As we note in Chapter 10, labor is a costly component of most OM activities. So as we have moved to computer-oriented tasks, rather than manual tasks, new tools for evaluating productivity have been developed. Now with millions of employees suddenly doing these tasks from home, more managers want to know how employees spend their time, writes The Wall Street Journal (April 20, 2020).
One new technology provides the ability to install a tool that takes computer screenshots of home-based employees every 10 minutes and records how much time they spend on certain activities. It gives managers productivity scores for remote workers or detailed reports on which tasks consume their days. Other tools are designed to catch employees who might be more tempted to download files from the company or violate security rules. At Teramind, whose technology can give employers a live look at employees’ computer screens or recordings of videos of their activities, inquiries have recently tripled, and 1/3 of the company’s 2,000 clients have requested additional licenses to track more users.
One S. Carolina manager states: “This is not a witch hunt to try and find the guy who spends 20 minutes a day on the news. The tool to track web browsing and time spent on work-related apps will pay longer-term dividends.We’re able to get a lot more granular insights into how much time they’re spending on individual tasks. Each staffer has access to their own data and can see how their own productivity levels fluctuate.”
Employers have wide legal latitude to use tracking tools, though the products can test employees’ threshold for privacy concerns “Frankly, employees already have an incentive to be productive, just by mere fact of wanting to keep their jobs,” says one Cornell prof.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Are there ethical and privacy issues that need to be addressed here?
- Why is such software now an important OM tool?
