Overview
The workplace isn’t what it used to be anymore. Today, your office could be right inside your house, at a cafe, or even at the beach (yes, there are people working at the beach!).
This work arrangement has become more popular over the years and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, an Upwork study forecasts that 22% of the American workforce will be remote by 2025.
Remote work is great, sure. No commute, no dress code, and the flexibility to balance work with personal life. But it also comes with its own set of challenges – the main one being how to maintain supervision. If not managed properly, remote work can have a potential for abuse of trust and can cost companies time, money, and resources.
So how exactly do you ensure employees are working effectively without being overbearing? And can you track remote employees ethically and respectfully?
Well, it can be done. That’s exactly what we’ll tackle in this article.
This article covers:
- Is tracking remote employees really necessary?
- Is it even legal to track remote employees?
- Should remote employees be notified if they’re being tracked?
- What are employers allowed to track in a remote setting?
- Ways to track remote employees
- How to track remote employees (Ethically)
- Final thoughts
Is tracking remote employees really necessary?
Remote work can be a hard thing to navigate, especially for managers.
If you can’t physically see your employees, how can you ensure work is being done, tasks are being completed on time, and productivity is maintained?
Tracking remote employees can bridge this gap, offering insights into work habits, time management, and project progress. While it may not be absolutely necessary, it can prove to be highly beneficial for your team:
- Ensure Accountability – Without face-to-face interactions, it’s harder to see if employees are working as expected. Tracking tools can help you verify that tasks are being completed and deadlines are being met, ensuring accountability even in a remote setting.
- Manage Workloads – By tracking employee activity and task completion, you can better understand individual workloads. This helps in distributing tasks more evenly, preventing burnout, and ensuring that all team members are contributing fairly.
- Support Performance Reviews – Detailed tracking data can be a valuable resource for performance reviews. It provides objective evidence of an employee’s work habits and accomplishments, which can be used to offer constructive feedback or recognize achievements.
- Enhance Project Management – With time tracking tools, you can keep tabs on project progress, monitor milestones, and ensure that projects are on track. This helps in managing deadlines, adjusting schedules, and keeping projects aligned with business goals.
- Boost Cybersecurity – Tracking software can help protect your business by monitoring saved documents, installed apps, and websites visited. This oversight helps guard against cybercrime, insider threats, and data breaches.
- Ensure Legality and Compliance – For legal and compliance purposes, having accurate records of work hours, task completion, and communication can help you meet regulatory requirements and protect your business from potential disputes.
Remote employee tracking can be undoubtedly beneficial for companies. But it does have its fair share of drawbacks. Employees may feel that constant tracking invades their privacy and could affect their job satisfaction. Excessive tracking can also create a sense of distrust between employers and employees.
It’s a balancing act. Finding the right balance between effective tracking and respecting employee privacy is crucial.
Is it even legal to track remote employees?
Tracking employees is generally legal in the United States, even the American Bar Association says so. However, this is only as long as employers have a legitimate business reason and, in some cases, obtain the employee’s consent.
The standards for tracking remote employees differ slightly from those in an office setting, but the general rule is that tracking or monitoring should be reasonable and does not infringe on employees’ privacy. Employers must also follow state and federal privacy laws. These laws usually allow them to monitor most things an employee does while at work or using company equipment, but also provide clauses for ensuring employee privacy protection.
Should remote employees be notified if they’re being tracked?
In the U.S., federal law doesn’t require employers to tell employees they are being monitored, whether they’re working on-site or remotely. However, state laws can vary. For instance, in Connecticut and Delaware, employers must inform workers if they are being monitored with tools like employee monitoring software. In California, all participants must be aware of whether phone calls are being recorded.
To check if your state has specific rules about notifying employees of monitoring, it’s a good idea to check on state labor laws and consult a lawyer.
“From a judiciary perspective, workplace monitoring is legal, subject to the expectations that it is made known to employees that their work is being monitored. This monitoring should also fall within business interests and not for personal matters, in which jurisdictions could interpret its legality differently.” – Amy De La Fuente, Director of Public Affairs at Bosco Legal Services.
What are employers allowed to track in a remote setting?
Employers are allowed to track a variety of data to ensure productivity and compliance with company policies. This sort of data can include:
- Keystrokes
- Internet activities, such as websites visited
- Screen activity
- Time spent on specific tasks or applications
- GPS tracking for location verification, especially if the work involves travel or off-site duties
It’s important to note that employees can only be tracked during work hours. The collection of data is also subject to federal and state laws to protect employee privacy.
Ways to track remote employees
There are many ways to go about tracking remote employees, you can track their work hours, have them log their locations when they clock in, require them to do regular self-reports on their work progress, or go the more comprehensive route of using an employee monitoring software. Each of these methods has its pros and cons, of course, so be sure to choose one that makes sense for your team.
