Computer Ethic Monitoring
Introduction
Computer usage is very vital towards the success of any organization. Many companies store data on the computer systems and many forms of workplace communications are done through the use of computers. The use of computers has made it possible for the efficiency of different business activities to be improved further. This has also made it easy for electronic monitoring of employees in a given firm. It is very important to carry out monitoring of the employees so as to ensure the survival of the business. However, the process of monitoring the employees can also be regarded to have negative impacts especially to the employees as it breaches the employee privacy policy. It is therefore important to carry out the process of employee monitoring safely and ethically. Employee monitoring have both positive and negative effects to the employees, business and the senior management of a firm. Employee monitoring helps in ensuring the security of the data which is stored in the computers being used in the organization. There is a number of software that can be used in monitoring the activities of the employees in the firm. Employee monitoring also helps in ensuring that the employees use the organization’s computers for business purposes. It also helps is controlling risks that can be brought about by the misuse of computers in the organization like virus attacks and also helps in barring hackers from accessing the company’s information system. Computer monitoring is a very important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration during the risk management phase of the organization’s project. Most companies which have implemented computer monitoring software into their systems have saved a lot of resources which could have been lost. (Jeffrey & Kathryn, 2006)
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Technical aspect of Employee Computer Usage Monitoring
The process of employee computer usage monitoring can prove to be a very hard task to accomplish manually. There are several software that are currently available in the market that can be used for computer monitoring. Some of the software can generate information about the usage of a particular computer system and record the results in real time. The software can also give the users an opportunity to produce screen shots which can be used for future reference incase there is some need for the same.
Some of the software that can be used for employee computer usage includes:
i. Activity monitor
ii. Spytech computer monitoring software
iii. REFOG employee monitor
iv. Track4Win computer monitoring software
v. Netvizor computer monitoring software
vi. Recoverfix computer monitoring software
These software have different capabilities of monitoring the users in a given computer setting. They function in the following ways:
i. Activity Monitor
This software tool helps in tracking the network activity of a given organization in real time. It also helps the user to determine what a given set of employees are doing at any particular moment. This software tool also helps in managing the online activities of the staff thereby saving resources which could have been lost if proper monitoring was not done. This system has the capabilities of giving you detailed information on how the LAN was used and the users of the LAN within some specified period of time. Activity monitor consists of both clients and servers and can be installed on any computer in the LAN of the organization to be monitored. The computers to be monitored in the network are installed with an agent program called the Remote Spy Software. Once the program has been installed on a client machine, the computer can be spied remotely. This tool has proved to be very efficient in managing all the activities of the employees in the network. This tool is very easy to install and use thereby making it a very popular tool for employee managing.
Key features of Activity monitoring
i. It provides for a live view of remote desktop
ii. It can easily show the web surfing history in real time
iii. Monitor software usage in the computers
iv. It records all activity log for all the workplaces in the organization.
v. It stores complete information of every user of the system and how an action was performed.
vi. It tracks any keystroke made in real time.
vii. It takes snapshots of the monitors of the computers being monitored.
viii. Provides for a total control over the networked computers.
ix. It has multilingual international features which mean that it can be used by people from different parts of the world.
Benefits of Activity Monitor
i. Brings about an instant increase in the productivity of the personnel
ii. Protects a company from legal lawsuits, fraudulent activities and also help in reducing risks in the company.
iii. Keeps Company records efficiently.
When using the activity monitor, the administrator can be able to view the information being typed by a user in real time. This process of efficient management of the monitoring process has made it very popular among different companies.
Spytech Computer monitoring Software
This software is used to determine which employees are abusing business work time. The software detects and gives evidence on any kind of misuse that may be going on within the company premises. This software will log into the system and record all the operations being done by the employees. This software also has inbuilt features used for filtering the access rights of the employees. This will help in restricting the access of the employees to different sections of the system or to different internet sites. All logs into the system are sent to the administrator. The logs can be viewed remotely by the administrator who can ascertain that any log presented to him/her is legitimate. Once the restricted sites have been listed the employees are warned against visiting such sites. If a user breaches such conditions, he/she will be faced with a disciplinary action which may even include termination of employment.
There are several versions of Spytech software that can be used to administer the monitoring functionalities. They include:
a) Spytech Netvizor – This monitors everything that employees do on the network. It is the latest version of the centralized network monitoring software. It helps in monitoring the entire network from a central location.
b) Network Enforcer – This Software is used to supervise and restrict unwanted employee behavior. It also responds to any unwanted behavior in real time.
c) Network File Monitor – This is used for monitoring all the employee files and the usage of the company’s website and application programs in the computers.
d) Spytech SpyAgent – This software tool can monitor entirely everything that the employees do on the computers. It also has an inbuilt email delivery for remote monitoring of the employees actions.
e) Spytech Realtime Spy – This software tool is used to monitor everything that they employees do at off-site locations. It allows the administrators to monitor all the computers in the system from any location.
iii. REFOG Employee Monitor
This software tool is very important in ensuring that the company’s confidential information remains in the company. It monitors any kind of communication by the employees and ensures that there is no information being leaked to any third party about the company. The REFOG monitoring software will monitor all the activities of the employees and grant the administrator an onsite and offsite access to the employees’ los in real time. This software can be installed in any computer and do not require any professional skills in managing it. This software helps in improving employee productivity and provides real-time remote monitoring. It saves screenshots and keystrokes which can be later on used for reference purposes to provide proof on any kind of misuse of the computers in the company. This tool also helps in protecting the company from disloyal employees as their communications and computer usage will be recorded. Once the data has been analyzed, the administrator can easily determine whether a user misused a computer or not.
