Monitoring Employee Behaviors Using IT - Assignment Example

Monitoring of employees' behaviors at the place of work is one of the controversial aspects of the legal, ethical, and professional spheres. Companies are using information technology (IT) to monitor the behaviors of employees. The process of tracking the behaviors using IT has some implications on both the workers and the workforce. Monitoring of employees ought to adhere to the set Legal, ethical, and professional standards and policies. Based on the information obtained after watching the video entitled "Ethics in the Workplace to IT Team 8" together with research on the topic, there are specific insights concerning the use of IT to monitor employees. As seen in the answers to the questions for this assignment, monitoring employees' behaviors using IT functionalities has some implications on both the company and the employees, therefore, IT departments ought to understand the underlying policies for adherence to the set ethical, legal, and professional standards regarding online tracking of the workers' actions.

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What are the reasons why an employer might monitor the online behavior of employees?

There are various reasons why employers might carry out the online monitoring of the employees' behaviors. One of the reasons for tracking the online workforce behaviors is because of the risk management obligation (Kohen, 2019). The company has the role of managing risks in company operations. The process of tracking the online behaviors of workers leads to managing risks associated with cybersecurity issues. Through monitoring of the workers' online actions, there is a reduction of the cyber insecurity risk (Martin & Freeman, 2015). As a result, employers ought to monitor the behaviors of workers using IT because it is an obligation of risk management.

The other reason why employees decide to carry out employees online behaviors is to protect valuable information. Companies have some information that is only shared among a few individuals; therefore, such data require protection (Moussa, 2015). In most cases, such information if it is exposed to some employees it can negatively affect the business operations. Monitoring online behaviors ensure that valuable information for the company is not accessible by unauthorized individuals (Kohen, 2019). Therefore, it is worth for employers to monitor the employees' online behaviors as it leads to the protection of valuable information belonging to the company.

Apart from carrying out the role of risk management and the protection of valuable information, the other reason as for why employers may opt for monitoring the online activities of workers is to prevent legal actions against the workers who might infringe the set policies. Uncontrolled online actions might lead to breaking the legislation and policies governing online communications or information access (Moussa, 2015). To avoid such cases, organizations may prefer to have IT software and specialists to provide online monitoring services Employers can use IT functionalities such as the adoption of monitoring technologies, viewing of cookies on hard-drive to identify web-activities, click streaming, as well as using keywords to note the visited sites to track online behaviors of the workforce (Martin & Freeman, 2015). Consequently, employers need to apply IT techniques to monitor actions of the workforce as it prevents incidences of legal actions to the workers who might not comply with the company or national policies governing online actions.

How might the organization benefit from this monitoring?

The action of having a monitoring system for the workers' actions is beneficial to companies. One of the benefits is having a safe business environment. The management of risks as an obligation reduces chances for having additional costs that accompany the process of solving problems caused by the risks (Moussa, 2015). Currently, cybersecurity risk has become one of the significant threats affecting companies. Businesses are losing billions of dollars because of risks associated with uncontrolled online behaviors that increased the chances for cyber insecurity (Martin & Freeman, 2015). Monitoring the online actions of the workers will benefit the employer by having a secured working environment because of the minimal chances of cyber insecurity risks.

The process of protecting valuable information for the company through online tracking of the staff actions is also of benefit the company. The company preserves its intellectual property as well as reducing the negative impact of exposing some information to the public (Moussa, 2015). Protecting valuable information also leads to a maintained competitive advantage as it yields to protecting value addition strategies used by the company to win more customers in the marketplace than the competitors.

On the other hand, monitoring online actions of the workforce is also benefits companies because it prevents losing experienced workers who might be fired or face the law due to breaking policies that govern the use of company resources. Concerning cost, it is expensive to lose experienced staffs who fail to comply with the set company policies that govern online commutations and information access; therefore, it is of a benefit to the company through reduced costs (Kohen, 2019). The cost of preventing behaviors that might lead to breaking online policies is lower than the cost of losing an exercised staff or facing the law because of non-compliance.

What are the possible consequences of not monitoring such behavior?

