Employee performance and trust established in new hybrid working models could be under threat from an increase in the implementation of remote monitoring measures, according to a global study.

The study, “The Virtual Floorplan: New Rules for a New Era of Work,” conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of VMware, found that 70% of companies surveyed have either already implemented or are planning to implement employee surveillance measures to monitor employee productivity since the shift to hybrid working. Among these organizations, the measures being taken include the monitoring of emails (44%), web browsing (41%) and collaboration tools (43%), as well as video surveillance (29%), attention tracking via webcams (28%) and keylogger software (26%). However, 39% of companies that have already implemented device monitoring and 41% of companies who are currently in the process of doing so are also seeing “drastically increased” or “increased” employee turnover.

Three-quarters of employees agree that moving to a distributed working environment has meant that their performance is valued more by their employers. Additionally, 79% of employees agree that remote work technologies have enabled them to work more efficiently than before. 74% of organizations have had to develop new ways to measure employee productivity. Among these organizations, the new approach to monitoring productivity has been achieved through the use of performance-focused solutions including regular catch-ups with managers to discuss workloads (55%), assessing output and agreed deliverables (53%) and using new project management software (47%).

Employers are evolving new ways to monitor and quantify employee productivity. While 59% of employees recognize their organization has had to develop new ways to monitor productivity as part of the move to hybrid working, transparency remains critical. Twenty-four percent of employees don’t know whether their organization has implemented device monitoring systems on their devices to monitor their productivity.

Find more results from this workplace study here.