iv. Track4Win
This is a very powerful tool for employee monitoring and anti-internet abuse. This software records the time taken by each employee performing different tasks in the organization. It also gives information on how the employees are using the internet. Once all these information has been collected, it can be easy to determine whether a given employee is misusing the company’s resources or not. This software tool has some components which helps it in achieving its use efficiently. They include:
a) All application tracking feature – Shows what applications are running on the employees’ computers
b) Internet tracking feature – Shows which sites are being visited by the employees and the nature of communication that is taking place among the employees.
c) Real-time and out-of office feature – Helps the employers in establishing real time monitoring of the employees. Information is sent to the employers immediately they occur for the appropriate action to be taken.
d) Time tracker feature – this helps the employers to determine the amount of time spent by the employees on any kind of work. It helps the employers to determine the productivity of any given kind of worker.
v. Netvizor Employee Computer Monitoring
This siftware tool is used to monitor the entire computer network from a central location without being seen by the users. It performs the work in real time and sends the information about the status of the network in real time. It has the following features that ensure its effectiveness:
a) Centralized Network Monitoring – makes it possible for it to be operated from one central location.
b) Internet Based Monitoring – Monitoring the employee internet usage
c) Remote Administration – can be controlled from an off-site location
vi. RecorveryFix
This software tool enables the administrators to monitor multiple user screens simultaneously. The employers can directly view the screens of all the employees in the company. The employer can record the activities and even make a video of the same to be used later for reference. This software tool provides the employers with the following features:
a) Increase productivity
b) Increase employee performance
c) Control suspicious employee activities
d) Protect the company’s confidential information from being leaked away.
Comparison between conducting employee monitoring and not performing employee monitoring in work place
Many workers unions are opposed to the fact that employee monitoring should be conducted citing privacy issues whereas most employers insist on employee monitoring so as to increase the production of their business. This section is dedicated to comparing the two scenarios so as to determine whether mentoring computer usage of employees should be administered or not. (Gillian, 2006)
Advantages of employee monitoring
i. Increasing the productivity of the company as the employees are evaluated by the employers. This will make them work harder so as to reach the states target.
ii. Increase employee performance as most of the time which could have been wasted by the employees are put into productive use.
iii. Control suspicious employee activities. The employees are well aware that they are being monitored and therefore they will not engage themselves into suspicious activities which can have negative effect to the business.
iv. Protect the company’s confidential information from being leaked away. The communication of all the employees when they are within the premises of the organization will be monitored and controlled. No confidential information will be allowed to go out of the company.
v. Protects a company from legal lawsuits and fraudulent activities. Since the activities of the employees is monitored, they are not likely to be involved in illegal activities while within the company’s premises which can result into the company facing legal lawsuits.
vi. Help in reducing risks in the company. With the presence of employee monitoring, most employees will strive to be very careful in the way they conduct their activities. This will have a positive effect in reducing the risks that the company could have been exposed to.
vii. Keeps Company records efficiently. The monitoring software can help in proper tracking of the records. It becomes very easy whenever there is a problem in the company to trace the origin of the problem and look for the best possible remedy.
Disadvantages of employee monitoring
i. Breaching employee privacy – the act of constant monitoring of all the activities and communication of the employees is a breach to their privacy. Employees are not given a chance to express themselves incase they have some issues that they want solved. They cannot easily come together as a union so as to have a collective voice since they are being monitored and the employers can easily thwart them before they advance.
ii. Employees work in a non conducive environment as they work but always with fear of receiving harsh response from the employers if they don’t perform as expected.
The advantages of conducting employee computer usage monitoring outweigh the disadvantages. This implies that implementing employee monitoring can help in improving the production of a given business and hence preferred.
Recommendations
Monitoring the computer usage of employees can be seen to be a breach of the privacy policy for the employees. However, in most cases it has been applauded to be a very good measure by the employers in order to ensure the success of the company. As many union organizations take to the streets to protest on this action by employers to monitor how the employees use the computers within their premises, it should also come to their attention that if the computer usage is not properly monitored then the business could easily collapse leading to employees being left jobless. There are some employees who may spend a lot of time surfing the internet for unproductive purposes or communicating with their colleagues and leaving the jobs assigned to them unattended. Some employees can also access prohibited sites which can literally bring the systems down due to virus infestation. Employees can also leak some information to hackers who may jeopardize the operation of the company. If such cases are realized, the management has to take disciplinary actions against the affected employees. Such disciplinary actions can include termination of employment especially if they are unwilling to change this wayward behavior. It will be therefore necessary for all the employers to consider implementing the use of at least one of the software tools discussed above to monitor the activities of the employees. This will ensure that all values of a good employee are upheld and thus a corresponding increase in productivity. It is therefore recommended that employee monitoring be conducted in all the departments of an organization so as to check the employees’ activities and ensure that the operations of the business is not put to risk. (Jitendra & Suzanne, 2010)
References
Daniel J. S., Daniel J. Solove (Author) › Visit Amazon's Daniel J. Solove Page
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Marc R. & Paul M. S. (2005) Information Privacy Law. Aspen Publishers
Frederick S. L. (2003) Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy
Frederick S. Lane (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Frederick S. Lane Page
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AMACOM Publishers.
Gillian H. (2006) Vetting and Monitoring Employees: A Guide for Hr Practitioners Gillian Howard (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Gillian Howard Page
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Gower Publishing Company
Jeffrey M. S. & Jeffrey M. Stanton (Author)
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Kathryn R. S. (2006) The Visible Employee: Using Workplace Monitoring and
Surveillance to Protect Information Assets-Without Compromising Employee Privacy or
Trust Information Toda, Inc. Publishers
Jitendra M. M. & Suzanne M. C. (2010) Employee monitoring: privacy in the workplace
Paul M. Schwartz (Author)
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Peter C. (2004) Data Protection: A Practical Guide to UK and EU Law Oxford University Press,
USA; 2 edition
