3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

Studies from Stamford University researchers and others have consistently shown that telecommuting employees are more productive than those who stay in the office. But that’s only if the employees actually work, which is a problem for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO is currently embroiled in a scandal where several of its employees who telecommute committed attendance fraud.

An internal report by USPTO found that poor oversight of the more than 8,000 patent examiners had led to a handful of employees lying about the hours they worked and cramming at the last minute to complete patent reviews.

The USPTO, which has been brought before Congress this week to testify what is being done to avoid further attendance fraud, is currently working with its three labor unions on tightening employee monitoring.

USPTO employees are not only are allowed to telecommute, they also have generous labor contracts that limit how much they can be monitored.

Managers at the USPTO are not allowed to require employees to put a device on their computer that monitors work time, for instance, since the unions claim this is an invasion of privacy. Employees also have up to 24 hours to return phone calls, and there is no requirement to tell managers when they work as long as the work gets done. Further, managers are only allowed to express concern if an employee crams work at the last minute instead of spacing it out over a longer period of time.

When I hear about telecommuting abuses such as this, I’m pained.

That’s because while telecommuting works, both statistically and from my personal experience, there’s the constant issue of proving to naysayers that work freedom will not lead to attendance fraud. Abuses will happen, just like they do within the workplace (Solitaire, anyone?). But scandals like that happening at the USPTO give naysayers all the ammunition they need to shoot down requests for telecommuting options. Which is a mistake, because telecommuting is both better for employees and better for the employers who want added productivity.

The lesson learned from such scandals should not be that telecommuting is a recipe for attendance fraud, it should be that there needs to be a balance between freedom and responsibility. While the USPTO mostly has it right with its policies, in my opinion, what they seem to get wrong is the need for some monitoring. Give the freedom, but demand monitoring as a form of accountability.

Solutions such as BPA Quality’s Remote Call Monitoring can let workers do their job in freedom, but at the same time curb abuses. BPA’s third-party call monitoring solution delivers unbiased evaluations of worker performance, and enables a complete picture into what workers actually do on the phone. It also can deliver business intelligence, as it can help show the type of interactions that employees are engaged in at work.

Crushing all telecommuting is a wonderful way to cut down on company productivity and hurt morale, but giving employees freedom without any accountability also is a problem. Call and desktop monitoring can help businesses achieve the right balance.