Employee-monitoring software reinforces poor leadership habits.
It’s easy for bosses to fall for technological tools and devices sold as ways to help them and their employees work smarter, produce more and perform better. After all, driving performance is the primary goal of any manager. Some tools, however, may do more harm than good by providing crutches for weak managers to lean on while inspiring fear and discontent among the rank and file.
Courtesy of today’s ever-connected workplace, it’s simple to track employee time online, the websites they visit and even the keystrokes they enter. Human resources experts, however, warn that many of these so-called “leadership tools” don’t hold a candle to the long-term results effective bosses can deliver.
Some of the types of tools effective bosses avoid and ineffective ones gravitate toward include:
- Online tracking tools: Programs that tell bosses how much time people spend on social media sites and other websites don’t provide a clear picture of employee productivity. Results-driven bosses don’t care if their employees need a five-minute mental break from time to time. They care about bottom line results. If a visit to Facebook provides necessary time for an employee to recharge before tackling a project, so be it. Ineffective bosses, however, see that as a waste of company time, regardless of the results the employee produces over the course of a day, week or month.
- Keystroke counters: Using this type of tool to gauge productivity also fails to provide a clear picture of employee performance. These tools provide no insights on accuracy and they cannot help the employee who is so driven to be at the top of the list they end up costing a company more in the long run when carpal tunnel syndrome sets in.
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- Network logging devices: Programs that track how long and often employees are logged into a company’s network also provide rather meaningless data, experts say. Effective bosses pay attention to the results employees produce rather than how much online time they’ve logged.
- Stack ranking systems: Programs that automatically rank employees based on a set of metrics can be counterproductive. Rather than inspire performance, they tend to put people on edge and make people feel judged and underappreciated.
- Call timing programs: These are common in call centers where time is money. These programs ding employees if they spend too much time on calls with customers or take a pause between calls to collect themselves. This type of production-line mentality can burn people out fast and may contribute to employee churn while potentially having a negative impact on customer service.
“We are not machines,” Liz Ryan, a former Fortune 500 human resources senior vice president, explained in a Forbes piece on the topic of leadership tools. “We need breaks and distractions. Snooping software is not a leadership tool – it’s a crutch for weak managers.”
Effective bosses, Ryan and others contend, inspire employees to perform through solid leadership. They are results driven and they pay close enough attention to their charges to understand who gets results and who needs coaching. They don’t need technological crutches to achieve goals. While ineffective bosses may also get results, their methods – and tools – may ultimately end up costing companies more in the long run.
