The Stats: Employee Monitoring a Must for all Industries

Employee monitoring is a touchy subject for both employees and employers. But according to some recent statistics, it may be more necessary than previously thought. Companies need to protect their own information and data security, and, in many cases, sensitive information belonging to their clients. They also need to protect themselves from expensive losses, including time loss. Take a look at some of the statistics that relate to the need for employee monitoring, and find out how your company can best implement monitoring with your own employees.

Why Is Employee Monitoring Necessary? 

Employee monitoring can protect sensitive information as well as the company’s bottom line. 

Healthcare may be the industry that deals with the most sensitive possible client information. Patient health information is highly confidential and for good reason. Most people wouldn’t want intimate details about their health and medical status shared with anyone who doesn’t need to know the information. 

According to Verizon Research, 58% of healthcare PHI data breaches came from insiders. Errors and employee misuse were some of the causes of data breaches. Employee monitoring could potentially prevent breaches by picking up on employee errors or misuse and correcting them immediately. 

Healthcare isn’t the only industry that can benefit from employee monitoring, however. Research shows that businesses lose $178 million worth of productivity due to internet misuse every year. 37% of employees say they surf the web “constantly” while at work. A large number of cybersecurity issues are caused by staff misuse of the internet. Employee monitoring can stop or minimize many of these problems. 

Why Isn’t Everyone Monitoring?

With so much money and important data at stake, you may be wondering why everyone isn’t already monitoring. But the obvious need for monitoring doesn’t change the fact that employees don’t like to feel as if they’re being spied on, and poorly implemented employee monitoring programs can damage workplace morale as well as employee retention and recruitment. Those problems also pose a risk for many businesses. 

What’s the Solution?

It’s possible to monitor employees without causing unnecessary stress or distrust among your staff.  

For the companies that can benefit most from employee monitoring, the answer should be to find the best way to implement an employee monitoring program that catches possible losses and breaches before they happen but without damaging employee morale. 

It’s best to begin with transparency. Employees don’t want to feel like they’re being spied on, but monitoring doesn’t have to be done in secret. In fact, knowing that monitoring is occurring may prompt employees to change potentially damaging internet behavior all on its own. It’s best for everyone to be upfront about company monitoring policies, especially when they’re being newly implemented. You can also avoid unnecessarily invading employee privacy by confining monitoring to company-issued devices, monitoring only within given working hours, or taking other steps to protect sensitive employee data. 

A good employee monitoring software service will meet the needs of a company and its employees so that you can protect your important company and client information and gather needed data about your employees without being unnecessarily invasive. To find out more about how employee monitoring software can benefit your company,  Take an online test drive.