Working from home: surveillance makes employees less productive

Digital monitoring reduces the productivity of employees working from home. However, it also decreases when existing monitoring software is removed. This is shown in a study by the University of California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It concludes that communication between employees and managers is more important for high work performance than monitoring mechanisms. It is important that employees understand the decision-making processes of their superiors.

“Our findings suggest that such applications have not been a good investment for companies,” explains Elizabeth Lyons, co-author of the study. “They could be one reason why companies claim that mobile working doesn't work in the long term.” The researcher believes that the money that companies spend on tools to monitor their home office employees would be better invested in other areas. For the study, the researchers observed 434 remote employees whose work was digitally monitored.

Higher productivity through communication

They identified high-performing and low-performing employees and randomly divided them into three groups. Two groups of low-performing employees were informed that their work performance was inadequate. The first of these two groups was placed under the constant observation of the monitoring software to improve their productivity. The other group was allowed to switch it off. The third group was told by the researchers that they were being monitored by the software and needed to improve their performance, but without explaining that their poor work performance was the reason for the monitoring. Their productivity dropped by 17 percent compared to the second group.

Among the high-performing employees, the first group was given permission to turn off the monitoring software due to their good performance. The second group also received praise for their work, but had to continue to be monitored by the program. The researchers also praised the productivity of the last group and allowed them to stop using the monitoring tool, but without revealing their performance as the reason. Compared to the second group, their productivity also fell by 17 percent, as the study shows. It also showed that high-performing employees do not see it as a reward if they are allowed to work without monitoring. Instead, they demanded a higher salary.

Surveillance researcher Wolfie Christl also takes a critical view of companies' ability to monitor employees and classifies it as questionable in terms of data protection.

(sfe)