Do you actually measure productivity at work, or are you just keeping an eye on things? Here’s how Trillian can assist you in properly tracking employee status.
It can be difficult to resist the temptation to keep an eye on employee activities given the recent widespread acceptance of remote work. Nor would you be alone. According to 62% of CEOs, their companies were employing tools to gather information on their teams.
That can place a lot of pressure on employees to report for work even when they’re feeling under the weather. Although the technology is there to provide you with such knowledge, using it may actually make you less productive.
It might seem counterintuitive, but if they didn’t commute or log on to work from home, you and your company would benefit more.
It turns out that presenteeism causes more harm than absenteeism, which sounds scarier. A study conducted by wellness experts Vitality found that presenteeism costs businesses 35 productive days annually. The cost of absenteeism is less than three.
Productivity against presenteeism
The definitions of presenteeism and productivity from Investopedia are contrasted here:
“The amount of real gross domestic product…,” or in this case, income for your business, “is produced by an hour of labor.” This is the definition of productivity, and more especially labor productivity.
When combined, these definitions greatly clarify the connection between the two. An employee is truly seriously reducing production if they are “physically at work” but performing poorer than normal. Use the best labor productivity tracking software such as Controlio to monitor employees.
Why? Because they aren’t performing up to the level for which they are paid and are decreasing the amount of money you receive for an hour of labor. The mere fact that employees are at work does not necessarily translate into company benefits.
As Vitality notes, presenteeism has a snowball effect, which drives additional nails into the productivity coffin. When workers burn out or infect their coworkers with the flu or cold, more time is eventually lost.
Tracking the Reasons of Presenteeism
It makes sense to suggest that employees will face consequences if they fail to achieve your activity criteria if your company has established a surveillance culture.
Reid Blackman of the Harvard Business Review summed it up earlier this year when the pandemic forced many people to work from home and many companies to increase their monitoring efforts:
Employees exposed to increased surveillance levels report feeling “incredibly stressed out” by the ongoing observation and being reluctant to voice their concerns, which is a formula for burnout and discontent, both of which, unfortunately, reduce productivity.
Non-Intrusive Surveillance
We have a discreet solution that most individuals are already accustomed to using outside of work: status tracking. The three main instant messaging services have four and a half billion active accounts, and each one lets users know when a user is online or offline as well as when they were last active. Additionally, they notify you when your message has been received and read.
Configuring Statuses
Trillian provides the same information with greater control and granularity, which makes it more appropriate for the workplace (among other reasons!). In addition to the familiar green “Online” circle, we also have a red “Do Not Disturb” square and an orange “Away” triangle. Three forms, that is!
How can Trillian determine whether someone is online or not? It monitors mouse and keyboard movements. The application automatically modifies a user’s status to “Away” if they haven’t used both for a predetermined amount of time. It can also be done by hand.
Sharing Availability
But the geometry is only the beginning. Additionally, users can add status messages informing coworkers of their next online date or the reason behind their absence. Emojis are a great way to express your feelings about what you’re doing. It is also possible to schedule the clearing of certain messages for a specific time.
For instance, you could set your status to “Away,” your emoji to “📞,” and your status description to “On a call” if you’re going to be on a call for an hour. That way, everyone will know that you’re feigning to be on a call while you’re actually watching those two guys construct a swimming pool out of mud in the rainforest.
Another advantage of activity tracking is that Trillian will turn off phone notifications while you’re working on your PC. In this manner, if someone contacts you, you won’t be inundated with a deluge of noise.
Monitoring the statuses
Jokes aside, managers can utilize status tracking as a tool to quickly see who is and is not active without going too far or betraying confidence. It is possible to configure notifications that will notify you when people are logging in and out. Additionally, we’ll immediately display to you who has just logged in to your contact list. In light of this, users have the option to personalize which employees appear in their contact list, ensuring that they only see the activity of those individuals that they require.
Conscientious and courteous management
In order to prevent presenteeism, it is beneficial to reframe the concept of monitoring, and status updates aid in providing direction. Think of it (or convey it) as a way to learn about your team’s availability rather than as monitoring. That is more useful than someone working extra hours since good communication is a greater indicator of productivity.
Jason Fried, Basecamp co-founder and thought leader on remote work, makes a fantastic point: You or someone on your team hired these individuals for a reason.
“Why are you trusted to do anything at all if you can’t be trusted to work remotely? Why are you allowed to speak with consumers, write advertising text, create the next product, evaluate insurance claims, or prepare tax returns if you’re so unappreciated?
