Tech workers say the rise in moonlighting started after the outbreak of Covid-19. The way to work from home and take less time getting there has led to more flexible work schedules. It also gave people who were struggling on the side more opportunities which they can take up in their free time.
Now, as it's trending, one thing you all are struggling with is how to overcome such cases. Do we have any tool to track moonlighting? We may not have any tool, but We360.ai could help you mitigate moonlighting using an employee productivity monitoring solution.
We will bring light on how all these features can mitigate moonlighting in detail, but before going further, let's first know - what moonlighting is. Where did it come from? Is it new? Or it was already there. Before going further, let's clarify the meaning of moonlighting. Where did it come from? Is it new or has this been around for a while now.
What is Moonlighting?
Moonlighting is defined as taking up a job with more than one employer in the form of work or assignments. It is like an employee is working during the actual hours, say 9 to 5, for the primary company and then spending extra hours in the night working for the secondary company to earn extra money.
Why is there a Sudden Rise in this Practice?
Moonlighting is a new normal for employees, but it isn't new. It has continued to be done in the past but in multiple other ways. Many big startups would never have been if their founders weren’t moonlighting; many consultants start moonlighting to set free or start working independently. Many teachers take tuition after school. It is also a kind of side hustle.
The sudden spike in Moonlighting cases can be explained by an increase in the number of freelancers and self-employed individuals. This is due to how much easier it has become to start your own business and how much more competitive it has become for traditional employment positions.
“Moonlighting is now seriously being discussed as there is a pushback from employees who are being asked to work from their offices. Employers have made many attempts to get employees back to offices, but they haven't succeeded,” says Alagunambi Welkin, general secretary of Union of IT and ITES Employees (UNITE).
The Pros and Cons of Moonlighting?
Pros
- Moonlighting could be an alternative to gain new exposure and opportunities.
- It includes monetary benefits that allow employees to earn some extra money.
- Additional assignments leverages employees to acquire new skills.
Cons
- The multiple work responsibilities and unfocused attention might affect workplace productivity.
- A conflict of interest with the organization is a major challenge if an employee works for a competitor.
- Moonlight leads to serious consequences if it does not comply with company policies.
How We360.ai Can Help You Prevent Moonlighting and Other Workplace Problems
It's quite easy to track employees moonlighting by monitoring their working trends and that’s what We360.ai does for you. It is easy to track employees who may moonlight by monitoring their working trends. We360.ai lets you keep track of your employee's complete day, whether they are working remotely, hybrid or from the office.
Identifying when employees are -moonlighting- Keeping a close eye on what they're working on to comply with company policy.
We360.ai will help you maximize your time at work and avoid distractions that keep you from fulfilling your duties as an employee. It also helps employees manage their time and be productive.
If your employee is moonlighting, We360.ai’s features can help you identify it with actionable insights into employees' activity by tracking their app and url usage, knowing their work trends and patterns, getting a live vision of their work and evaluating if the employee is actually busy or just keeping busy. Here are the features that can help you identify moonlighting instances
Live Streaming | Application Tracking | Activity Monitoring | Productivity Tracking
How We360.ai Features Can Identify Moonlighting Instances?
- Live Streaming - Understand what work has been done at any moment with the real-time employee analytics. The live streaming feature lets you track on-screen activity and get a screenshot of any employee's screen at any time of their day. Say any employee is bluffing by working on another project while on job, you can see the real-time application usage, engagement with their computer and even live screenshot.
- Application Tracking - With the application tracking feature, you can clearly see who all employees are at the right place, working on the right applications and who aren’t. Like you are randomly checking out the things as per your daily routine, and you find an employee browsing a few urls and apps that may be related to some work but not the one assigned by your company or someone is just browsing google for the entire day and his work is not related to any research then this seems dubious. So, you can get sure that the employee is involved in any second job and continue monitoring employee and counting on the app details.
- Activity Monitoring - This feature revolves around employee engagement and the nature of their work. We360.ai can identify the employee activity levels considering keypresses, mouse clicks and mouse movements. This data helps you compare the total activity time with respect to inactive or offline time. If you find that the employee logs in for the complete day but most of the time is idle or inactive, it could be a reminder for you to cross-examine his work and time.
- Productivity Tracking - We360.ai productivity monitoring gives you details about the real work done by your employees. It is done by marking URLs and applications as productive, unproductive or neutral based on the nature of their work. If they are working on the apps or urls marked as unproductive, it will hint that they are involved in some other work. The Focus of We360.ai, is on employee activity levels to ensure managers and team leads have the proper data needed to identify performance trends and individual strengths and weaknesses. With this information, companies can manage their employees' time more effectively to increase engagement.
Bottom Line
The trend of moonlighting and side-hustles has sparked debate about adopting the gig culture and the changing nature of white-collar jobs in India. While some people think it's bad for the country's tech industry, others believe that it's a valid concept. Everybody has to take one side as it can have tremendous opportunities or many ill effects.
Down the line, going through every circumstance somewhere, you may need to identify who all are involved in moonlighting instances. The quick, safe and best solution is We360.ai.
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