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This article originally appeared in the April edition of IT Pro 20/20, available here. To sign up to receive each new issue in your inbox, click here.
Employee monitoring is on the rise. ESG's international 2021 Technology Spending Intentions Survey noted that almost half (48%) of senior IT decision makers questioned had been asked to increase employee monitoring since the start of the pandemic, while GetApp's Employee Monitoring Survey reported that one in four UK SMBs have implemented employee monitoring software in that time.
Other experts, however, say these statistics should be viewed with caution, as employee surveillance is an under researched area with little hard data available. Dr Alan Warr, chair of BCS' Consultancy Specialist Group notes that employee monitoring has – to some extent – always been around, particularly in regulated industries, but that over the last few decades use of digital monitoring tools has steadily risen and will continue to do so.