, disregard instructions, damage workplace property, steal office equipment, and purposefully work at a slow pace, among other rule-breaking behaviors,” write researchers in the Harvard Business Review. 

Why?

Employees who perceive a lack of trust from upper management are simply more likely to ascribe responsibility for their own behavior to the authority figure above them in the organizational chart. 

In “Thirty Archaic ‘Best’ Business Practices: Deterrents to Resilience, Innovation, and Change,” Carol Sanford convincingly argues that, “The patterns we develop in response to social forces deposit like layers of sediment in the psyche, and they can significantly restrain our potential. At times, they can even be harmful. Businesses are just as susceptible to this accretion of unconscious influences handed down from one era and generation to the next…In order to move forward, companies must take deliberate steps to eradicate these practices and replace them instead with regenerative business practices.” 

Measurement in and of itself isn’t necessarily problematic. Kate McGowan, on our Curriculum Design & Product Development Team, rightly points out, “Measurement is just a tool. It’s a reflection of what we value and what we want most.” 

A fixation on metrics, however, can be damaging not only to the individual employee—who may turn to gamifying the system in order to achieve performance goals and associated rewards—but also to the organization, as it discourages innovation and risk-taking and diminishes morale and motivation. On a systemic level, this can also lead to “short-termism,” in which short-term goals are advanced at the expense of long-term considerations, and often turns off top talent, who tend to work with a more entrepreneurial attitude of self-motivation and ownership.

So how can an organization measure employee performance in a healthy, trust-building way? 

“You first need to ask yourself why you’re interested in measuring in the first place,” Kate says. “Question what you’re going to get out of the data, how you plan to design it, and why you think it could be useful,” she adds. 

Or, as Rohan Murty puts it in Harvard Business Review, “For companies to realize the potential gains data can really offer, they need to be willing to use it to take a hard look at themselves [rather than employees].” 

Trust is the magic ingredient that can take your organization from Team to Ensemble. While traditional methods of performance monitoring and teaming might get the job done, the individuals that make them up often feel reduced to playing specific roles, rather than experiencing the full breadth of their own—and others’—humanity. An ensemble, on the other hand, is an intentional group in which every voice is heard and every contribution is recognized as equally valued, leading to a more innovative, inspired, and productive workplace. 

“In addition to a vibrant culture, [organizations] must design work in such a way that it invites and even compels innovation in which everyone is involved…Whereas most businesses do this by hiring and nurturing a small group of creative talent, a regenerative organization establishes the conditions that will grow creativity across the entire organization,” Carol Sanford continues.  

If you’re not sure how to develop a human-centered performance strategy, we recommend starting with our Compassionate Accountability Process (CAP). CAP is a teaming and cultural development tool and practice that helps members of your team learn how to share responsibility and meaning in each others’ growth, successes, and, yes, even mistakes! It’s a key part of The Shared Leadership Journey™, our leadership training program.

Implementing CAP into your performance measurement process provides an empowering frame for everything from strategic planning and visioning, to peer-to-peer leadership mentoring and business model innovation. We’ve also seen firsthand how CAP helps our clients develop a culture of wholeness, purpose, and accountability, as well as higher performance at all levels. 

Sharing leadership reinforces connection and commitment to one another and your collective goals. “When we trust each other and know that each person has our backs, it gives us the sense of freedom to be more creative,” says Eugene Uman in episode 3 of our Round Table Dialogue series. 

If you’re ready to make the shift from surveillance to trust, from productivity management to innovation management, from Team to Ensemble, we’re here to support your journey. Connect with us – we look forward to supporting the health and vibrancy of your organization!