To keep their employees safe and productive in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, many businesses have adopted remote work policies. Monitoring employees is one of the difficulties of managing a remote workforce. To manage the productivity and actions of their remote staff, businesses now depend on employee monitoring software. This article will go through the advantages and disadvantages of employee monitoring software as well as offer best practices for using it with a remote workforce.
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Knowledge of the past
It’s not a new idea to work remotely. Remote employment, nevertheless, was not very common before the pandemic. People who work remotely climbed by 159% between 2005 and 2017, according to a FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics survey. Numerous benefits come with working remotely, including boosted output, lower overhead expenses, and better work-life balance for staff members.
Although working remotely can be advantageous, there are drawbacks, including poor communication, a lack of oversight, and employee monitoring. For remote workers to be effective and fully focused on their tasks, employee monitoring is essential.
Monitoring Software for Employees
It is now possible for businesses to keep an eye on the activities of their employees both on-site and off, thanks to monitoring software. Internet and email use, social media activity, screen time, keystrokes, and mouse clicks are just a few of the activities that employee monitoring software may monitor.
Monitoring Software Categories
The following are some examples of the several kinds of employee monitoring software:
- Use of websites and programs by employees is monitored by internet monitoring software.
- Computer screen recording software is used to keep an eye on employees’ work.
- The amount of time that employees spend on particular jobs or projects is tracked by time-tracking software.
- Software that logs every keyboard and mouse click an employee makes is called keylogging software.
- Employers who labor outside the workplace can use GPS tracking software to monitor their whereabouts.
The characteristics of employee monitoring software
Depending on the kind of software being utilized, monitoring software functions can change. But these are a few typical attributes of monitoring software:
Tracking Your Activity
A typical element of employee monitoring software is activity tracking. It keeps tabs on the computer usage of the staff, including the websites and programs they use, as well as their keystrokes. The ability to analyze employee productivity and spot any inefficient behavior might be useful to management.
Take screenshots and record videos
Managers can record video or images of staff computer screens using some employee monitoring software. This function can give verifiable proof of any improper or banned behavior, such as accessing private data or going to forbidden websites.
Keeping Time
Another typical component of software used to monitor employees is time tracking. It enables managers to monitor how much time staff members devote to particular jobs or projects. With the use of this function, managers can spot locations where staff members might be wasting too much time or need more assistance.
Observing communication
Email, instant messaging, and other kinds of communication can all be monitored by managers. With the use of this tool, supervisors can evaluate employee performance and spot any inadvertent or impolite speech.
Locating people with GPS
Managers can use mobile devices with GPS and location tracking to monitor the whereabouts of their staff. Fieldworkers and remote workers will find this functionality especially helpful. Managers can use it to keep tabs on workers’ whereabouts, track their work hours, and make sure they are doing their jobs.
Assessment of Productivity
Employee productivity is examined using a tool called productivity analysis, which uses information gathered from various monitoring features. Managers can learn more about employee behavior and find out where they can increase productivity thanks to this.
Statistics and Reporting
Managers can create reports using reporting and analytics, which also let them examine employee data that has been gathered by the monitoring software. Managers can use this capability to analyze data, discover patterns, and evaluate performance.
Software for tracking and monitoring employee activity at workstations and on computers is known as employee monitoring software. This program can give you useful information on how and what your staff are working on, as well as their productivity levels. Using monitoring software in a remote workforce has a number of advantages, some of which are listed below:
Improved productivity is one benefit of employee monitoring software
Monitoring software can help increase productivity, which is one of its main advantages. Employers can find inefficiencies and places where workers could be more productive by measuring how their time is spent. For instance, the employer can intervene and promote more focused work if an employee spends excessive amounts of time on social media or other websites unrelated to work.
Greater security
Security may be strengthened, which is yet another advantage of employee monitoring software. Businesses now have to contend with new security issues like data breaches, unauthorized access to corporate data, and cyberattacks as more workers work remotely. Employers can discover possible security threats and take precautions to prevent them by watching employees’ computer and desk activity.
The observance of corporate rules and policies
Software for monitoring can also assist businesses in ensuring adherence to rules and policies. The program can assist in ensuring that employees are adhering to company policies, for instance, if the business has rules in place regulating the usage of company equipment, such as laptops and mobile devices. Similar to that, the software can assist in making sure that staff members follow the proper procedures if a company is subject to regulatory regulations like HIPAA or GDPR.
Improved time management
Additionally, using employee monitoring software can improve time management for staff. Employees can increase their productivity by keeping track of their actions and identifying the places where they spend too much time. Employees might limit their email checking to certain times of the day if they find that they are spending too much time on it, for instance, to allow for more time for other duties.
Enhanced openness
Lastly, monitoring tools can promote greater openness between companies and workers. Employees can evaluate how they spend their time and spot opportunities for improvement by giving them access to the monitoring data that pertains to them specifically. As a result of employees being able to perceive that their company is committed to ensuring their success and productivity, this can also help to strengthen the relationship of trust between them and their employers.