Check on Your Employees' Emails and See What They Are Up to

Employee monitoring has become a necessity for almost every organization, whether big or small. Even before Covid-19 hit the world and sent millions of people to work from home, employers were already taking steps to monitor employees in the workplace.

A Garner report that was published in 2018 revealed that of 239 large-scale organizations, half of them were monitoring the content of employee emails and social media accounts besides checking on who they met and how they worked in the workplaces.

In 2019, an Accenture survey of C-suite executives revealed that around 62% of their organizations were looking for new monitoring tools to gather data on their employee activity.  Let’s not forget that these statistics were collected before the world was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced millions of companies to adopt the work-from-home strategy. With that major change happening so rapidly, employers are left wondering how much work their employees are doing from home and how to monitor employees.

The fear of having a major data theft, decreasing employee productivity, and declining revenues have encouraged many employers to double up their monitoring efforts. Each employer can begin with monitoring employee emails and then check up on their social media and internet activity.

Why Monitoring Employee Emails is Important?

We cannot stress the importance of employee monitoring. It was critical for every organization even in pre-Covid-19 days. Now since most companies have asked their employees to work from home, they need to use monitoring solutions more than ever.

You cannot say that you need monitoring tools in the workplace because you need to keep your company safe. It is better if you elaborate your answer a bit. Explain what means keeping your company safe.

When you are monitoring your employee emails, you are basically checking up on the tone of their messages, to find out who they are communicating with, and what sort of conversations they are having with others.

Tracking emails with the help of an email tracking solution will help you know whether or not you have a bad employee in your company who is attempting to leak your company’s private and confidential information with a third-party or your competitor.

One of the best ways to begin monitoring your employee activity in the workplace is by checking up on their emails. You need to monitor your employee work email, including both incoming and outgoing emails.

When it comes to monitoring your employees’ emails, you need to be specific not only about the dangers against which monitoring solutions will offer your company protection but also about the reason why employee email motoring is an effective and appropriate response to tackling those dangers.

Is Employee Email Monitoring Legal?

Employers can have leeway with monitoring employees’ emails. An employer needs to prove that monitoring employees’ emails and internet activity is legal and ethical. If an employer can prove that employee email monitoring is critical for fighting against valid threats, then they can have a clear justification for it both ethically and legally.

An employer needs to show how email tracking software can help them identify the threats their employees can pose for the company. The email tracking software helps them know whether or not an employee is trying to breach the company’s privacy by sharing the company’s data with an outsider.

In case an employee is attempting to breach the company’s privacy, the employer can call them in and hand over their resignation letter to them. They can also take some legal action against the employee for breaching the company’s contract.

What’s the Best Way to Track Employee Emails?

Thanks to advanced technology, there is no shortage of monitoring and surveillance tools for employee monitoring. Employers can use multiple monitoring tools to check on their employees during working hours.

They can use CCTV cameras in employees’ rooms to keep a check on them. They can use keyboard trackers to capture and record all the keystrokes struck on the keyboards/keypads of their devices. They can also use GPS trackers on the company-owned vehicles that are being used by employees for official and personal use. That way they can monitor their employee’s location when they go on a business meeting or field trip.

Many companies deploy monitoring apps on their employees’ smartphones and computers to track their internet activities such as web browsing history, social media accounts, instant chats, etc. These monitoring apps also help them keep an eye on their emails, text messages, and phone calls.

Mobistealth is one such effective monitoring solution that is equipped with advanced monitoring features. This app promises to monitor each activity taking place on the employee device, including their incoming and outgoing emails.

Most employers already inform their employees about deploying monitoring solutions on their devices and that they will be keeping a check on their activity in the workplace during office hours. Employees should not have an issue with monitoring tools being deployed in the workplace as long as the company is not invading their personal life.

However, in case an employee has a problem with the company monitoring their activity, they should be explained the reasons behind monitoring well enough. It’s important to understand that, at the end of the day, employees are the most valuable assets for any company. Treating them right and with respect should be the company’s responsibility in order to retain them in the workplace for a long time.

If an employer decides to deploy monitoring solutions in the company, they need to take their employees in confidence and ensure that monitoring won’t lead to privacy invasion. They shouldn’t be so strict with monitoring their employees and should respect their privacy.