How to Practice Ethical Field Workforce Monitoring Activities?

Nowadays, the pursuit of employee monitoring is everywhere – every small to big industry is streamlining every single task you can think of. 

The prime reason? Taking the help of automation to make employees more productive as well as efficient, so that organizations can avoid falling into those categories where 73% of workers repeat more than 50 tasks in a single week. And, this is feasible.

However, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find a dispassionate electronic judge will decide whether your employees are actually productive by analyzing where and how they spend their maximum time.

Now, this raises the concern of ethical employee monitoring activities.

When organizations go on-field, field managers may not find it troublesome as they discover undeniable benefits, employees often find it truly biased.

Therefore, this blog will disclose what ethical practices you can make to ensure privacy and transparency to keep your employees’ morale high.

The Real Side of Ethical Conflicts in Field Employee Monitoring 

Implementing ethical field employee tracking seems very messy as it can overweigh the actual benefits very swiftly. And, the real-time facts behind it are explained here:

Invasion of privacy

The thin line between personal and professional spaces becomes clearly blurred in certain field-tracking activities. Think of a field sales executive who’s tracked constantly during his working hours with geo-fence based employee location tracking software, even during lunch breaks or personal errands.

This crosses the line between work and personal time, making employees feel discomfort and resentment. Moreover, to reach this surveillance, employees are not even asked for their consent, which can create conflict further.

Abuse of power

Very often field employees are concerned about whether their managers are using tracking software like PagarBook to micromanage them, instead of working towards the goals of a commitment to excellence, intelligence planning, and focused effort.

Imagine a field manager using live reports from the field to go through productivity metrics and communications patterns to unfairly criticize his employees, leading to a toxic workplace culture.

Lack of trust

When field employees do not have clarity about what kind of information is collected through the software, for which purpose it would be used for, or to what extent they would be monitored – all this creates anxiety and stress. Even worse, the field employees may feel being spied on when they are unaware of the level of transparent tracking policy and its end goals, leading to feelings of betrayal when they discover the truth.

How to Practice Ethical Field Workforce Monitoring Activities?

Though the balance between ethics and benefits of field workforce monitoring can be staggered, the following pragmatic approaches can help you out, which we recommend be adopted.

Clarify the reason behind field employee monitoring

Your field employees are concerned more about whether their managers don’t trust their credibility. When they haven’t clarified the actual and truthful reason for monitoring, anxiety seeds upon them, which is found in 59% of cases.

Whether it is for ensuring employee safety, optimizing route efficiency, avoiding scheduling conflicts, acknowledging individuals’ performance, or improving in-person customer service, you must communicate the reason for monitoring. When your field employees are aware that monitoring is for business improvement and creating a soothing workplace rather than just micromanagement, they are more likely to accept and respect it positively.

Don’t forget to ask for field employees’ consent

Understanding the relevance of employees’ consent for constant monitoring can help you foster a culture of respect and ethical behavior. For example, a typical consent to track field employee can include explicit permission for GPS tracking via company-provided devices to monitor their location during work hours to ensure timely attendance and check-in/out.

Obtaining consent from field employees explains their roles and confirms their equal liabilities of active decision-making. Moreover, it will help increase trust between you and your field team and avoid unnecessary skeptical situations.

Make a clear policy about field workforce data 

While it’s essential to track field employee data to keep your eyes on their real-time contributions and output, it’s also mandatory to restrict unauthorized access from the very beginning. Make sure your employee monitoring policy has a clear outline about who’ll have access to data – just the immediate manager, HR, or also any other top hierarchies in the management. Additionally, the policy must talk about how you intend the data collection and who’s applied to the outline. 

For example, if your employee monitoring software, like, Lystloc, tracks offline monitoring, let your employees know that instead of hiding the fact. Also, if your field employees are using company vehicles and mobile devices, mandate GPS tracking doesn’t make sense, though you must define the reason first. If you avoid clarity, it’ll evoke a sense of the company’s biases or favoritism within employees’ minds.

Know about applicable laws and regulations

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to maintain legal consideration tactfully because the last thing you may never want to land in a legal tangle. Why am I saying this? Your field team can be widely dispersed in a small to big geographical area, nationally or internationally. Also, labor laws or data protection regulations can vary in different states and nations, which you can’t avoid.

For example, the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) enforces data privacy in the US, while the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe strictly regulates how employee data should be collected. Compliance with these regulations not only helps you maintain lawful practices but also ensures you do not violate employees’ fundamental rights.

Monitor Your Field Employees while Retaining Their Trust with Lystloc

A true ethical field workforce monitoring practice cut the crap of biases, favoritism, and distress among employees, rather, fosters trust and respect beyond just surveillance. Thus, the concept of quitting quietly or employee absconding can be omitted forever from your organization.

However, when it comes to choosing a field employee tracking software to reach the abovementioned extent, you can rely upon Lystloc. It provides the tracking facility and insight into the data that you need to optimize employee productivity, spot the scope of performance improvement, and adhere to data privacy without violating it.

So, let’s not waste time evaluating other employee tracking software, instead, make ethical practices affordable by signing up with Lystloc.