GAO also cited concerns regarding mental health, that continuously monitoring can leave employees “feeling anxious and demoralized.” Image: Plus69/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffDigital surveillance of employees—of the sort that many federal agencies use, as well as private sector companies—has been found to have a positive impact on employees when used for purposes such as physical security but a negative one when used for measuring productivity, the GAO has said.
In a review of more than 100 studies and interviews with experts, the GAO found a common theme of potential positive impacts such as increased focus on physical health and safety, for example by wearing devices that can detect hazardous chemicals or detect extreme heat or an elevated heartbeat.
However, such devices “may push workers to move faster, which may increase their risk of injury” and “can make workers feel as if they cannot take breaks, which can cause physical stress” and fatigue. GAO also cited similar concerns regarding mental health, that continuously monitoring can leave employees “feeling anxious and demoralized.”
That is especially a concern when the monitoring is used for measuring productivity, GAO found. “For example, a trade association representative said that when this happens, workers may feel stressed because digital surveillance tools do not detect the underlying reasons for dips in productivity,” it said.
“Two researchers explained that productivity monitoring often makes workers feel forced to move faster. This may lead workers to cut their break time, which exacerbates job strain and triggers negative mental health effects. A study also found that when digital surveillance is used to monitor workers’ productivity, workers feel pressured to work faster, increasing stress and making them feel like they do not have control over their work,” it added.
Other concerns included using productivity benchmarks based on the productivity of one group of employees that may not be representative of the full workforce and failure to measure “measure offline activities that are harder to track, such as time spent on research, reading, or helping others”; not taking into account all of a job’s responsibilities and excluding some that can’t be digitally measured; and taking data “at face value, not understanding that these tools could underestimate workers’ performance.”
Stakeholders and studies especially cautioned against “making employment decisions without human review.”
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