Pros and Cons of CCTV Systems for Workplace Monitoring

While most people think of video surveillance as a method to protect a business against burglary and shoplifting, CCTV systems also give employers the ability to more effectively monitor employees at work. There are multiple advantages and a few negatives to using CCTV systems this way. If you’re considering setting up a CCTV monitoring system in your workplace, you should fully understand both the benefits and the potential effects of using security systems to monitor your employees’ performance and behavior.

Pros of CCTV Systems in the Workplace

The pros of setting up a surveillance camera system to monitor the workplace are many. They include increased safety, decreased shrinkage, increased good behavior and evidence if there is a crime.

The main purpose of a CCTV camera system is to increase safety in the workplace. The mere presence of surveillance cameras can help discourage outside theft, which is especially important in retail businesses that are open late at night, often with only one attendant to cover the entire store. It can also discourage unsafe behaviors by employees, and actually provide protection for employees from being exploited, harassed or otherwise abused by supervisors and other employees. A manager or supervisor is much more likely to observe safety rules if they know they’re being monitored.

CCTV systems are proven methods of decreasing shoplifting, but they also can save your business hundreds of dollars a month in the form of employee theft. Employees may not even consider their actions to be “theft,” but it’s still costing you money when they snack on a candy bar, draw themselves a drink from the coffee bar without paying for it or pour a little extra into a drink for a friend. An employee monitoring system can help you pick up on those behaviors if they’re happening so that you can decide on a course of action to take.

As suggested before, the knowledge that they are being monitored will often prompt employees to engage in the behaviors you want. Employees are also much less likely to engage in inappropriate behaviors when they know that there’s a security camera watching them.

Finally, CCTV systems provide evidence if you need to discipline or dismiss someone based on their behaviors. It’s much more difficult to dispute a dismissal that is backed up by video evidence of the employee stealing, mistreating customers or otherwise misbehaving in a professional situation.

If you do decide to implement video monitoring with CCTV systems in your workplace, implement it in such a way as to counter any negatives associated with employee monitoring. Those include potential invasion of privacy issues and lowered morale if employees feel that you don’t trust them. When you consider all the pros and cons carefully, and carefully evaluate the video monitoring needs of your business, you’ll be in a position to make the best decision for your company.