感覺有人在監視你在工作中的一舉一動？如果有，你的感覺可能沒錯。

在十幾個行業里，超過一半的大公司都在使用這樣或那樣的技術來監控員工的日常動向、行為甚至思想狀態。令人不安的是，只有三分之一的公司“非常自信”他們在收集和使用上述工作數據時“負責可靠”。

這些調查結果出自埃森哲（Accenture）于上周在達沃斯世界經濟論壇上發布的一份精彩報告。該報告的部分數據源自對全球1400名高管和1萬名員工進行的調查，研究發現，現在可以利用算法收集海量實時數據，內容涵蓋日?；顒又心隳芟氲降拿恳粋€方面，包括你在哪做什么、和誰一起、效率多高（或多低）。管理層似乎相信，潮水般的信息在經過篩選后可以變得有價值，讓他們精確掌握應該從何處入手、應該怎樣提高公司業績。大約四分之三的高管告訴埃森哲的研究人員，他們認為利用高科技進行窺探有助于“業務增長”（77%），可以“釋放人們的全部潛能”（74%）。

然而員工們的態度更加矛盾，但考慮到人們最近對Facebook等公司隱私問題的強烈抗議，這也不奇怪。雇員們提出了各種擔憂，有人擔心詳細的工作數據可能會導致“我被視作生產單位而不是一個人”（59%），有人擔心也許“雇主會利用關于我或工作的最新數據懲罰我”（55%）。

與此同時，看看這個：絕大多數的人——92%的雇員——也說他們不介意被監視，只要確信這些信息能被用來幫助他們。多數員工表示，他們十分歡迎以數據為基礎的反饋意見，比如如果這些數據提供了“我應該如何優化時間管理的建議”（79%），或以某種方式改善了“我與他人的溝通和關系”（77%）。超過五分之四（82%）的人認為如果 “薪酬、晉升和評估決策” 不那么主觀，更多依靠硬數據，會更準確，更不容易被個人偏見左右。

92%的整體接受率“遠高于我的預期”，埃森哲的首席領導力和人力資源官、上述報告的合著者埃琳·舒克說。按照她的說法，一個更令人不安的數字是“三分之二的公司已經在使用員工數據，但只有三分之一的公司相信自己對數據的使用可靠負責?！?/p>

該報告詳細定義了何為“負責”，還附有簡短的案例研究和明確的行為準則清單，但仔細一看，許多雇主都沒有照做。例如，埃森哲建議事先告訴員工確切的監督內容和原因，并征得他們的同意（在某些情況下，讓員工有機會選擇不參與）。然而調查中只有約三分之一（32%）的員工表示他們了解雇主如何提取使用工作中的數據，或曾經表達過同意，55%的公司承認他們沒有征求任何人的許可?；蛘呦胍幌耄?2%的高管嘴上呼吁倫理學家“評估工作場所的技術和數據對員工和社會的影響?！比欢挥?5%的公司這樣做。

“一切都和信任有關，這些事情創造了一種信任文化?！笔婵苏f。這聽起來可能有點太過新潮，重點是已經有許多其他研究表明，如果人們相信你會用權力行善而非作惡，他們的表現會更出色。舒克補充說，這最終能“解鎖巨大的經濟利益?！?/p>

顯然確實如此。埃森哲的團隊使用了計量經濟學建模等一系列先進的分析工具,用金錢來衡量擁有員工信任和失去信任的值。似乎采用“負責任”的方法進行員工數據收集的雇主收入增長比競爭對手高12.5%。該研究稱，“這關系到全球大公司3.1萬億美元的未來收入增長?！?/p>

監控和分析員工在工作中一舉一動的做法仍然是新生事物，發展又如此之快，我們仍然不清楚它可能會對招募頂尖人才、提升勞動力多元化程度甚至只是幫助人們提高工作表現產生何種影響。但就目前而言，10名員工中有9人愿意相信“老大哥”在本質上是仁慈的，所以聰明的公司就不該打破這種信心。（財富中文網）

譯者：Agatha

Ever get the feeling someone’s watching every move you make at work? If so, you may be right.

Well over half of big companies, in more than a dozen industries, now use some form of technology to monitor employees’ daily movements, actions, and even state of mind. The disquieting news: Only about one in three are “very confident” they’re collecting and using workplace data “responsibly.”

Those findings come from a fascinating report Accenture unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos?last week. Based in part on a worldwide survey of 1,400 C-suite executives and 10,000 workers, the study notes that algorithms can now gather massive amounts of real-time data on every imaginable aspect of what you do all day, including where you’re doing it, with whom, and how efficiently (or not). Executives seem confident that flood of information can be winnowed down into valuable insights about precisely how and where to step up company performance. About three-quarters told Accenture’s researchers they expect their high-tech snooping to help “grow the business” (77%) and “unlock the full potential of people” (74%).

Employees, though, are far more ambivalent—no big surprise, given the recent outcry about privacy on Facebook and elsewhere. Workers brought up a range of worries, from fears that detailed workplace data might be used to “treat me more as a unit of production than as an individual human” (59%) to misgivings over whether “my employer will use newly collected data on me or my work as a form of punishment” (55%).

At the same time, consider this: A huge majority—92%—also say they don’t mind being spied upon, as long as they’re convinced the information will be used to help them. Data-based feedback would be especially welcome if, for example, it offered “suggestions on how to optimize my time,” said 79% of employees in the survey, or somehow improved “my relationships and communications with others” (77%). More than four in five (82%) think “pay, promotions, and appraisal decisions” would be more accurate and less beset by personal bias if these were less subjective and more based on hard data.

That 92% overall acceptance rate “was much higher than I expected,” notes Ellyn Shook, chief leadership and human resources officer at Accenture, who co-wrote the study. A more troubling statistic, by her lights, is that “two-thirds of companies are already using employee data, but only one-third are confident they’re doing it responsibly.”

The report defines “responsible” in detail, with short case studies and an explicit list of dos and don’ts, but a close look suggests that lots of employers just haven’t gotten the memo. For instance, Accenture recommends telling employees up front exactly what is being measured and why, and getting their consent (with, in some cases, the chance to opt out). Yet only about one-third (32%) of the employees in the survey said they understand how their employers are extracting and using workplace data, or ever consented to it, and 55% of companies admit they haven’t asked for anyone’s permission. Or think about this: 72% of executives paid lip service to the idea of calling on ethicists to “evaluate the impact of workplace technology and data on employees and society.” Yet only 15% have done that.

“This is all about trust, and creating a culture of trust,” says Shook. If that sounds a little too New Age-y, it’s worth noting that plenty of other research has shown that people who trust you to use your powers for good, not evil, tend to bring their ‘A’ game. That in turn, Shook adds, “unlocks enormous economic benefits.”

Apparently so. Accenture’s team used an array of sophisticated analytical tools, including econometric modeling, to put a dollar figure on workers’ trust, and on the loss of it. Employers who take a “responsible” approach to employee data collection, it seems, could see revenue growth that is 12.5% higher than competitors’. “Globally, $3.1 trillion of future revenue growth is at stake for large companies,” the study says.

The ability to track and analyze everything we do at work is still so new, and evolving so fast, that it’s still unclear what impact it could have on, for instance, recruiting top talent, or increasing diversity, or even just helping people get better at their jobs. But for now, given 9 in 10 employees’ willingness to believe that Big Brother is essentially benevolent, it’s up to smart companies not to blow it.