Survey: 60% of employers use monitoring software to watch remote workers

Remote work comes with plenty of challenges, and for employers, a big one is making sure employees are spending their work days actually working.

A lot of leaders don’t like that they can’t pop in on employees like the way they did in the office.

One way to check in is to use monitoring software, which can track how much remote employees are working and what websites they visit.

Business review platform Digital.com surveyed 1,250 U.S. employers and found 60% of them use this monitoring software to track employees’ activity and productivity. Seventeen percent more are considering implementing it.

Why use monitoring software?

The top reasons employers use this software or consider it are:

• 79% want to better understand how employees use their time
• 65% want to confirm people work a full day, and
• 50% want to make sure employees don’t use work equipment for personal reasons.

Some ways this software monitors employees include tracking web history, capturing random screenshots and logging keystrokes.

What did the monitoring software find?

How much are employees actually working at home? According to the study, 53% of employees spend three hours or more a day on non-work activities. Only 7% of employers reported their employees are focused solely on work all day long.

So what do employees do when they’re not working?

• 78% are on social media
• 60% completely step away from their work stations, and
• 52% do work for a second job.

What employers do with the info

Almost all employers (88%) fired at least one person when they used this software. Twenty-one percent of employers terminated between 50 and 100 people!

While some employers weren’t happy with what their people did at home, 81% reported an increase in productivity since using the software. However, it’s important to note the use of this software could cause a productivity spike out of fear, rather than genuine motivation.