Any business can improve their productivity at the workplace by introducing some ethics and incorporating discipline. Monitoring the employees’ activities is one of the primary steps to achieve, but it is a sensitive area for sure when it comes to legal aspects of using such software.
Keeping track of all the activities performed by an employee might uncover some of their very personal information. Thus before using various surveillance strategies, one must be aware of all the legal aspects of using any employee monitoring software.
An Outline of Basic Types Of Employee Monitoring Software
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| Employee Tracking Software Features |
1. Performance Monitoring Software:
These software aim at tracking the performance of an employee by screenshot monitoring, active time tracking, project monitoring, and task tracking, etc. They solely provide information related to the tasks performed in general by any employee and does not support spying on an employee.
2. Spyware:
Any such software collects information from an employee which may be sensitive or very personal to them. Keystroke logging is one of the examples of such features which ‘spy’ on the exact words typed by the employees.
3. Personal Data:
It includes information about very personal data of a person- religious beliefs, ethnic origin, political opinion, genetic information, health information, criminal record, biometric information, etc.
Legalized Features of A Tracking Software That Can Be Used Anywhere
Employees do have some expectations of privacy in any company. Thus there are some of the employee monitoring features that may lead a company into legal repercussions. Some of the very fundamental employee tracking software features that are legal are:
1. Attendance Monitoring by Biometrics:
Attendance monitoring is very crucial because low attendance leads to low productivity. Automated Biometric Information can be used to track the exact time of login and logout of employees into their office.
2. User Login And Logout System Monitoring:
Monitoring the logging in and out of a computer helps to track the exact number of hours spent by the employee on it, out of the total time logged into the office.
3. Active Time Tracking:
This form of monitoring tracks and records the total time spent in moving the mouse and typing in the keyboard and does not record the exact words/ data feeding into the system.
4. Website URL, Social Media URL:
It is legal to track the websites and social media sites accessed by an employee during work hours, to ensure that they are spending their time only on work-related tasks on the internet, and aren’t misusing their resources.
5. Task Tracking & Document Monitoring:
It is done to track the productive work performed by an employee and the speed with which they are completing their given tasks/ projects. It also gives employers access to the documents in which they are updating their work and helps to track their progress.
6. Print Tracking:
It is a very crucial feature that helps any business to keep an eye on any of their work-related documents getting printed from any remote server.
7. Video Surveillance at the Workplace:
Recording the employee’s activities in common areas and entrances avoid any crime from happening at that place. It is legal in workplaces, provided that the cameras are away from the bathrooms or locker rooms.
Conclusion
Tracking an employee is a very crucial part of any workplace, but there are some legal aspects of monitoring them. Any business must keep in mind the privacy of its workers and better understand the laws before spying on their employees.
