Messages being sent by employees via Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Qualtrics and other apps are now being tracked by employers in the US. As per a report by CNBC, Walmart, Starbucks, Delta Air Lines, T-Mobile, AstraZeneca, Nestle and many other organisations in the US are analysing the messages exchanged between their employees, to sniff out inappropriateactivitiy and examine employee reactions to various policies.
In short, employers are relying on aritificial intelligence (AI) to study the mood and sentiments of employees via their conversations at the workplace.
The software that is being offered by a startup can scrutinise employee emotions and responses in real time, identify non-compliant employees and catch cases of harassment or any other unlawful activities.
This monitoring is done based on the data gathered from apps such as Zoom, Slack and others.
It is usually organisations with over 30,000 employees that are relying on AI for such employee surveillance.
The software, powered by machine learning (ML) and AI is capable of monitoring billions of messages and interactions between millions of employees. It allows employers to gather employee feedback in real time and can be very helpful to sniff out any toxic communication and nip the related issue in the bud.
While employers continue to use surveillance software despite ethical concerns, employees are more worried about encroachment of privacy. Studies in the past have shown that monitoring employees electronically only increases their stress, which naturally affects productivity adversely.
