Artificial Intelligence in Employee Monitoring: The Future is Here

Various industries implement AI in employee monitoring to track productivity, ensure compliance with company policies, and improve security.

One of the greatest advantages of AI in employee monitoring is its ability to process vast amounts of data much faster than a person can. Where a human manager spends hours reviewing productivity reports, KPIs, and timesheets, AI analyzes this data and compares them to industry-specific and role-specific benchmarks in minutes. It can give personalized performance assessments and pinpoint weaknesses and areas for improvement. AI-powered time-tracking systems can monitor work hours and time spent on projects and tasks. AI can potentially be trained to highlight underutilized resources and even predict possible project delays and budget overruns.

Besides tracking and evaluating performance, AI can help increase employee engagement and well-being. For example, it can analyze work patterns, activity, and communication and detect the earliest signs of burnout or disengagement. Such signs can be dropping activity levels, negative statements, increased time on performing usual tasks, or changed work hours: early leaves or staying late at work. AI in employee monitoring can catch these subtle changes and alert managers. In their turn, managers can proactively provide additional support, adjust workloads, or offer training programs.

AI-powered monitoring systems can be trained to identify security risks, such as data breaches, insider threats, and fraud. Like monitoring sentiment and activity patterns, AI can scan employee activity reports for anomalies, such as unusual login attempts, suspicious file downloads, or unauthorized access to sensitive data. If it detects fishy behavior, it can alert the manager immediately. Thanks to AI, organizations will significantly increase their security.

HR and managers can get valuable insights from AI-powered analytical tools. These insights help them make data-driven decisions about workforce planning, talent development, and performance management. Artificial intelligence reveals top performers and those who struggle and points out areas of improvement for both. Using this future technology, organizations can optimize their recruitment and training strategies. Moreover, with AI-powered analytics, managers may discover high-potential employees and invest in their development.

One example of AI in employee monitoring is CleverControl's future technology - AI Scoring. This innovative tool goes beyond simple data collection and provides a nuanced assessment of employee productivity and engagement.

The AI analyzes portions of data collected by CleverControl software, namely, used applications, websites, and information about the employee's position and the company's industry. This data allows it to gain a complete view of the employee's actual workday and compare it to industry and role benchmarks. As a result, the AI can point out unproductive or unusual activity and loss of focus, and give individual productivity scores.

AI Scoring not only saves the manager's time on manual reviewing of the logs but also provides objective evaluation of employees' work. It helps managers make data-informed decisions regarding workload distribution, performance recognition, and areas for improvement.

Learn more about CleverControl and its AI Scoring feature by visiting CleverControl AI Scoring

As we can see, AI has immense potential in employee monitoring, from automating performance assessments to planning individual employee development strategies. But there is always the other side of the coin.

Organizations should not let the shine of AI's advantages blind them - AI hides some serious downsides, namely privacy, data security, and ethics in monitoring.

Potential privacy violations and security breaches are two primary concerns regarding AI in employee monitoring. AI systems can collect and analyze vast amounts of employee data, including personal information, data from emails, messaging platforms, video surveillance, and even keystrokes. But we cannot but ask questions about to which extent employers can and should monitor employees. This level of AI surveillance can feel intrusive for many employees and undermine their trust.

Besides, the massive datasets collected by AI monitoring systems are tempting targets for cyberattacks. A data breach could expose sensitive employee information and lead to serious consequences, from financial losses to identity theft.

As disappointing as it may be, we all are biased as human beings, and managers are no exception. To avoid biases in employee management, organizations may want to rely on AI, but is AI truly objective? AI algorithms are trained on data, and if this data is biased, the AI system can perpetuate and even amplify those prejudices in its evaluation of employees. As a result, employees, especially those in marginalized groups, can be treated unfairly or discriminated against.

Besides, over-reliance on AI monitoring can reduce employees to data points. There is no need to say that such an approach neglects individual aspects of work, such as creativity, collaboration, and personally preferred work patterns.

Trust is lost in buckets and gained back in drops, so missteps in applying the technology early will have a long tail of implications for employee trust over time," says David Johnson a principal analyst at Forrester Research."

The potential downsides of AI in employee monitoring can be mitigated with the collaborative effort of employers and employees. AI monitoring must not be a secret for employees - they should know why it is used, what data is collected, and how it is used and secured.

Inviting employees to participate in the decision-making process regarding implementing this future technology is a good way to establish trust.

Organizations should not rely solely on AI assessments in performance evaluations. AI-made conclusions should be combined with personal observations and colleagues' opinions; only such performance evaluations can be comprehensive and objective. Finally, monitoring practices should not be static. Employers should regularly review its effectiveness, address employee concerns, and be open to making adjustments based on feedback and evolving ethical considerations.

AI is certainly a future technology that is set to revolutionize employee monitoring. It opens new opportunities for increasing productivity, enhancing employee well-being, strengthening the company's security, and delivering valuable insights for managers.

However, as with any powerful technology, AI integration into employee monitoring is not without its challenges. Privacy concerns, the potential for algorithmic bias, data security, and the erosion of employee trust are real risks that must be proactively addressed.

Moving forward, the successful adoption of AI in employee monitoring hinges on a balanced and transparent approach. Organizations must prioritize open communication with employees, establish clear policies regarding data usage and security, and ensure that AI-driven insights are used to empower, not diminish, the human element of work.