Why Leaders Need Workforce Visibility: Lessons from Brazil's Largest Bank

In late 2025, Itau Unibanco—Brazil's largest private bank—made headlines when it terminated approximately 1,000 remote employees based on data from workforce analytics software. The bank had identified employees showing as little as 20% digital activity over four consecutive months while simultaneously logging overtime. The tool they used? xOne Cloud, developed by Brazilian technology company Arctica.

The case ignited fierce debate about employee monitoring, privacy, and workplace trust. But it also revealed something important: leaders who lack visibility into workforce activity are operating blind—unable to identify problems, protect their organizations, or support struggling employees before situations escalate.

The Visibility Gap in Modern Work

Remote and hybrid work created unprecedented flexibility. It also created unprecedented blind spots. When teams were physically present, managers had natural visibility into engagement, collaboration, and work patterns. That informal awareness disappeared when work moved home.

Most leaders now manage teams they rarely see in person. They approve timesheets without context. They evaluate performance based on outputs that may lag problems by months. They discover policy violations only when damage is done.

This isn't about distrust—it's about responsibility. Leaders are accountable for productivity, compliance, policy enforcement, and employee wellbeing. Meeting those responsibilities without visibility is impossible.

What xOne Cloud Actually Does

xOne Cloud is a workforce analytics platform developed by Arctica, a Brazilian technology company specializing in endpoint observability and user experience analytics. The platform provides comprehensive visibility into how employees interact with corporate technology.

Digital Journey Tracking. xOne monitors active work time, breaks, and productivity patterns across locations. Leaders can see when employees are engaged, when they're idle, and how work patterns vary across teams and individuals.

Application and Website Monitoring. Through browser extensions and endpoint agents, xOne tracks which applications and websites employees use during work hours. This reveals whether corporate tools are being utilized, whether employees are accessing unauthorized sites, and how time is actually spent.

Compliance Documentation. xOne records and validates work hours with precision to support labor compliance and audit requirements. In Brazil, this directly supports NR-01 regulatory compliance.

Performance Analytics. Detailed reports by team and individual help identify bottlenecks, recognize top performers, and flag employees who may be struggling—whether from disengagement, burnout, or other issues.

License Optimization. By tracking actual software usage, xOne identifies underutilized licenses, helping organizations reduce costs while ensuring teams have the tools they need.

According to Arctica, organizations using xOne Cloud report a 30% improvement in productivity, 25% reduction in operational costs, and 80% of users see immediate results.

The Itau Case: Transparency and Consequences

When Itau deployed xOne, they discovered something troubling. A subset of remote employees showed systematically low digital activity—some as low as 20%—over extended periods. These weren't isolated incidents or temporary dips. They were sustained patterns that persisted for four months while employees recorded full work hours and, in some cases, overtime.

Itau's response was decisive: approximately 1,000 terminations. The bank stated it had "identified a minority of employees in remote work schedules with low levels of digital activity, this being a behavior pattern and not isolated situations."

The controversy that followed focused heavily on privacy concerns and whether employees had been properly informed about monitoring. Felipe Oliveira, commercial director of xOne, clarified that "communication about activity monitoring is the exclusive responsibility of the companies that contract the service. Each organization defines how and when it informs its employees."

But the core finding was never disputed: without workforce analytics, Itau would have continued paying full salaries—and overtime—to employees delivering a fraction of expected work.

Why Leaders Need This Visibility

The Itau case represents an extreme scenario. But the underlying need for visibility applies to every organization managing distributed teams.

Identifying Performance Issues Early. Problems that fester become crises. An employee showing declining engagement might be struggling with workload, personal issues, or job fit. Early identification enables intervention—coaching, support, or role adjustment—before termination becomes the only option.

Protecting Against Policy Violations. Employees accessing non-corporate websites and applications during work hours create security risks, compliance exposure, and productivity drain. Leaders can't enforce policies they can't monitor. xOne provides visibility into whether employees are using approved tools or spending work hours on unauthorized activities.

Preventing Burnout Before It Happens. Workforce analytics doesn't just identify underperformance—it reveals overwork. Employees consistently logging excessive hours, working outside normal schedules, or showing erratic patterns may be heading toward burnout. Visibility enables proactive intervention.

