Il fannullonismo come sintomo

Molti datori di lavoro credono che la costruzione di un team sia il loro unico scopo. Secondo le statistiche, nelle aziende con più di 50 persone il 38% del tempo dei dipendenti è dedicato alle loro responsabilità dirette, il 36% a questioni legate al lavoro e il 26% ad attività non definibili.

Questi dati provengono dagli sviluppatori del software di monitoraggio dei dipendenti CleverControl. Secondo loro, l'idea del programma è nata dalla consapevolezza che qualsiasi attività commerciale funziona bene a una condizione: quando tutti i dipendenti sono onesti e responsabili. Due aziende che operano sullo stesso mercato, a parità di condizioni iniziali, possono avere risultati drammaticamente diversi, perché un direttore commerciale è stato onesto, mentre l'altro ha ottenuto entrate aggiuntive dai concorrenti dell'azienda.

"We thought about how to give managers a reliable tool for understanding who is who in the team: who is actually working and who just talks about it," says one of the lead developers Mark Masters. Then they realized that it should be a software product, devoid of subjectivity “When we started to introduce our product, it seemed that companies are full of lazy and unscrupulous people,” laughs Mark, “but then we realized that, if employees spend a lot of time on non-business-related websites, or write personal emails this means that some business processes are not properly aligned.”

Ad esempio, il reparto marketing, per qualsiasi motivo, ha fornito ai venditori solo un migliaio di contatti, sebbene potessero contattare un numero molto maggiore di clienti. L'obiettivo è stato raggiunto e il mese successivo è stato fissato esattamente allo stesso numero, quindi il team di vendita continua a lavorare a metà forza e il programma può registrare questi casi.

In other words, not all companies are able to determine the maximum level of results that can be demanded from employees. "Our program should not encourage managers to use punitive measures. Dismissing a person is the easiest thing you can do. Instead we need to figure out the reason of slacking, as experience shows that the majority of people start aimlessly browsing the Internet only when they quickly finish all the tasks at hand or when they do not have clear objectives." Often, there are other situations - in which it is not possible to administer justice without monitoring systems, according to the developer.

"For example, in any company’s sales department there is always an employee who beats the target and one who cannot. But sometimes, surprisingly, it turns the former one spends much time on sites unrelated to work tasks, but the latter does not. In fact, he or she only uses the Internet for work-related browsing. The explanation is simple: the first one works only with old familiar clients who want to renew the contracts, and the second one is left with cold calling new clients."

IT-developers believe that employee monitoring is not a bad thing, but a great opportunity to understand the problem. "I will not say that monitoring never causes a negative reaction. It does and sometimes even leads to employee dismissal, but the program has always been intended as a tool for motivation," says Mark.

According to him today the number one enemy of productivity is non-work-related online resources, such as social networks. Studies show that an employee requires about 23 minutes for re-focusing on his or her task after a distraction. "Another problem is smoking,” says Mark, “it is obvious that people who smoke get distracted more often than non-smokers. And for that our program includes recording of periods of activity and inactivity during the working hours."