Managing a Hybrid Workforce While Ensuring Data and Employee Privacy

The pandemic has now been a thing of the past, but the shift it brought about in work-life is significantly huge. Though organizations across the globe have adapted to the new remote and hybrid settings, there is still a lot of confusion when it comes to creating a healthy remote work culture. With everything from team management to productivity tracking done remotely, there is a certain risk of employee privacy and data safety concerns.

Are organizations prepared for the security challenges in the hybrid work culture? Do employees know if and how they are tracked? Do employees comply with data security-related rules and regulations? How much tracking is too much tracking? Though businesses have tons of software solutions today at their disposal, it is critical to first answer questions like these to safeguard data and employee privacy while monitoring your remote workforce.

Is Workplace Confidentiality Just a Guise?

Since the pandemic, the demand for employee tracking or monitoring software has skyrocketed. And though surveillance in workplaces isn’t a new thing, it has certainly become excessive in the last few years. Under the guise of maintaining workplace confidentiality to protect the business, many employers have intentionally and unintentionally put employee privacy at stake. With features like screen recording, time tracking, mouse clicks, idle time tracking, and many others, an effort to normalize micromanagement has been observed. And this is a huge reason for the distrust that is increasingly being fostered in employees.

Enterprises as well as small and growing businesses must understand the importance of employee privacy and take accountability by investing in solutions that focus solely on tracking productivity. By eliminating the use of solutions that focus on activity tracking, companies can steer away from the toxic culture of employee surveillance that has become more common in remote and hybrid work cultures.

Hybrid Work Culture Calls for Rethinking Data Security

In the office setup, the risk of data compromise, theft, or confidentiality challenges is low compared to the risk of data security issues in remote settings. This is because of authorized entry to the premises and monitored access to company assets as well as data. However, with employees working remotely, the threat to organizations’ confidential data and assets has increased multifold. Therefore, companies need to rethink their safety and security strategies so the location of the employee doesn’t become a safety risk for the business.

Device loss or theft is another security challenge in remote and hybrid work cultures. The smallest challenges like poor password strength or the use of USB sticks to copy sensitive data can be recipes for disaster. Endpoint data security can prevent this by securing the device with solutions like AI engines, system health checks, and more.

KORNEA.AI – A Futuristic Employee and Productivity Monitoring Solution

Kornea.AI by Tech Mahindra is a state-of-the-art employee and productivity monitoring platform ideal for hybrid work models. It goes beyond employee tracking and actually measures employees’ productivity without compromising their privacy. It is designed on the foundation of transparency where employees know that the goal of work tracking is to measure and improve productivity. When it comes to employee and data safety, the key features of our futuristic productivity solution are:

Data Security Enhancement – Kornea.AI addresses hybrid safety challenges like data leakage and unauthorized use of machines. This is made possible using deep neural networks and ‘Caffe’ model to integrate with webcams of operators’ systems so only the owner/authorized user of a machine can access it. If the webcam detects a mobile phone pointed towards the screen or a person shoulder surfing, the device will be automatically locked preventing data leakage. This is also the case when a machine is left unattended.

Compliance and System Health Check – Kornea.AI helps in maintaining organizations’ complex matrix, complying with industry regulations, and meeting compliance requirements. Features that maintain data safety include:

• Admin access
• Antivirus, firewall, and DLP active state
• USB access
• Drive access
• OS build and browser versions
• RAM and CPU configuration
• RBM-based access detection
• Audit spot checks
• AI engine for data security

Kornea.AI is designed with the vision to take the focus off micro-management and actually track productivity. It consists of a visual reporting suite where managers can track metrics like productive hours, idle time, application usage, locked machines, etc.

With solutions like productivity, data security, compliance, and System Health Check all under one roof, it is a practical solution for enterprises and growing businesses looking to optimize operations in a remote setting.