Supporting Fair Evaluation. Subjective performance reviews create bias and inconsistency. Data-driven visibility provides objective foundation for evaluation, ensuring high performers are recognized and struggling employees receive appropriate support.

Ensuring Compliance. Labor regulations increasingly require documentation of work hours, breaks, and working conditions. xOne's compliance features help organizations meet these requirements while protecting against disputes.

The Trust Question

Critics argue that monitoring erodes trust. But consider the alternative: leaders making decisions without information, employees evaluated on politics rather than performance, and problems discovered only after significant damage.

Transparency works both ways. When monitoring is clearly communicated and consistently applied, it protects employees as much as employers. High performers gain objective evidence of their contributions. Employees working reasonable hours have documentation if disputes arise. Those struggling get identified early enough for support rather than termination.

The organizations that struggle with monitoring are those that implement it secretly or punitively. The Itau controversy centered not on the monitoring itself, but on allegations that employees weren't properly informed.

Best practice is clear: communicate monitoring policies transparently, apply them consistently, and use the data for improvement rather than just enforcement.

Practical Applications Beyond Enforcement

While the Itau case focused on identifying underperformance, xOne Cloud's applications extend far beyond enforcement:

Workflow Optimization. Understanding how teams actually work—which tools they use, where they spend time, what creates friction—enables process improvement. Leaders can identify bottlenecks, eliminate redundant tools, and streamline workflows based on actual usage data.

Resource Allocation. Visibility into workload distribution helps balance assignments across teams. Leaders can identify overloaded individuals, underutilized capacity, and opportunities to redistribute work more effectively.

Training Prioritization. Usage data reveals skill gaps and adoption challenges. If employees aren't using key tools, it might indicate training needs rather than policy violations.

Hybrid Work Planning. Understanding when and where employees are most productive informs office policies, meeting schedules, and collaboration structures.

The Cost of Operating Blind

Leaders who reject workforce visibility don't eliminate problems—they just don't see them. The underperforming employee continues collecting paychecks. The burned-out top performer leaves without warning. The security violation goes undetected until breach.

The Itau case demonstrated what happens when visibility finally arrives: widespread issues that had accumulated invisibly were suddenly exposed. The correction was painful precisely because problems had been allowed to compound.

Organizations with continuous visibility make smaller, earlier corrections. They coach before they terminate. They adjust workloads before burnout. They address policy violations before they become habits.

Implementing Workforce Analytics Responsibly

For leaders considering workforce analytics, several principles guide responsible implementation:

Communicate Clearly. Employees should understand what is monitored, how data is used, and what expectations exist. Surprise monitoring damages trust; transparent monitoring builds accountability.

Focus on Patterns, Not Surveillance. The goal isn't watching every click—it's identifying patterns that indicate problems or opportunities. Effective analytics looks at trends over time, not moment-by-moment activity.

Use Data for Development. Monitoring data should inform coaching, support, and improvement—not just enforcement. The best outcomes come when visibility enables help rather than just punishment.

Protect Privacy Appropriately. xOne and similar tools can be configured to respect appropriate boundaries. Itau noted their implementation "does not capture screens, audio, or videos." Define what's monitored based on legitimate business needs.

Apply Consistently. Selective monitoring creates perception of targeting. Apply policies uniformly across teams and levels to maintain fairness and trust.

The Bottom Line

The future of work requires new tools. Leaders managing distributed teams without visibility into engagement, productivity, and compliance are accepting risks they can't see and can't manage.

xOne Cloud and similar workforce analytics platforms provide the visibility modern leadership requires. Used responsibly—with transparency, consistency, and focus on improvement—they help organizations identify problems early, support struggling employees, protect against policy violations, and make fair, data-driven decisions.

The Itau case wasn't a failure of workforce analytics. It was a demonstration of what happens when visibility finally illuminates problems that were always there, hidden by distance and assumption.

The question for leaders isn't whether to seek visibility—it's whether you can afford to manage without it.

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Workforce visibility is increasingly essential for compliance, productivity, and employee wellbeing. If you're evaluating workforce analytics solutions or developing policies for distributed teams, let's discuss your specific situation.