Recent survey results have shown that an average employee spends 1.5 to 3 hours at work doing private activities. Taking into consideration that the usual workday lasts for 8 hours, this means that the quarter of your employee’s time is spent on shopping, browsing social media, reading the news, etc. Unproductive employees could be costing your company a lot of money on an annual level, and you have to do something about it.

The fact is, most of the people are not productive during their full shift. However, your company will start losing money at some point because of highly unproductive employees. The problem is, what you can do to stop it.?

Investing in Employee Tracking Software

Most businesses are already tracking work emails and calls. However, a research company Gartner found out that 57% of employers are also planning to track employee movement, texts in internal messaging systems, as well as workspace usage. This might seem a bit over-the-top, yet with the developments in technology and an increasing number of data breaches, it’s no wonder the company owners want to monitor every step of the working process.

Depending on your company’s type, and your needs, there are dozens of employee tracking software options to choose from. Most of these tools go beyond tracking clock-ins and clock-outs. You can use them to monitor keyboard activity, time spent on certain tasks, and you can even have screenshots to be certain that your employees were working on the project instead of being focused on their social media.

Employee Monitoring Software Features

Monitoring tools have different features. Some will allow you to track basic keystroke activity and take a few screenshots during the day. While others have more of the “Big Brother” options such as screen recordings or file and document tracking.

Admin panels of employee monitoring software allow you to separate apps and websites into productive and unproductive categories. Additionally, the software can send you notifications if someone is overstepping their time spent on an unproductive task. These tools usually have built-in analytics panels which can give you an overview of the employee’s time spent within the past 2 years.

Some tools can also notify you about large data downloads, which can be a great way to protect your company information since 60% of all data breaches come from the insiders.

We became attached to our smartphones, and most workplaces allow them at the workstation. With an employee tracking software, you can track the interactions your employees are having with their workstations to make sure they are not spending most of their time conducting personal business on their phones.

What is more, there are tools which can automatically calculate the payroll of your employees, and save you the time you spent counting billable hours for everyone.

Privacy Concerns

Employee monitoring raises privacy concerns, and for a good reason. European laws are currently stricter than those in the US, and they require employers to notify the workforce about monitoring. Additionally, if you’re working with a remote team, you need to follow the laws of the counties where your employees are located, so make sure to consult a legal team before the implementation. Even if you are not bound by law, the ethical move would be to let your employees know about the monitoring tools you are using.

Another concern is access. Who will have access to the data? How will you ensure this data is secure at all times? What happens when an employee checks their bank account online or makes a purchase and your screenshot contains all of their billing data? Some employees monitoring software will give you an option to stop tracking once the employee reaches their bank’s website, or they will take a blurred screenshot if necessary.

Anyways, you should limit access to collected data, and provide additional data security trainings to employees who will be able to see these reports.

In Conclusion

Employee monitoring tools can be extremely beneficial to your business. They can raise productivity levels, helping you finish your projects on time. However, you must keep in mind your business’s requirements and what level of monitoring is suitable for your organization.

In any case, it is worth investing time in researching these tools and their features to find the one that is perfect for your team.