How Can I Set Up Effective Surveillance to Monitor Department Activities Urgently?

Dear All, can anyone let me know how to set up surveillance within the organization to gather relevant messages regarding activities in each department and among the staff at all levels? Please provide suggestions as my reporting authority requires me to do this urgently and collect messages from the shop floor. I hope someone will understand and assist accordingly.

Thanks with Regards,
KB

First of all, I would like to say that you should not engage in this kind of activity. However, in the case of it being a matter of survival, you can involve someone from each department in confidence.

"KHILAO PILAO AND APNE MATLAB KI BAAT NIKALWAO," is a fundamental principle in every organization. I mean to say, in India, everything is possible. Here, you may need to invest something to gain something.

Thanks and regards,
Anil

Kavitha, this is bad practice. If the management does not believe in their employees and resorts to such spying practices, it will prove to be counterproductive in the long term.

Regards,
pon

This will create a lot of problems in your organization and also among employees. The best way is for you to be on the shop floor interacting with employees from all levels. This will enhance your employee relations, and employees will start trusting you and sharing their problems. Employees will also feel motivated. You will definitely get good results and will also help you to know what is happening in your organization.

Shaikh Abedeen is right. Prima facie, it looks like your boss is still in the Stone Age. Those days are gone when you could resort to such things and get away easily.

The very fact that your boss wants something like this done points to something very drastically wrong with the culture in your company. I suggest focusing on how to correct this aspect rather than allowing it to continue and searching for ways to get the feedback secretly.

I am not sure if your boss has given you those instructions in writing or just verbally. Also, please ask him to bear in mind that today there are very stringent privacy laws. Even if any employee gets suspicious, he/she can file a case under that law, and things will just blow up. In most organizations, employees keep discussing personal matters along with the official issues.

In such a worst-case scenario, it's you who will be made the scapegoat rather than him. Just recollect the currently ongoing case in the Supreme Court regarding the Nira Radia Tapes. You will know what I mean. The onus of proving or disproving will be on the company, not on the individual.

I suggest waiting for others in this forum to also give their suggestions.

Regards,
TS

Dear Kavitha, this is a very bad idea; it's like saying "Hitting on one's own leg."

Incident of Using Spies in Business

Let me elucidate one incident which I witnessed. One of my friends opened two branches of a 2-star restaurant in the same city and employed two spies in each restaurant. The restaurants were running very well until the other employees found out about the spies. Once they got the information that there were spies among them, they started hiding every single thing. The teamwork broke down, and as a result, the restaurant closed in the 7th month since its start.

Recommendation for an Open-Door Policy

So, I suggest keeping an open-door policy instead of using spies, which will benefit you, the employees, as well as the organization.

Thanks,

Dear Kavitha, there are scores of opinions already. Generating organizational intelligence is not bad per se. However, it has to be done very carefully, lest it will do more harm than good.

By the way, why do you require insight to know what employees do? What they do and do not do will be so obvious through the business performance. Business performance is a result of individual performance.

What you need to do is to set a sound performance management system and give performance goals for every department. This way, each department will start focusing on their goals rather than wasting their time and energy on non-productive activities.

Spying on your own employees is quite a bad idea. If you indulge in these activities, there will be adverse repercussions, and you and your boss will end up spending time handling the issues arising out of spying. Please remember time is quite precious, and every moment that you spend should be for productive purposes.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

I would second Dinesh V Divekar's comments: "Generating organizational intelligence is not bad per se," BUT WITH A RIDER. There sometimes will be situations when you suspect someone or a group is sabotaging the organizational goals/secrets—not individual goals/secrets, mind you. That's when you would be right in carrying out such a discreet exercise. As an analogy, you can take the country's secret/intelligence/spy services. But a big no-no for any such thing as a matter of standard practice.

Regards,
TS

Dear Kavitha, this might sound alien, but before initiating a spy program, have you considered transparency and encouraging people to speak fearlessly about what matters? To each their own, we cannot help if others conspire. At the same time, no one is anyone's fool! All you can do is ensure that trust in the management strengthens with every effort you make.

In short, I echo Pon1965, Shaikh Abedeen, Dinesh, M. Sayeed, skhadir, and Sateesh. Wish you all the best!

