Employee monitoring

Employee monitoring is the act of surveying employee activity. Organizations engage in employee monitoring to track performance, avoid legal liability, protect trade secrets, and address other security concerns. The practice may impact employee satisfaction due to its impact on privacy.

If employees use company computers for their work, companies often utilize employee monitoring software that allow them to track everything employees do on their computers. For example, what emails were received, what applications were used and what keys were pressed.

Employees' phone call details as well as actual conversations can be recorded during monitoring. The exact number and duration of each call, and the idle time between calls, can go into an automatic log for analysis. In the United States, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 provides some privacy protections for employees. See Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 § Employee Privacy.

One of the most effective forms of employee monitoring is through the use of video surveillance equipment. Video feeds of employee activities are fed back to a central location where they are either recorded or monitored live by another person. "This is a benefit because it provides an unbiased method of performance evaluation and prevents the interference of a manager's feelings in an employee's review (Mishra and Crampton, 1998)." Management can review the performance of an employee by checking the surveillance and detecting problems before they become too costly.

In the United States, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act provides some privacy protections regarding monitoring of employees' email messages and other electronic communications. See Electronic Communications Privacy Act § Employee Privacy.

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