As discussed in our blog post [What is User Activity Monitoring?], user activity monitoring (UAM) is a form of surveillance that provides visibility and insight into employee productivity and engagement while also revealing insider security threats. While UAM on company-owned or company-sanctioned devices and networks is legal, ethical and HR considerations require that UAM be implemented with a high level of professionalism and sensitivity.

User Activity Monitoring (UAM) tracks the behavior of internal end-users—employees, subcontractors, partners, and so on—on a company’s networks, devices, and other IT resources. UAM, sometimes also called employee monitoring, may be deployed for a number of reasons, such as providing insight into the productivity of both individual employees and the company as a whole. Is Employee X spending too much time browsing the internet for non-business purposes during work time?

Workplace productivity is directly related to company profitability. Employers are seeking more and more ways to cut waste – including wasteful activities that eat into productivity. Many companies would immediately agree that playing video games, spending excessive time on social media and streaming videos are blatant violations of workplace acceptable use policies.

Employees know that too much work and not enough play leads to exhaustion and burnout. The World Health Organization now officially recognizes ‘occupational burnout” as a cause of mental and physical health problems in the workplace.

Level Setting on Tech Companies Let’s start by defining what a technology company is. Think hardware, software, and technology service companies who are creating a form of technology that others can purchase and utilize. Some of the biggest and most popular players in this space that may come to mind include Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Google. These companies provide pure technology to their consumers for a price. Though common, the sector is not limited to these types of companies either.

Ransomware has been a hot topic within the cyber security industry for quite some time now. It’s an often-lucrative cyber-attack method with an attractive return on investment. The motivation behind Ransomware attacks tends to be primarily financial, as cyber criminals can’t resist such easy opportunities to achieve their malicious goals. Ransomware is effective given that almost every individual or organization owns or has access to digital assets which are valuable to them.

Organizations usually focus on cyber threats which are external in origin. These include anti-malware, external firewalls, DDoS attack mitigation, external data loss prevention, and the list goes on. That's great, external cyber attacks are very common so it's vital to protect your networks from unauthorized access and malicious penetration. The internet and unauthorized physical access to your facilities will always be risks and they must be monitored and managed.

The author G.K. Chesterton noted that “there is a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” Of the four communication skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – we learn listening first, but as time goes on many of us seem to lose interest in truly listening to what others have to say. Leaders would do well to work on listening to inspire workers and increase productivity.

If you suspect that your employees are wasting time on the job and they are not performing up to expectations, it might be time to transform the culture of your organization. A company with a toxic culture runs the risk that employees will remain disengaged and productivity will decline even further. As a leader, you have the perfect opportunity to make improvements by building a culture of support and respect and strengthening teamwork.