Employees Getting Used to GPS Tracking
4 Apr 2013GPS tracking is more commonplace in businesses today than ever before. Employees are also growing more accepting of this technology as well, even though that hasn’t always been the case. When businesses first began adopting GPS tools to track employees, it was met with cries of “Big Brother” and similar rhetoric. Employee opinions regarding GPS tracking devices and tools have slowly changed over the past several years however.
Many factors are believed to have contributed to this change of employee reaction. The first factor is that more and more employers are using GPS tracking data more now than when it was first introduced into the technology world. In 2008,according to the Aberdeen Group, a time when employee resistance to GPS tracking was much greater, only 30 percent of employers were using GPS to actively track their employees. In 2012, that number moved up to 62 percent.
GPS is being used for other purposes as well today such as to reroute when traffic is delayed, to receive turn-by-turn directions, to conserve fuel, and to achieve greater productivity in the field. These things are all especially appreciated by employees who work on commissions or need a high volume of sales in order to maintain employment. The more “calls” they can make in a day, the greater the odds of closing the deal becomes. GPS tracking and more efficient routing make that possible.
“We are seeing less resistance to GPS tracking,” said Sumair Dutta, an Aberdeen analyst, referring to employee resistance.
Another contributing factor is that the people who were the worst offenders, by wasting company time, are no longer employed by businesses that have invested in fleet tracking tools and technology. With savvy business owners highlighting the benefits of GPS tools, rather than only showing employees the ramifications or negatives, the original connotations are slowly, but surely, being erased.
Perhaps the best news for employers who have been struggling with GPS tracking resistant employees is that the new wave of employees have a different view of technology and the monitoring that goes along with it. The children of social media are beginning to move into the workforce for the first time. They are less concerned over privacy than generations past and have reduced qualms with the idea of GPS tracking. They freely broadcast their locations most of the time anyway and aren’t overly concerned that their employers are tracking that information.
Ultimately, employees have come around to the idea of employee tracking with GPS devices through attrition. Some have been fired over misuse of company time, others have simply been worn down by time and exposure. Whether they like it or not, they’ve learned to accept it rather than seek employment in fields where GPS tracking isn’t necessary or required.
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