Since the pandemic, the number of companies that have started investing in remote work has multiplied, providing the comfort and technology needed for people to get their jobs done. Now, a new survey reveals that more employers are banking on employee monitoring software to ensure that their workers are working as productively from home as they do in the office.

ResumeBuilder.com surveyed 1,000 business leaders at companies with a primarily remote and/or hybrid workforce to find out how many still feel the need to monitor their employees 3 years down the line, and how this monitoring has affected productivity and attrition.

The key finding: the vast majority (96%) of respondents say their company uses at least some form of employee monitoring software. Of this group, only 5% say their employees are unaware they are being monitored.

Moreover, just 10% of remote companies were monitoring employees pre-pandemic, while 37% started during the first year of the pandemic and 20% started monitoring within the past year.

When asked to list how their company uses monitoring software, the most common answers were:

• Monitoring web browsing and application use (62%)
• Blocking content and applications (49%)

However, a surprisingly high percentage say they require remote employees to be on camera all day. Of this group, 93% say the live video feed is monitored, with the majority reporting that the person or people watching the feeds do so for 4 or more hours per day.

“It’s clear from our survey that there are still organizations struggling to manage their workforce post-pandemic,” comments Chief Career Advisor Stacie Haller. “The focus on hours worked versus actual productivity and the successful completion of timely projects seems to reflect the challenges management teams are facing when it comes to readjusting how they manage a remote workforce.”

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Source: Fortune | ResumeBuilder.com