Cognizant is said to be implementing fresh monitoring systems to supervise employee activities on laptops and PCs provided by the company. As per the Mint report, certain employees are being introduced to workforce-management tools such as ProHance, which track mouse and keyboard usage to assess productivity. These measures, which began around a month ago, underscore a growing emphasis on detailed tracking.
The monitoring system records periods of inactivity based on predefined criteria. According to the report, an employee will be labeled as “idle” if there is no mouse or keyboard activity for more than 300 seconds (5 minutes). Additionally, if an employee’s PC or laptop remains inactive for 15 minutes, the employee will be marked as engaged in “activities away from the system.” The deployment of the new monitoring systems will vary among different teams, as per the report.
Cognizant has stated that it will not utilize this data for evaluating performance, addressing a major concern regarding such extensive tracking. The company’s focus appears to be on identifying inefficiencies rather than performance assessments. A Cognizant spokesperson mentioned in the Mint, “We occasionally use various productivity measurement tools, a common industry practice, in select business process management or intuitive operations and automation projects, at the request of customers. The purpose is to help better understand the client process steps and related time metrics to assess process design inefficiencies.”
Cognizant is not alone in using a tool like ProHance to monitor employee activities, with even companies like Wipro employing such tools.
Cognizant asserts that employees will only be monitored through ProHance after providing consent to the new tool. However, some executives have claimed that undergoing training on ProHance was compulsory as part of a training program. This training covers various metrics, including productive hours, time spent per task, and time logged on specific applications. One individual informed the Mint, “We received a mandatory course, which includes a user acceptance. We had to click on ‘I agree’ in order to complete the course.”
The report indicates that the increased tracking aims to ensure that employees are working a consistent number of hours despite taking breaks. Allegedly, Cognizant and its clients seek enhanced productivity, and micro-tracking could offer a clearer insight.
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