Regards,
(Cite Contribution)

Dear Friends,

The Purpose of Spying

The purpose of spying may be to avoid any disruption of work, strikes, and possibly due to some labor unrest, etc. If such news comes to the management's attention well in advance, it can be handled in a way that ensures the daily work in the factory is not disrupted. The request for spying is not for regular office work for someone who is sitting at their desk on a regular basis. Normally, conspiracies are planned in tea stalls, workshops, or in the factory itself, which affects productivity at the planning level.

Benefits of a Spy Network

A healthy spy network can even increase productivity and can be used for appreciating good work done by employees too. Shall we think in that direction and make our comments which will be useful for developing our knowledge and work culture instead of criticizing the spy network?

Regards

I believe every employee is an ambassador to the world and, at the same time, the ears and eyes of the organization. I completely agree that psychologically, for any individual, being so fearless is often impossible. Yet, I believe no one is a fool. It will not take long for the employees to decode such a sleuthing information-gathering system. Any clue what will happen after that?

When management involves these tricks of tapping the grapevine through spying, it only adds to the complexities. In the process, this will lead to a bunch of people who will evolve as secret messengers just to manipulate others, whereas others would continue to behave tactically just to deceive the messengers. You can never have any guarantee on such information.

Backbiting and conspiring will co-exist. Friction among the team can be used to bring out the best when the positives are focused. Remaining sensitive to the needs of the employees is entirely different from collecting information to use it against them.

Regards,
Cite Contribution

Here, we need not appoint anyone as a spy or informer in any organization. There will be volunteers joining us by observing our nature of work, loyalty, attitude towards the workers, and helpful nature. They will not report minor issues such as breaks for tea or bathroom visits. Instead, they will only notify us if there are discussions about conspiracies in the labor camp by certain contractors, plans to transfer skilled workers to another company, or warnings about potential physical altercations by specific contractor's workers.

By receiving such critical messages, we can take necessary corrective actions to prevent loss of working hours, maintain productivity, and protect ourselves from incidents or accidents.

The purpose of having individuals to provide information is not to seek revenge against staff, workers, or contractors, but to monitor activities for the betterment of the office environment. This practice is essential for ensuring a safe and efficient workplace.

I hope I have clarified my stance. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further information.

Thank you.

Dear Kavitha, I understand your problem, but by taking up such a practice, you are leading your organizational culture towards disaster. If you still want to do what your boss has said, then the best people to help you with this idea would be the IT guy, peons, and drivers. May God have mercy on your boss, and may he be bestowed with ideas that are employee-friendly.

Alternative Methods

There are other methods of finding such details. If everything fails to give you details, then resort to such methods. It's better to apply scientific methods because they can be, to a large extent, void of human emotions and errors.

What is the guarantee that your so-called spy will not deliver news/information with vested interest or give you wrong information? How will you cross-verify whether the information that your spy brings in is true or not (again appoint another spy)?

Regards,
Octavious

I would say being the eyes and ears of your boss for the betterment of the organization is not a bad thing. It is not just about getting information on how people are performing; rather, it is about understanding how and why they are underperforming and what hiccups they are facing. When someone from the management interacts with staff personally, they may not always get the true picture of what is happening. Staff may either overstate their concerns or understate their issues in order to protect their immediate bosses.

If you believe you can help resolve issues or identify inefficiencies in the organization, and can do so without bias, this is a great responsibility. However, regardless of the situation, it is crucial to be empathetic, factual, and realistic, clearly distinguishing between your feelings and the facts. Gather information from all perspectives, act swiftly on the information you receive, and exercise utmost discretion.

Wishing you the best of luck.

Regards,
Beverly

Dear Ms. (Cite Contribution),

Here, we need not appoint anyone as a spy or informer in any organization. There will be volunteers who join us by observing our nature of work, our loyalty, attitude towards the workmen, helpful nature, etc. They will not report on trivial issues like someone going for tea or to the bathroom. They will only inform us if there are serious matters such as conspiracy discussions at the labor camp by xxxxx contractors planning to halt work the next day, or if xxxxxx is planning to recruit skilled workers from our company to yyyy company. Please be cautious, as xxxx contractor's workers are plotting to harm you, etc.

