The use of surveillance in the workplace is only
accelerating. A May Gartner survey found that
nontraditional monitoring techniques (including the
WUDFNLQJRIHPSOR\HHV¶PRYHPHQWVDURXQGWKHṘFH
and their biometric data) rose from 30 percent of the
239 large corporations it surveyed in 2015 to 50 percent
in 2018. That number is expected to increase to 80
percent in 2020, says Brian Kopp, practice group vice-
president in human resources at Gartner Inc.
)RUWKHPRVWSDUWWKHEHQH¿WVRIUHPRYLQJWKHKXPDQ
element from employee monitoring rest with companies
and not with workers themselves; more on that below.
DOES YOUR BOSS NEED ACCESS TO YOUR
BRAINWAVES?
Government regulations are a necessary good in society.
They protect citizens from corporate ills, though they’re
criticized by some as creating so-called nanny states.
But workplaces aren’t nanny states so much as nanny
¿HIGRPVZKHUHUXOHVIRUWKHVDIHW\RIHPSOR\HHVH[LVW
to protect them as company assets. So when monitoring
employees, it can be tricky to disentangle safety
measures from privacy violations.
The benefits of
removing the
human element
from employee
monitoring rest
with companies
and not with
workers
themselves.