UK 
United States
The recent period of mandatory home working has been a true test of leadership credentials. Whilst many leaders tout the ‘trust’ and ‘belief’ that they have in their workforces, when the mandatory lockdown was imposed by the Government, many had no choice but to put their faith in their people, perhaps for the first time.
However, despite talk of trust being a mainstay of the corporate lexicon, a 2017 Crowd Research report found that 94% of UK-based companies used some form of employee monitoring, with 25% regularly increasing spend allocated to ‘spying’ technology.
It’s unsurprising, then, that when the coronavirus pandemic hit, many employers scrabbled to get some form of monitoring software in place across the workforce. Programs such as Time Doctor, ActivTrak, Teramind and StaffCop all reported giant surges in demand, whilst software such as Slack and Microsoft Teams designed tweaks to allow bosses to see what employees are saying and doing in private chats.
In a remote-centric working environment, bosses can now process screenshots, login times and keystrokes at will, to ensure their workforce is keeping its focus and productivity.