By receiving such important messages, we can take necessary corrective actions to prevent loss of working hours, maintain productivity, and safeguard ourselves from such incidents or accidents. This is the purpose of having some individuals as spies or informers with us, not to seek revenge against staff, workers, or contractors, but to monitor activities, which is not a recommended practice in any office.

I hope I have made my stance clear.

O my God, it seems like Bhaskar Sir & (Cite Contribution) Madam are engaged in this conversation, contending for the top position in IPL-5. (Just kidding.)

Well, Bhaskar Sir, your previous comment prompted me to respond to this topic.

My philosophy towards work is "Work is Wealth" and "If we are good, then the whole world is good; if we are bad, then we see everyone as awful."

Regarding your comments on 'conspiracy talks' or plans to harm, can you please explain how these things occur if an organization has an open-door policy, rewards each employee equally, and respects their rights? From my perspective, it seems impossible. Now, I am curious to know if this really happens. Please advise.

Kindly don't misunderstand my comments; I simply want to understand how this can occur.

Thanks,

Regards

What Bhaskar said is an age-old practice followed in many companies. The so-called informers/spies do more harm than good for the organization's growth. In the current context, where transparency is followed in almost all companies, this type of espionage work will prove to be disastrous.

There are good comments made by members; I would only add, rather than "Spy," try "Trust." Have an open-door policy, better communication, a grievance procedure, and, for sure, transparency in place.

Think, what if he is not spying on you?

Regards,
Sarfaraz

There is no doubt that spying in corporate environments is bad, but there are also ample instances of companies having such a network running subtly (through peons, as rightly pointed out by Octavious). The inputs once again show that everyone from 'CiteMan' are like-minded professional people believing in ethics.

The end result of 'Spying' is almost always bad because the 'Spies' run their own agenda and conduct vilification campaigns. Thus, those good personnel who do not join groups only get targeted or harassed. Furthermore, the boss's people, called 'Chamchas,' are detected very easily. Once 'Open,' it is no longer a 'Strategy.'

However, Mr. Divekar is right in saying that one needs to do such a thing occasionally only for the organizational benefit. This, as he says, needs to be done subtly. Yet, the senior management has to be careful not to believe it in totality but use their judgment to filter out mala fide inputs.

In one of our assignments as marketing consultants, to begin with, we conducted meetings of different groups over a cup of tea: e.g., the entire Product Management Team together, Marketing Coordinators together, and from the field, 'Area Sales Managers' (of one division at a time, in the absence of their bosses). We also invited typists and in-house graphic designers as a group. They were elated, as they had never been part of the conference room before. It was a forum with one agenda: How can we improve their working environment?

In all the meetings, HR was always present.

All the personnel came out with openness, identified us as their supporters, trusted us, and continued to give inputs while we were associated. Without a spying agenda, we came to know so many things that really mattered, which were used for improving working conditions. Result: Staff morale became high, improving the performance of each individual and the organization.

Regards,
Dr. Ulhas Ganu

Dear Kavitha, Believe me, it's the worst practice to do. My management does the same thing, and now my company's attrition rate is very high. Please tell your boss that all of this is nonsense, and instead of spying on employees, there should be an open forum where people in your company can discuss issues or provide suggestions. It's truly appalling. Your boss may need to consult a psychiatrist.

Thanks,
Khyati Pandya

The use of the word 'spying' has only created a bit of an ugly picture. I don't agree with anyone other than Dinesh Divekar. To speak truly, all business organizations must have an intelligence/vigilance network. This, in many ways, helps organizations to implement preventive measures.

Regards,
Lalit

As stated by Mr. Lalik Kumar, if the word is changed from "Spy" to "Intelligence" or "Vigilance" staff in all departments of a company, then there will not be any ambiguity in anyone's mind.

But to run a company, the intelligence/vigilance staff (corrected words from Spy network) are inevitable, at least to know what is going on in each department of the company.

Here, the boss must filter all the information he receives for correctness, importance, etc., and act accordingly. He should act based on incidents/events and not against any individual unless he receives written complaints from aggrieved individuals.