Carrot and stick: how modern technologies help management to control the quality of work, and what it gives



    In May of this year, Natalia Kaspersky InfoWatch company proposed an innovative system for monitoring the keeping of corporate secrets. IT company experts have developed a “wiretap” that allows you to intercept and analyze employee conversations on working mobile phones. The initiative was followed by many questions, the main of which - why do managers introduce technology to control the workflow, and do new methods for evaluating productivity benefit employees?

    In the market of "corporate control" today there are hundreds of companies. Employers who doubt the quality of work of subordinates have access to many high-tech tools. Amid the crisis, the number of “internal threats” for companies has increased, and the desire of management to control corporate communications and the workflow has only intensified.

    Consider the technology of workflow control and find out whether they can benefit not only the employer, but also the employees.

    Labor discipline and performance of duties: electronic systems of workflow organization




    During the crisis, employers are especially closely monitoring the labor discipline of staff: budget cuts force them to refuse the services of specialists who demonstrate low labor productivity.

    “Of course, the effectiveness of employees began to play an even more important role: with the worsening economy, the vast majority of employers optimized the number of employees, retaining the most qualified, efficient and loyal company staff who can work for two, combining several functions,” says the head of the department for work with the staff of Job.ru Inna Derzhavina. Those who break deadlines, are regularly late for work or devote working hours to solving personal problems run the risk of being “overboard”.

    The system of organization and control of the work process will help increase the effectiveness of teamwork and track the personal progress of employees in completing tasks. Among the most famous resources are Pyrus , CrocoTime , Wooboard , Stakhanovets , Megaplan . All of them help optimize workloads and reflect the real "picture of the day" of office employees. So, the employer at any time can check whether a member of the team is at his workplace and whether he performs his direct duties.

    "Now, if someone does not go to work because of employees, working time accounting system fixes it", - sharesExperience with CrocoTime Alina Iskenderova, Head of the B2B-Center Human Resources Department. “CrocoTime statistics are updated every five minutes, and we can quickly contact the department head and find out the reason for the absence of a subordinate.” Along with taking into account “attendance,” resources help determine which employees are sitting on social networks or playing online games during working hours.

    The greatest benefit to the introduction of electronic systems for organizing and controlling the workflow will bring to the leaders of large companies. According to analysts of the Stakhanovets service, in organizations with more than 50 employees, employees spend only 38% of their time working on business tasks, as the personal contribution of each individual team member is difficult to determine.

    Employees remain in the “plus” - careful control over the work process allows you to allocate and reward the most effective team members, which significantly increases motivation for work. In addition, attention to the personal progress of each individual employee helps to review the payment system: employees who cope with a large volume of tasks will be able to receive more than their unorganized colleagues.

    Field Quality Management: Field Service Management (FSM) Systems




    A number of difficulties are also encountered by company executives, whose employees travel to clients to provide services (for example, for furniture assembly, repair and installation works, and cleaning of premises). In an office environment, you can control the work of subordinates in person, but monitoring several field teams remotely is much more difficult. An effective solution to this problem could be the Planado field management service , which, as stated, is able to increase the productivity of mobile teams by more than 30%.

    Planado не только облегчает коммуникацию между руководителем и выездными сотрудниками, но и помогает бригадам придерживаться единых стандартов работы, что значительно повышает качество оказываемых услуг. Кроме того, ресурс позволяет следить за «невидимыми работниками»: благодаря Planado сотрудники не смогут в течение дня заниматься своими делами под предлогом «затянувшейся работы». Поможет ресурс и тем руководителям, которые подозревают свои сотрудников в подработке «на стороне» в рабочее время, — благодаря грамотной оптимизации задач, у нечестных работников просто не останется времени на то, чтобы выполнять личные заказы.

    “[...] The problem is relevant in different areas: for companies that install windows, service a fire alarm, are engaged in cleaning, furniture collection, home repair, etc. All organizations using field employees have the same problems that can be solved by the introduction of new technologies - notes the head of Planado Vadim Zakharikov. - The effectiveness of management tools has been proven by various studies . Judging by our first experience, this also works in Russia - on average, application implementation allows increasing the productivity of field employees by 31%. ”

    Outbound workers benefit from the use of Planado. So, the dispatcher always sends a team to the client, which is located closest to the territory, which can significantly save time on the road. Monitoring the implementation of tasks helps to avoid temporary overlaps and stressful situations - until the current task is completed, the team will not receive new urgent calls.

    The introduction of a system of monitoring the work of field employees Planado also facilitates the process of labor adaptation of beginners: when fulfilling orders, they can rely on a step-by-step work plan. A photograph of the result can be sent to the office to get an estimate of more experienced colleagues.