- Employee Self-Reporting: Self-reporting requires employees to provide regular updates on their work progress and achievements. Employees may be asked to submit daily or weekly reports on what they’ve worked on, their progress, and any obstacles they are facing. This can be done via shared documents or messaging platforms. This method fosters a sense of responsibility but it will mostly rely on employees’ honesty and accuracy. It may not also provide a complete picture of productivity.
- Regular Check-ins and Meetings: Scheduled meetings and check-ins keep you updated on employees’ progress and provide opportunities for feedback. You can set up recurring meetings for one-on-one check-ins or team updates. Use these sessions to discuss progress, address issues, and review completed tasks.
- Time Tracking Software: Time tracking software records the amount of time employees spend on different tasks or projects. Employees log in to the software to start and stop timers for various tasks. The software then tracks time spent on different activities, which you can review to ensure that work is being done efficiently.
- Employee Monitoring Software: For a more comprehensive approach, many companies turn to remote employee management software. These tools provide detailed insights into employees’ work habits by tracking activities such as computer usage, website visits, and time spent on different tasks. Some even offer features like screenshot monitoring, GPS tracking, activity logs, and keystroke tracking. This method can be particularly useful for ensuring productivity and safeguarding sensitive company information.
How to track remote employees (Ethically)
1. Determine what you want to track and why.
It can be tempting to collect whatever data you can from your employees without giving much thought as to whether you really need them. However, indiscriminate data collection can lead to unnecessary complications and privacy concerns.
To prevent this, start by defining your objectives. Ask yourself what specific aspects of your employees’ work you need to monitor and why. For example, do you need to track their location? If employees are required to be at a specific place for their job, such as attending client meetings or visiting different sites, then tracking GPS location might be useful and justifiable.
However, if your team works from home and location is not a critical factor for their tasks, then GPS tracking might be unnecessary and intrusive. Instead, focus on metrics that are more relevant to their performance, such as task completion, project progress, or time management.
We have a screenshot monitoring feature at Jibble but ironically, we don’t use it to monitor our team. Instead, we’re more focused on the quality of their output and the amount of time they spend on their tasks. This makes assessing productivity easier and ensures that we pay our hourly staff more accurately. It also makes workers accountable for their time, in the same way a lawyer would account for their time if they billed a client.
Consider the impact of the data you plan to collect. Remote employee tracking should be purposeful and respectful of employees’ privacy.
Whatever data you collect should serve a clear purpose and align with your business objectives.
2. Let employees know they’re being tracked.
While this may not be legally required in most states, it is absolutely recommended to inform your employees that they’re being tracked, what you’ll be tracking, and what this data will be used for.
This not only ensures that employees understand the reasons behind monitoring practices but it also makes the whole tracking thing feel less sneaky! You’re not doing something illegal after all so why hide it to begin with?
Most employees will appreciate the honesty and understand that monitoring is a tool for ensuring that projects stay on track and deadlines are met. If employees express concerns or discomfort, address them openly and work to find a balance that respects their privacy while still achieving business objectives.
Remember, you want to build trust with your team. Being transparent about your tracking methods is a step in the right direction.
3. Choose a monitoring software that values privacy.
There’s a sea of employee monitoring software out there but you have to be careful which one you choose.
Not all monitoring software is created equal, and some might have questionable privacy practices. Start by reviewing the software’s privacy policy to ensure that it clearly outlines how employee data is collected, used, and protected. A good privacy policy should detail what data is collected, who has access to it, how it is stored, and how long it is retained. Look for software that offers transparency and provides assurances about data protection and privacy.
Effective monitoring doesn’t mean you have to track every aspect of your employees’ activities. The best software offers customizable features that allow you to tailor the level of monitoring to your specific needs. Time tracking and employee monitoring tools like Jibble, provide flexibility in setting up tracking parameters and limits, so you can focus on key performance indicators without overstepping into unnecessary privacy intrusions.
4. Ensure safeguards to prevent abuse.
When it comes to tracking remote employees, it’s important to set up strong safeguards to prevent misuse of tracking and monitoring tools. While it’s natural for people to think about new ways to use data, you need to be careful about how and when you monitor your employees. Monitoring shouldn’t extend beyond working hours or invade personal time, like during annual leave, as this can be seen as an invasion of privacy.
You also need to handle data with care. This means storing data securely and following legal requirements specific to different industries.
For example, encrypted data should be stored in a secure, centralized system with access limited to only the necessary individuals, such as the employees being monitored and their direct manager. According to best practices, this data should be kept for no longer than necessary, often up to three years, depending on legal and business requirements.
Final thoughts
Remote work is here to stay. And managers and employers will have to tread the fine line between remote employee tracking and privacy intrusion. It’s not an easy task but it is doable.
Effective tracking is essential for monitoring performance, maintaining security, and achieving business goals, but it must be done thoughtfully and ethically. The key is to implement tracking practices that respect employees’ personal space while still fulfilling business objectives.
By setting clear guidelines for what will be tracked and why, and by communicating these practices transparently to your team, you can navigate this fine line and build a trusting and productive remote work environment.
Best of luck!
