Every manager wants to know: “What do employees do during their working hours?
In search of an answer to this question, some limit themselves to evaluating the result, while others monitor the stages of project implementation. There are also those who substitute the concept of control with espionage. Is it real to organize the process of monitoring the work without violating the rights and freedoms of staff, and at the same time to increase efficiency? Our answer – it is real if you combine the control of processes and results.
Why is it necessary to control the work of employees?
The counterargument to this question is statistics. Employees, whose activities are limited to the office and the computer, admit that during the work day they spend up to 60 minutes of time on personal goals, which is 5 hours per week. Even at the low cost of an hour of labor, for example, 5 USD, it comes out that the company spends thousands a month paying for procrastination. And if the question is about the management level, where the salaries are higher? Directors and supervisors, judging by the results of the survey, are overloaded by excessive meetings, they take up to 23 hours a week. Therefore, monitoring is an important tool, which, if not used, means overlooking mistakes, which will inevitably lead to financial losses.
What and how to control?
We have already defined above that it is necessary to control both processes and results. In combination, it will give a clearer picture of where and why mistakes occur. And if everything is clear with the evaluation of the result, how to organize the control of processes? Some managers in an effort to accuse their subordinates of dishonest performance of their duties, absenteeism and procrastination come to the idea of spying on employees without thinking about the consequences. And they are, it must be said, negative. Experts from Rutgers University found that staff perceive surveillance using spyware as a loss of trust. This leads to a search for reasons, a feeling of pressure from the management, stress and as a result to a decrease in efficiency. Therefore, keeping loyalty in mind, it is worth introducing IT solutions that do not invade personal space, but allow you to see the reasons that prevent you from achieving your goals. As a rule these are:
- lack of knowledge and professional skills;
- Incorrect distribution of workload among the staff;
- overestimation of planned indicators;
- ill-conceived mechanisms for executing business processes;
- lack of motivation.
If we aim to monitor personnel performance, we should be prepared for long-term observation and the use of automated systems. Especially if we are talking about big business. International transport and logistics company DHL described how time tracking helped build an effective and loyal personnel management policy.
“We set two goals for ourselves: 1. To understand what processes are slacking. 2.How to increase efficiency without violating the personal boundaries of employees. We were able to solve both thanks to its versatility. The functionality of the time tracker allows you not only to observe but also to find mistakes in work organization. It gives a clear picture of everyone’s contribution, helps to identify laggards, understand and eliminate the causes.
Monitoring the work of employees through the Monitask – will:
- Identify time wasters in a timely manner.
- Monitor the actual employment of workers within a day/week/month.
- Establish standards for performing certain operations.
- Eliminate the work processes that “eat up” the most time, but give a minimum profit.
- Based on statistics of tardiness and early departures from the workplace, improve discipline.
- Identify employees whose professional skills are inappropriate for their position.
The next stage is data analysis. Remember that problems identified at an early stage are amenable to correction. A possible negative factor is the reduction of disloyal employees. But if you understand in time what reasons lead to a decrease in their efficiency and help your subordinates to cope with the problems that have arisen, you can avoid extreme measures in the form of dismissal. All the more so since there are non-financial methods of motivation that will increase the productivity of the staff and improve the climate in the company.
