Key facts
- Toronto-Dominion Bank will deploy software to monitor the work of some employees in its financial crimes and risk management team.
- The software, WorkiQ, will track time spent on browsers, internal chat, and meeting applications.
- TD stated the tool is intended to improve workflow management, team capacity, and performance.
- Employees expressed concerns regarding privacy, consent, and the potential use of data for performance evaluations.
- TD assured that privacy safeguards are in place and the tool has undergone a privacy review.
Toronto-Dominion Bank has informed some employees within its financial crimes and risk management division that it will implement software to monitor their work activities. The tool, named WorkiQ, will track the time employees spend on browsers, internal chat applications, and meetings, according to a recording of a team call and a document shared with employees.
TD stated that the deployment is a standard industry practice aimed at increasing productivity and regaining transparency lost in a remote work environment. The bank also noted that the software is not AI-driven and is not specific to any particular business or matter. It is designed to help managers more accurately manage workflows, team capacity, and performance. TD assured that safeguards are in place to protect employee privacy and that the tool has undergone a privacy review.
During the team call, employees raised questions about privacy concerns, consent, and how the data collected would be used, particularly for performance management. Deanna Pacitti, TD's associate vice president of high-risk investigations, explained that the tool runs in the background and confirmed it went through a privacy review. She clarified that while the tool would indicate if an employee is active in a meeting, it would not listen to conversations and would capture activity in applications like Excel without tracking specific actions within them.
Employees also suggested that resources used for monitoring could be better allocated to alleviate manual processes, a sentiment Pacitti acknowledged, agreeing that the team spends too much time on manual efforts. The report noted that other financial institutions, such as JPMorgan, have also begun monitoring employee hours, citing employee well-being as a reason. Meta is also reportedly dialing back plans to collect employee data for AI training due to staff pushback.