    Secure storage of corporate information: DLP systems




    According to a large-scale study by Zecurion, the maximum amount of damage that a domestic company incurred as a result of the "drain" of corporate secrets amounted to $ 30 million. The average financial damage to large commercial organizations from a single leak is $ 820 thousand. Most often, insiders steal and sell personal data employees and shareholders (74.3%), lists of customers and suppliers (70.2%), as well as personal data of customers (69.2%).

    DLP (Data Leak Prevention) systems will help protect corporate secrets. Most often, they perform several tasks at once - they monitor and analyze business and personal correspondence from work computers, “intercept” messages on social networks and instant messengers, record copying data to the cloud or to external media, and check the history of requests in the browser. Special attention is paid to the translation of corporate information on paper. Incredibly, in 10% of cases of theft of production data, insiders simply print what they need on an office printer.

    “We can’t control all employees, we monitor primarily risk groups - 85% of violations and leaks are attributable to retiring employees,” saysThe head of the analytical service of Solar Security Galina Ryabova. According to the expert, employees should also be included in the “suspicion list”, whose expenses obviously do not coincide with the salary. For example, those who unexpectedly for colleagues acquire a car or real estate.

    Control over behavior on social networks and the ban on messengers


    Security officers of large companies pay special attention to the content of employee pages on social networks. “An employee post can ruin a company's reputation if it writes about a delay in salaries, a broken deal or upcoming cuts,” says Sidorin Lab founder Dmitry Sidorin, “now every employee on a social network who has indicated the name of his company is a brand holder.”

    However, executives interested in maintaining a business reputation are not only interested in posts about the company and selfies from the workplace (they often capture them inattentivelyworking documentation), but also lists of "friends" and subscriptions of subordinates. If friends of employees of competing firms and journalists from specialized publications are present, the employee may fall into the “risk group”.

    A lot of suspicion is caused by business correspondence in messengers. So, the head of Megaplan, Sergey Kozlov, chose to close the employees’ access to Telegram so that “the history of communication and discussion remains in the company.”

    “Yes, at the end of last year I was forced to close access to Telegram from the office, which caused a wave of indignation. Like any general director, I wanted to know what my people were doing and if there were any problems at work. What could I offer? Only a worthy replacement. Therefore, I set the task for developers - to make a chat in which it would be no less convenient to communicate. Now we are discussing tasks without leaving Megaplan, and the communication history remains with the company, ”says Sergey Kozlov.

    Gingerbread: how to avoid a negative reaction of employees


    Not all employees are ready to work under the constant supervision of the management. The most negatively perceived desire is to track calls from corporate SIM cards and correspondence from work computers. Domestic human rights activists consider this a violation of the constitutional rights of workers and call any “office wiretapping” illegal . However, even the introduction of field management systems can cause discontent among subordinates.

    The main mechanism for combating negative reactions, experts consider an open and honest dialogue with the team. “Of course, it is advisable to conduct a survey among employees and give them the opportunity to speak out in order to understand exactly what they are not happy with,” advises Sergey Ozhegov, SearchInform sales director.

    Workers need to know what control mechanisms will be implemented, and how this will affect the assessment of their performance. Most managers believe that company employees should be aware that their work is being monitored. So they will not be able to compromise themselves by chance and have time to restructure their work in accordance with the new requirements.

    “As a rule, employees do not like innovations, so it makes sense and financially interest them.” - the creators of the Planado service are sure. One of the possible ways to motivate is the certification of teams or offices that meet high standards of work and support them for a long time. Employees “champions” who show the highest results in working with the new assessment system can be awarded with an increase in salary or premium. It is important to explain to subordinates that the introduction of new workflow control systems is no less beneficial for them than for management. If an employee copes with its tasks on time, according to the results of inspections, he will receive encouragement.

    In order for the introduction of new mechanisms for controlling the workflow to be “painless” for the team, it is necessary:

    1. Inform employees in advance about the introduction of new methods for evaluating their performance. Tell what exactly the electronic system will analyze (attendance, number of hours of work, use of a working computer and office equipment for personal needs, timeliness of work tasks, etc.). Ideally, hold a general meeting dedicated only to this issue.
    2. Explain that the innovation will benefit not only the management, but also the team (employees who are used to hiding behind the backs of their colleagues will stop “slowing down” the team’s work, a reward will await the most hardworking and responsible people).
    3. Be prepared to repeatedly answer questions from subordinates about innovation.
    4. To develop incentive programs for employees who demonstrate the highest productivity under the new conditions (bonuses and wage increases).
    5. Increase employee motivation by organizing corporate competitions between departments and employees holding the same positions. Reward those who demonstrate the best results.

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