The Need for Employee Monitoring Software

The pandemic brought an upheaval in the way the business carried out their operations. The idea of remote and work from home jobs seemed favorable in those hard times, being the only possible solution for the smooth running of the global businesses. Initially, it was difficult for many employees to work from home as they were already fed up from the monotony of home constricted lives and the post pandemic malaise. It brought problems for the upper management who could not check and monitor their team members and their performance physically. Some business owners were eager to embrace the remote work system and allowed their employees to permanently work from home which also lowered their cost. While others were much skeptical and concerned about how to track their progress and the way tasks are being done. Due to this new work mode they faced issues related to communication, work life balance and getting used to the new technologies, but it also offered them flexibility in their working hours. This remote or hybrid system has urged companies to deploy employee monitor tools and software that will help both the employers and the employees.

What is Employee Monitoring?

Employee monitoring is all about keeping a track of your employees, their performance, and the progress made as they perform their work related tasks. Organizations use a number of different digital tools and monitoring methods to check and record their attendance, analyze their behavior, ensure their workspace is safe and secure, keep proof of number of hours they have worked as well as to measure their productivity. So employment monitoring is more like you are under surveillance. Many people are against this system of monitoring and say that it’s more like the invasion of privacy.

Now let's see how companies get updates about their employees and keep their team in the loop.

1. Employees usage of apps and internet

During their job hours, most of the employees surf the internet for personal reasons such as shopping or entertainment. If they are browsing different websites to make an online purchase and do not respond to their colleagues in a timely manner, it is most likely that they are not working. You can get this information through their URLs and also see which employee logged on apps such as Instagram or Facebook and for how long. Sometimes, employees lack the tools and training to complete their job and fail to meet deadlines so that doesn’t mean they are involved in some other activity. This monitoring is essential for employees who are performing or dealing with sensitive data of the company. The company can be at risk if he/she visits certain sites. 

2. File and time tracking 

Through the time tracking feature employees can mark their time in and time out. They can stop the timer when they have to take a break and start it again when they have to resume their work. In this way they can keep a record of how many hours they worked on a project or task. This data helps managers to make better predictions and manage budgets accordingly. They can also check which file is edited and how.

3. Location

Using the GPS features, managers can easily check their employees’ current location through their personal devices such as mobile phones or the vehicle the company gave them. They can even track the route they take or locate where their team was during the day through the historical data.

4. Webcams or CCTV

For remote work webcams are very useful to get live updates from your employees. Similarly, closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) can help to monitor workers on different sites such as oil fields, construction sites or offices. This encourages employees to work efficiently without delaying the task.

5. Phone or emails

Businesses can record their employees’ interaction with customers, suppliers, or other parties. For example, you can listen to your customer support representative's conversation and if he is dealing in the right way then you ask other team members to follow the same manner. If you get negative feedback you can also check that through their conversation to see what went wrong. Most of the employers check the emails of their employees so that they can identify issues and tackle them before they create major problems.

There are many other employee monitoring software that companies use to track their employees not only for the sake of work but also to ensure their well-being and to observe their behavior (some companies are using smart badge-like gadgets). Such tools and techniques increase their efficiency and improve their proactiveness. Employers also become aware of what changes and steps they should take to encourage and bolster their workforce. Such steps are mandatory for a healthy internal environment because it affects the organization on the whole.