Somebody's Watchin' Me 🕶

December 15, 2021

SOMEBODY'S WATCHIN' ME

The rise of employee tracking software

What’s going on here?

About 60% of US companies with remote workers now use software to track their employees’ activities during the workday. Plus, tracking software use has grown by over 50% worldwide since the pandemic started.

Why the heck are they doing this?

Now that remote work is the norm, companies want to make sure their employees are actually doing work during work hours. With tracking software, companies believe they can increase productivity and cut any time theft. And early data shows that they may be on to something: about 53% of monitored employees are reported to spend 3 or more working hours on non-work activities.

Well, does it actually increase productivity?

Employers are saying yes. About 81% of companies who use tracking software are reporting an increase in productivity. But the true cause of this increase raises eyebrows. Small business consultant, Dennis Consorte, suggests that this spike in productivity is caused by a fear of getting fired. Especially since 88% of employers ended up firing workers as a result of using the software.

So, what do employees think about it?

Plainly put, most of them hate it. About 59% of employees said that they were more stressed and anxious knowing that they were being tracked. Plus, 43% of workers felt like being tracked was a violation of trust. So, tracking your employees may not be the best move when it comes to morale. And with the Great Resignation still roaring, workers may rethink their options if they feel like they aren’t trusted. Meaning, employee tracking could be one of those “good on paper” but “bad for people” kinds of situations.

👉 See what else employees think.


YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE

Company brand: the link to your identity

The handout

Your business’s brand should embody the core of your business.

The step-by-step guide

When you think about a company’s brand, you might envision their unique name, fancy logo, or even catchy tagline. But a brand is so much more than this surface-level creativity. Because a business’s brand is only truly memorable when it can be linked back to the reason the business exists.

As a business leader, you should be owning your brand in every way. When you think about the reason why people choose your business, you want to share that with everyone. Talking about your brand, repeating your tagline constantly — these are signs that you truly understand what your business stands for.

Your brand isn’t there just to grab attention. It should represent your company and reflect the core of your business. Because when your brand is intertwined with your identity, every decision regarding your brand becomes easier.

The reference

According to Pia Silva, a brand strategist at Worstofall Design, there are many ways to find your brand. But here’s what the most powerful brands do: “take the most important point [about your business] and embrace it all the way.”

For Pia, when starting Worstofall Design, that meant standing out as a design firm that was different. But it wasn’t enough to just say they were special. So, to break out from the mold of all the other “different” design firms, Pia truly embraced who they were as a business. And the tagline “Badass Brands without the BS” was born.

Worstofall has used the tagline on their website since 2014, even when that initial “B” word was flagged. They got some backlash for their choice, but the brand has been a true representation of who Worstofall Design is. And just from the tagline, customers know what the company truly embodies: to help their customers be badass.

The cheat sheet

You have to ask yourself: what is the core reason your business exists? Why do you do what you do? When you can fully embody that reason and you repeat it again and again, you can build a brand that reflects your business.

👉 Find other brand-building tips.


TL;DR

This week's highlight reel

  • Calling all influencers. Facebook is launching a new professional mode that allows content creators to earn up to $35,000/month based on Reels views (AKA the Facebook version of TikTok). Professional mode even provides audience and analytics data so creators can see follower growth over time.
  • Ship is still happening. For everyone except Amazon. They’ve been quietly chartering private cargo ships, making their own containers, and leasing planes for years. In fact, the company now ships 72% of their own packages and has more control than everyone else in combating stock issues.
  • Ready? Set? Send. Adobe is acquiring social media and content planning tool ContentCal for over $100M. The all-in-one platform helps marketers create content, schedule publication, and track content performance on social media.
  • “It’s turbo time!” DoorDash launched its ultra-fast DashMart delivery service in NYC, where grocery items will arrive within 10-15 minutes of ordering. The company credits this supersonic delivery speed to more structure and organization. The best part of DashMart: excess produce will be donated to a local community food bank.

Organize the chaos
of your small business