Employee productivity is key to becoming a thriving business. Hence, companies and organizations are always finding ways to help staff stay efficient with their time, energy, and attention. One methodology growing in popularity is using employee monitoring software to track and evaluate an employee’s productivity with automated services.
Working in a highly connected age can be challenging. While the internet can help boost productivity in some cases, it can also become a rabbit hole of distraction and procrastination. Businesses lose up to $178 million due to internet misuse every year. That’s why employee monitoring can be helpful for both employers and employees.
Other uses of employee monitoring in a business
Monitoring staff virtually isn’t the only use case scenario that employee monitoring has. Such software has proven to have other features as well. Here are just some of the other more popular functions of employee monitoring software.
- Billing for agencies. For business process outsourcing companies, marketing consultancies, legal practices, accounting firms, and other agency-based businesses, time tracking is an effective way to bill customers for per-hour output.
- Customer support quality control. In managing customer service representatives, employee monitoring tool helps to record and evaluate staff interactions. Customer support managers often use monitored conversations as coaching points when training or debriefing support staff.
- Data protection for clients. There are other business scenarios where monitoring software tracks the exchange of specific files and documents to monitor what information goes out. Managers find these tools reliable as they avoid the risks of data losses and threats.
The benefits of employee monitoring
Upon further studying, employee monitoring can provide multiple advantages of employee monitoring software for your business. Want to learn the benefits of employee monitoring? Let’s find out.
Productivity –
The most significant benefit of employee monitoring solution is it generates greater productivity. However, when the tools that companies use don’t provide adequate results, it might be time to evaluate the tools used.
Personal growth –
With monitoring, managers can hold up a mirror for their staff and show them how well they use their time and energy. For the sales and marketing department, such tools help track each employee’s sales targets. Hence, sales managers can rely on employee monitoring tools to reward the best performers based on the results.
Security –
The scary fact is that 64% of small businesses have experienced some form of data or security breach in recent times. Employee monitoring tools help identify malicious sites and users through automated technology, protecting employees’ and the company’s interests at all times.
Collaboration –
Leaders in an organization have also used monitoring tools like project management and task tracking software to help teams work better together. These tools allow companies, most especially virtual ones, to be aware of who is doing what.
How to optimize your business with employee monitoring softwar
All this to say, it’s not enough to have employee monitoring tools. Like any software or system, monitoring tools only become effective when teams implement them correctly. Here are some considerations on how to successfully implement employee monitoring software in your organization.
1. Determine the type of employee monitoring you want to use in your company
Before introducing time-tracking software to your teams, managers and stakeholders must first determine what kind of employee monitoring software they will need in their organization. Here are some of the most common types:
Network and communications monitoring –
This kind of monitoring software keep track of employees’ browsing activity and communications. For example, it tracks emails sent in and out of official company emails.
Time and keystroke tracking system –
These systems act as virtual Bundy clocks or biometric scanners to log hours. It also screens users before they enter into virtual workspaces or video conferences using facial recognition software.
Distraction management employee monitoring tool:
It restricts the use of unauthorized websites. The same kind of software can also block and prohibit certain websites that could be malicious or dangerous to employees and the company’s data.
Project management tools:
These tools help managers stay informed on staff and projects’ progress to ensure that everyone moves the needle on deliverables.
Therefore, managers need to select the type of employee monitoring tool they wish to use for their company. Many systems provide multiple advantages in one software.
2. Set clear key performance metrics with your staff
Monitoring remote workplace productivity depends significantly on a clear set of goals and performance metrics. It’s hard to be productive without knowing the clear objectives. These objectives can include sales targets, several website bugs resolved, graphics created, work hours logged (whether you’re hitting for less or more), customer satisfaction ratings, or other metrics.
Many employee monitoring software allows for the documentation and tracking of these metrics. Hence, keep a regular tab on these metrics and forward them to respective employees to make necessary adjustments.
3. Create a results-oriented culture
Measuring remote work efficiency goes beyond measuring how many hours an employee works a day. Anyone can clock in and out and log eight hours a day, five days a week. Managers need to look beyond this metric and look into tracking results.
Much of the aspiration of getting results has to do with creating a results-oriented team culture, and achieving this entails great responsibility.
Many leaders expect everyone to become proactive at setting their parameters even without a tracker or monitoring tool in place. Hence, build positive and negative reinforcement around output instead of input. Try rewarding and calling out behavior based on what people achieve with their time instead of how much they spend.
Workplace privacy and employee monitoring
A report by Accenture discovered that 52% of employees believe that mishandling of data damages trust. With this in mind, it’s essential to ensure that employee monitoring structures have personnel privacy in mind. Protect any client information that monitoring software might collect, including screen recordings, messages, photos, or other data, by only using data-encrypted tools and regularly clearing out old data.
Workplace privacy and employee monitoring can go hand in hand with better data privacy protocols in place. Use encryption software and ensure that access to monitoring tool backends is limited to a select few with controlled access.
How to properly approach employee monitoring
Monitoring employees in the workplace gained a lot of flak mainly because of the misunderstanding that it leads to micro-management. But employee monitoring doesn’t have to be intrusive.
Avoid snooping on what teams are doing every single minute. Instead, make employee monitoring simple and effective with the help of a trusted tool. The automated technology provides adequate user data and reports that will help you measure each employee’s performance correctly.
Lastly, consider employee monitoring as a self-motivating activity rather than a “helicopter management” structure. This technique will help your teams analyze how they manage their time and use it in everyone’s best interests.
