Digitalization driven by the pandemic has accelerated and transformed management’s ability to track what and how workers are doing.

Many workers rationally fear that enhanced monitoring empowers management — and micromanagement — at their expense. When experienced as corporate surveillance, monitoring implies a lack of trust and an invasion of privacy, especially when people are working from home. That’s not sustainable; no one wants to feel spied on.

The ongoing digital transformation in employee monitoring effectively squeezes people between values-driven visibility and visibility-driven values.

• The former celebrates creating ever-greater visibility around core values and compliance.
• The latter emerges as increased visibility lets more people see where, when, and how core values compete, complement, and conflict. 

Leaders are looking beyond legacy KPIs to assess how well people align with espoused values. In doing so, they will have no choice but to rethink how they balance principles and productivity.