Cognizant has now introduced a stricter employee monitoring system that would help to track workers’ activity and even flags the inactivity periods as short as five minutes.
According to several internal reports, the company’s new digital tool helps to record keyboard and even mouse usage to help measure productivity during the worker’s working hours.
If an employee is inactive for five minutes or more, the system automatically marks it as an idle break, which is then included in their later performance evaluation.
This move has also created mixed reactions among various employees.
Some workers also say the tool might aid in adding pressure and thus would reduce flexibility, especially for those who are in a position to handle tasks that require thinking, planning, or offline discussions.
They also tend to feel that the system does not fully understand the nature of their work and may also misinterpret genuine work-related pauses as inactivity.
Others also in the same way believe the monitoring system could help improve discipline and transparency, especially in remote or hybrid work setups.
Cognizant has now reportedly implemented this tool to help its overall team improve project efficiency, client satisfaction, and time management.
The company have also said that the system is meant to ensure fairness in workload distribution and identify areas where productivity can be enhanced.
Managers can now also review the data generated by the tool and even use it to guide employee performance reviews or project decisions.
However, the industry experts warn that excessive monitoring can negatively affect employee morale.
They suggest that companies should balance the aspect of productivity tracking with the concept of trust and flexibility.
Over-monitoring in this aspect may lead to stress and burnout, especially if employees feel constantly watched.
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