The Wall Street Journal Saturday/Sunday March 7-8, 2020 ppB1+B6. “Smile! Your Boss is Tracking Your Happiness”. “Employers are turning to sentiment-tracking software, daily surveys and apps to monitor worker’s mental states. Doe this pose a new threat to employee privacy?”
The approaches to tracking employee satisfaction and happiness vary today from teaching GMs to interact directly with employees looking for signs “that workers might need help…such as “picking up on unusual statements or increased absenteeism”, to using daily surveys, software that tracks instant messaging and email, daily surveys and our favorite “Feedback Fridays”. Feedback Friday, at Pepsico Inc., encourages employees to “identify systems that prevent them from getting work done quickly. These Pepsico data are captured using a “tool known as the ‘process shredder’”. Many of these methods and newer methods that might use laptop cameras or even devices to monitor heartrate, despite their good intent, bring into questions about employee privacy.
What is state-of-the art? Receptivity’s software monitors messaging and email searching for signals, language, suggesting that employees are burned out or depressed. According to James Pennebaker, UT Austin Psychology-co-founder and minority owner of Receptivity, “The words we use in everyday life reflect our psychological state”. Receptivity is reportedly being paid $250,000-$1,000,000 for their services. Other companies are even considering evaluating and employees Social Media. OnDemand, Inc. is “experimenting with heart-rate data, gleaned from wearable devices such as watches” and the idea of marrying that information to an employee’s calendar etc. Sprinklr, a software company, offers the “Employee Delight Assurance Program” which collates the results of bi-monthly worker/boss meetings in which the worker rates happiness 1-10 (Best) and offer three suggestions for improvement “they or the company can do to make them more satisfied”. Individual scores are compiled and computed into the “companywide happiness index”. “Artificial Intelligence” is also used to survey the results for common complaints etc.
Why all the fuss? Employee recruitment and retention are critical in these times of low unemployment and many studies suggest that happy workers are more productive and happy workplaces attract better candidates. Today, unhappy workers vote with their feet.