Five Productivity and Performance Management Software Myths: Debunked

The recent (and potentially permanent) shift to remote work has caused many companies to consider various types of productivity and performance management software to make sure that business growth remains as stable as possible. When people think of productivity and performance management tools, they likely start to imagine George Orwell’s 1984 and a big-brother type scenario, with an untrusting manager and a hostile environment. Luckily, creating that type of environment is not the aim of most platforms (granted, some are really, really creepy). Many companies wouldn’t even entertain the nightmare scenario of having a “big brother” type monitoring solution that follows your every move. If you are skeptical of productivity and performance management software services, here are some common concerns you may have and why you don’t need to lose sleep over them. 

My Manager Will See All Of My Internal Communication

Productivity and performance management software systems are not simply handing over internal communication, such as email content, Slack messages, and Zoom transcripts to managers. If your company uses a productivity and performance management software system, managers are being provided with  aggregated data from platforms you are already using in an easy to read way that can benefit the company and employees. Likewise, these tools don’t use any data that your managers and IT teams don’t already have access to. They aren’t getting any specific content, and since the third party system is using various security and encryption measures, neither are they. 

My Company Will Have A Data Breach That Could Negatively Affect Me. 

Most of the data that productivity and performance tools  are collecting isn’t personal information—they aren’t taking stuff from your personnel file, just from your actions on cloud-enabled platforms, most likely around data you already report on. Additionally, an established productivity and performance tool such as Peoplelogic will take the proper steps to ensure that a data breach doesn’t happen—and with so much of the process using the latest in data security, employees at Peoplelogic don’t see your info either, nor could they decipher any of the encrypted data streams. Ethical and established productivity and performance tools will implement reasonable security measures to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of any personal information they receive. 

The Productivity and Performance management Software Will Be Taking Unnecessary Data

Believe it or not, when you use platforms such as Zoom, Slack, Trello, Intercom, GSuite, etc., your data is already being collected. Remember that terms and conditions box that you checked without really reading? Productivity and performance management tools take metadata from tools that you are already using and make it more understandable and useful. And like I mentioned before, this isn’t specific personal email content—this is data such as number of emails sent, number of times you engaged in Slack conversation, support tickets opened, opportunities created, and even closed deals. 

I’ll Lose My Independence and Privacy As An Employee

Assuming you are working for a company that purchased an ethical productivity and performance management tool, the various platforms you use have already collected data; it is just being made readable and useful. Nothing changes for you—nobody is monitoring your bathroom breaks or reading the content of your private IM messages, or taking screenshots of you sitting at your computer (that’s super creepy).

This Will Only Benefit My Employer—Not Me 

This is a common assumption and a valid concern. However, employers aren't using these productivity and performance tools as a way to go after their employees. If they are using a platform like Peoplelogic, they also purchased it to keep their employees' best interests in mind. With Peoplelogic, managers will be able to get actionable recommendations, which can be invaluable to an employee. For instance, if you’re starting to blur the lines of work and life too much, Peoplelogic can tell your manager that you may deserve some well earned time off.

Suppose your company is using a productivity and performance management platform like Peoplelogic and being transparent about it. In that case, you don’t have to be concerned—like I mentioned, we are only using easily accessible data already being generated. However, if your company uses an employee monitoring system that tracks your every move, you might want to look elsewhere. Using a “big brother” monitoring system is the best and easiest way for a company to destroy culture, productivity, employee engagement, and essentially, tank. 

If you are a manager looking to use a platform to improve both company, manager, and employee growth, look no further than Peoplelogic. Peoplelogic.ai is mission control for teams, keeping a pulse on customer retention, employee satisfaction, and workflows within your company 24/7/365. We mitigate risks and surface opportunities for growth in real-time, so you can focus on scaling your business and staying true to your company culture. And guess what? You can get started for free.