How Remote Teams Can Track Time While Respecting Privacy

Privacy-friendly time tracking gives employers the best chance of collecting accurate time data. It’s also an effective way to maintain engagement, preserve workplace trust, reduce unnecessary, expensive turnover, and improve productivity.

These outcomes are even more important for remote teams, as collecting data that reflects work realities is critical to managing virtual workforces.

According to Gartner research, working with low-quality data can cost companies up to $12.9 million annually.

But with many modern time trackers offering invasive features, such as screen-capturing and location tracking, employers often lose perspective on which lines to cross and avoid. Using these tools also gives workers reasons to doubt their employers’ motives.

And the suspicion that their privacy is being violated is one of the reasons employees resist time tracking, which can lead to data inaccuracies and other HR problems.

This article explains how employers can avoid employee dissatisfaction and distrust by tracking work hours in a privacy-friendly manner using Traqq.

Transparent Introduction and Implementation

Privacy-friendly time tracking yields benefits only when employees believe their employers’ commitment to privacy. That belief comes from how organizations introduce and implement the policy, from communicating and collaborating with workers to, more importantly, adopting a transparent and privacy-first time-tracking tool.

Clearly communicate the policy and put it in writing

Introducing time tracking to workplaces without adequate notice or explanation, a common time-tracking implementation mistake, can leave employees assuming the worst about the policy.

To avoid that situation, organizations must inform employees in advance of the intention to roll out time tracking, along with the full timeline, which should provide ample transition headroom. 

The announcement should explain the reasons for the policy, including the type of data to be collected and how management intends to use and store it.

Codifying those explanations in a written policy assures workers that their employer’s stance on privacy isn’t all talk.

That policy should spell out, in clear, non-technical terms, what the company will track, who can access the data, how long and where employers will keep the data, and what the system will not collect. It should also specify how employees can flag inaccuracies or raise privacy concerns without fear of retaliation.

Workers should have a say

Research shows that employee engagement increases within a short period when employers give workers a voice in the organization. That’s why allowing team members to help set up the time-tracking policy secures their buy-in.

That buy-in, without the need to adjust work behavior, leads to honest interaction with the time tracker, which means the data will reflect work realities. Collaboration also means that workers can share recommendations that will be incorporated into the official time-tracking policy. 

Additionally, using Traqq constitutes a major step toward removing doubts about the employer’s privacy commitments. That’s because, among other reasons, which will be explained shortly, it shows workers and employers the same data.

Use a privacy-friendly tool

Traqq is one of those time trackers that do not take screenshots or include other surveillance features, such as keylogging and location tracking, that make employees uncomfortable. 

These features, along with the data transparency mentioned earlier, make using it a critical step in securing employee trust. And because the app complies with data protection regulations, such as the GDPR, companies don’t have to worry about regulatory penalties. 

In addition to addressing the privacy concerns, it also helps businesses retrieve the data they need to make better business decisions. Its productivity insights include work patterns and activity trends that help employers identify overworked and underutilized employees, manage and distribute workloads better, and understand every worker’s peak work periods. 

What Does Using A Privacy-First Tool Look Like for Remote Teams?

Team members who know their privacy is safe use time trackers more honestly, as mentioned earlier. That honest adoption involves using the application in accordance with policies established by companies in collaboration with employees.

However, the way the time tracker operates encourages interaction even more. The following showcases how privacy-first time trackers work in day-to-day workplaces.

The time tracker does not interrupt work

Apart from not taking screenshots or collecting personal data, privacy-friendly time trackers do their best to stay out of the employee’s view. That’s how Traqq works. The lightweight application runs in the background, with minimal impact on system resources and without interrupting the employee.

Most time trackers offer the same out-of-sight feature, but some can come with major interruptions, such as distracting notification sounds and pop-ups.

Automatic and manual tracking options

Traqq allows workers to start and stop the timer manually, but there’s an option to allow the tracker to clock in and out automatically based on what the user is doing. For example, when the computer goes idle, the tool can automatically stop tracking work hours and resume when employees become active again.

Manual timer adjustments

Because certain work activities happen outside computers, Traqq and some other time trackers allow supervisors to manually add time. This feature also ensures workers are duly compensated in cases where they forget to turn on the tracker or use different computers. 

Additionally, workers can delete time on their end when, for example, the timer runs for an extended period of idle time because the automatic option, which workers can turn off, is not active to pause the tracker. 

Review the time data

Since workers can, through their Traqq dashboards, access the same data as their employers, they get to view their progress in real time during and after work hours. That way, they can flag productivity gaps or inaccuracies, review how they spend their work hours, and also know when to rest, given how much time they’ve already put in.

Why Is Privacy Important in Time Tracking?

Employee monitoring, which is different from time tracking, is already shaping how people view time-tracking policies. Using features that resemble monitoring, such as, as mentioned earlier, keylogging and screen-capturing, only reinforces that view.

But Traqq’s lack of monitoring features, along with other privacy-friendly policies, can change that view and encourage workers to embrace time tracking. 

The following further breaks down why privacy-first time tracking is critical, especially in remote workplaces.

Strengthened workplace trust

Employees who suspect they are under surveillance will always feel the need to look over their shoulders. And whether it is the case or not, they will also think their employers do not trust them. When workplace trust, now a performance metric for modern workforces, diminishes due to these concerns, productivity begins to decline.

That suspicion of surveillance does not arise when workers use Traqq, because accessing the same data as employers allows them to verify that the tool lacks monitoring features. So there’s no need to live in fear of privacy violations. 

And according to a Slack survey, employees who trust their leaders are more passionate about their work.

Improved data quality

Employees who are worried about surveillance, as mentioned, spend considerable work hours on time-wasting activities, such as censoring screen content. These activities can pollute time-tracking data because they do not reflect the employee’s true work behavior and patterns.

While a privacy-assuring policy helps address the privacy concerns, using Traqq removes the need to engage in these behaviors because, as established, workers can always verify that the program does not monitor them.

When that behavior does not exist, the time tracker will capture what it was meant to measure in the first place.

Lower turnover risk

According to an ExpressVPN survey of 1,500 U.S. workers, almost half (49%) would consider quitting their jobs over surveillance. 24% of the survey’s participants will go as far as accepting a pay cut to work elsewhere to avoid invasive monitoring.

Replacing a departed employee can cost companies up to 200% of their salary. Vacant positions, depending on the role, can also lead to revenue losses.

When companies introduce time tracking with robust privacy protections, they can prevent these privacy-related departures.

Reduced mental stress

Workers who feel like they are being watched always think about being watched. That’s why 56% of those who experience monitoring say they are mentally stressed. This mental stress prevents people from doing their jobs.

Using Traqq in conjunction with strong privacy policies eliminates the likelihood of that kind of mental distress.

Privacy reduces legal and reputational exposure

Depending on an employer’s jurisdiction, there are risks of regulatory fines and bad press when sensitive, personal employee data ends up in the wrong hands. An example is the €32 million fine imposed on Amazon’s French warehouse subsidiary by France’s data protection authority, the CNIL. The fine was imposed for allegations of excessive employee monitoring.

Focusing on collecting only work-related data without violating privacy, which is what Traqq does, allows companies to deal with less red tape and avoid this kind of regulatory and publicity fallout.

By Samuel Mbanaso