When asked if they would voluntarily give their company access to work-related instant messages and email text data to identify and resolve employee experience issues, 43% of respondents said “probably yes” or “definitely yes,” according to a survey of 1,000 office workers conducted by experience management company Qualtrics.

The number of people who agreed to their company listening in on their work activities was significantly higher than HR managers expected, said the company’s senior industrial psychologist, Benjamin Granger. Still, employees still draw the line at companies listening in on their non-work activities, such as their social media, even if it’s done anonymously, he added.

“When you use a tool and you are at work, you feel more comfortable with it,” said Granger Assets“You can see this clear line of decline, like how well-being declines once you start engaging in things outside of work.”

Granger said this type of “passive listening,” which uses anonymous data that can’t be traced back to an individual employee, is often a better tool for leaders to identify employee issues than surveys. Instead of leaders asking specific questions in surveys that may not address all of employees’ concerns, passive listening using AI could help them discover issues they may not have been aware of, such as burnout and lack of engagement.

“Surveys are great and management needs to have the opportunity to ask questions. But sometimes employees have ideas or problems. They notice something is wrong with the customer that management misses and they need an open channel of communication,” Granger said.

The surprising tolerance of using AI to analyze work-related data stands in sharp contrast to public perceptions of the role of artificial intelligence in everyday life. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that just over half of Americans are concerned rather than excited about the use of AI in daily life.

Still, the idea of ​​an employer eavesdropping on work-related activities was off-putting to just under a third of employees surveyed – the rest answered “maybe” – and Atlanta-based leadership coach and entrepreneur Jay McDonald said one wrong move could damage a company’s reputation and prevent it from attracting the best talent. Anything that damages trust between employers and employees can be a disaster, he added.

“Trust is the link between an employee and a company and between a company and a customer. If you do something in terms of surveillance, espionage, AI or technology or any of those ways that undermines trust, then it undermines confidence and will ultimately ruin your business,” he said.

To avoid such reputational damage, Qualtrics’ Granger recommends that companies begin rolling out “passive listening” programs gradually, with full transparency and employee permission so that they don’t condemn the idea from the start.

“If employees see value in it, they will generally be more satisfied with it over time,” he said.

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