Deciding not to monitor online behaviors of the workforce has consequences to both the employers and the employees. To the employers, failure to track online behaviors may lead to losing valuable information to competitors go through the workers, a situation which may lead to losing value in the marketplace (Kohen, 2019). Losing sensitive information because of uncontrolled online behaviors may also lead to losing the intellectual property of the organisation causing an impact on the company's uniqueness (Moussa, 2015). Consequently, organisations ought to implement the use of IT to monitor online actions of staff to avoid the consequence of a reduction in the competitive advantage as well as loss of the company's uniqueness.

The other consequence of not monitoring online behaviors of staff is incurring losses due to costs associated with losing experienced employees who are fired because of not following the use of the company resources policies. It is expensive for a company to lose experienced workers because of faults that may be prevented through monitoring their online behaviors (Martin & Freeman, 2015). Companies are also likely to face the consequence of increased costs through cyber insecurity risks that might occur through uncontrolled employees online actions. The company can lose billions of dollars if workers with some IT know-how are allowed to access some information especially in the banking industry where hacking cases are common.

Besides, not having surveillance on the employees' online actions has a consequence of the workers increased trust. Sometimes the workforce perceives online monitoring as an indication of the management not trusting them (Moussa, 2015). So, having a workplace environment without monitoring the online actions of the staff increases trust and creates a sense of loyalty and belonging to the company. The outcome is a high performance of employees which contributes to increased profitability. A working environment without employees' monitoring also causes fewer conflicts between the management and the staff (Martin & Freeman, 2015). A peaceful interaction between the two creates job satisfaction and ones in achieving the company's objectives.

What are some of the arguments against employers engaging in such monitoring?

There are some arguments against having the online actions of workers to be monitored by employers. Some argue against the practice because it is against the privacy of the workforce. The argument on the fact of violating the privacy of workers has a basis from the constitution where people have a right to privacy (Moussa, 2015). Taking the action of tracking the behaviours of others is a way of denying them an opportunity to enjoy their right to privacy. The opponents of online surveillance of the staff actions by the management also argue that the act is illegal as it not only denies the right to privacy but also indicates inequality and discrimination at the place of work. Having other staff tracked by either the management of employees from the Department of IT is a way of showing inequality and discrimination at the workplace (Kohen, 2019). As a result, tracking the online actions of the workforce should be done under minimal interference to the employees' privacy.

Another argument against monitoring the behaviors of workers by organizations has a focus on time spent in the tracking process. Staff in the IT department and the management spent a lot of time to monitor the online behaviors of the workforce (Kohen, 2019). The outcome is reduced time utilization and subsequent low productivity. The argument against this monitoring views the action as time-wasting. Supervisors involved may not meet their targets because of spending much time on tracking the online activities of employees. Though, software programs are used in the surveillance; it requires an individual check on the progress of the system (Martin & Freeman, 2015). Workplace surveillance leads to wasting time; therefore, companies ought to come up with interventions to ensure that the process takes little time to avoid disorienting the involved supervisors from their core mandates.

Research vendors that offer employee monitoring software. Summarize the types of solutions they offer and their costs. If you were going to pick one of these to recommend to your organization, or one with which you are familiar, which would you choose? Why?

Various vendors are offering online employee tracking services for companies. The identified vendors for assessment include Teramind, SentryPC, and SoftActivity Monitor. Teramind offer intuitive and comprehensive employee monitoring services. The monitoring services provided by Teramind include program and webpage tracking, screenshots, live chat, and keystroke (Moussa, 2015). The tools used by Teramind in the monitoring are easy and versatile. In spite of the ease and versatility of using it, the cost for the service is high. The cost of Teramind services is $ 1,500 per month.

SentryPC is the second vendor for employee monitoring services, and it is suitable for small businesses. The tracking services provided include email monitoring, data loss preventions, as well as an indication of inactivity alerts (Martin & Freeman, 2015). Though it has a limitation for offering services to small companies, it has the advantage of providing tracking services at a very competitive rate. The charges for SentryPC are $ 1000 per months.

Lastly, SoftActivity Monitor as the other vendor provides internet management services with a specification of content monitoring features. The provider also caters for reporting cases of online sharing of sensitive information that might negatively affect the company operations. Additional services offered by SoftActivity Monitor include tracking of web browsing, social media activities, live chats, as well as email conversations (Kohen, 2019). Though it focuses on internet management services, it is suitable for protecting and capturing sensitive information that might significantly affect the company's operations. The monthly cost for SoftActivit Monitor services is $ 950.

Of the three vendors that offer online employee monitoring services above, SoftActivity is the most recomm...