Employee Monitoring: 6 Tips for Success

Improper time management, progress-restricting bottlenecks, and inaccurate billing are all indicators that you could benefit from an employee monitoring solution.

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There are various types of work at home productivity monitoring tools - like Insightful - that can help make sure everyone in your company is moving in the same direction and working together seamlessly.

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Since human resources are an integral aspect of every business, it stands to reason that you should take them into account with every decision you make. 

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Employee monitoring might just be the way to do it, but how can you be sure you’re getting the most out of the process?

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Here are six tips for successful team management with a monitoring tool like Insightful.

TIP #1: Be Transparent

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Every team has its established working habits in terms of communication, task management, time allocation, as well as interpersonal relations. 

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If they are well-defined and create a good foundation on which the success of the entire company is based, then it’s worth preserving. 

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However, introducing employee monitoring software may cause a disturbance of these habits - and for the worse - which is why it’s extremely important for management to be open with their teams about wanting to go this route. 

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Why should we want to warn people about monitoring their computers if doing it quietly will give us real information about the way they work or don’t work? - you may ask. 

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Well, for one, in some countries it is legally required to inform the employees that they will now have to run tracking computer activity software on the devices they are using for work - even if they are not owned by the company. 

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Moreover, sometimes the staff needs to give formal consent to being monitored before the employer can implement a tool like Insightful. 

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On the other hand, you should treat employees as valued members of the company and inform them of why such steps are necessary and what the company - and themselves - stand to gain from implementing employee monitoring tools. 

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TIP #2: Ask for Employees’ Opinions

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Disclosing your intentions about introducing monitoring tools in the company environment also allows employees to offer their opinions on the matter. 

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Whether those refer to privacy concerns, technical faults, applicability issues, or something else, it’s up to the management to hear them all out, offer appropriate answers, and adjust decisions accordingly. 

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As these are the people who will be in constant contact with the tool, trust them to choose the best employee monitoring software for the needs of their company. 

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Not only does that make them more invested in the positive outcome of this entire project, but it is also a free source of information for the company. 

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Maybe some of your employees have had previous experience with this type of software or a particular tool you’re leaning toward choosing. Or your IT department sees a potential issue with the platform that may negatively influence internal company systems and make it unsuitable for your company. 

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What if a real-time computer monitoring software is simply inapplicable to some of the positions in your company? For instance, it’s useless in the productivity monitoring of safety inspectors who mostly work in the field. 

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These are all potential issues worth investigating with the help of all company employees. 

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TIP #3: Choose the Right Software for Your Company

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By asking the right questions and getting an abundance of information packed with useful insight, you are in the perfect position to choose the right solution for your specific company needs. 

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Bear in mind that there is no quantifiable measurable way to proclaim the best work at home productivity software on the market, but there certainly is more than one list that compares all the relevant features. 

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After all, it’s a lengthy process and you shouldn’t commit easily. Scrutinize a number of tools, compare them to each other, and figure out the best use for you. 

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Furthermore, don’t let the trial period or personal demo go to waste. That is your chance to see it in action before you become a paying customer. It is there to reveal all the ways it works for you and all the ways it might not. Ask for insights from the staff and share your own. 

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And most importantly, never lose sight of your goals. Make sure it’s not to spy on your employees’ computers but to provoke changes in the company that will ensure further progress. If you find the tool that can do just that, that’s the one to go with. 

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TIP #4: Make It Mandatory for All Employees

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If you want to make a change on the company level, all employees must be included in the process. You can’t have some workers monitored and others not. 

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Not only is that unfair, but it will also give you incomplete and ultimately unreliable workforce data.

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In the companies that had the greatest success with employee monitoring, even the CEOs had the software record their screens for this purpose - when unhindered by confidentiality issues. 

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This is also a good opportunity for management - especially C-level - to lead by example and show their belief that monitoring is a beneficial influence on the company. 

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To make this happen, it would also be good to appoint one person to oversee the use of the software and limit access to data to only essential personnel. 

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That can be the HR manager, for example, because they will be taking into account the productivity statistics when reviewing employee performance, as well as managers for their teams. 

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TIP #5: Analyze the Data and Share With Employees

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It stands to reason that you want to use specialized software to monitor (remote) workers in order to gather comprehensive workforce analytics data that will allow your company to function optimally. 

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Hence, once the software starts collecting data, you should analyze it within an acceptable time frame for the first insights and to start implementing them. 

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Since you are bound to come across problems you didn’t expect or just not in that measure, make sure to relate them to the employees they refer to. If you’ve created a culture of accountability, they will do their best to improve their performance. 

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This is just another example of how tracking computer activity software can have a positive effect on workers’ productivity. 

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Of course, in the process make sure to acknowledge highly professional employee behavior in however public way you deem appropriate, as it will raise the overall morale in the company and stifle any remaining hostility toward the software. 

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TIP #6:‍ Integrating with Other Tools

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Employee monitoring solutions on their own can be hugely effective for ascertaining productivity levels, identifying potential issues on an individual level such as burnout, and implementing new work schedules to accommodate employees.

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Yet as with most tools in your tech stack, employee monitoring platforms can offer much more when used in tandem with other tools.

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For example, if you have a project management tool in place such as Trello, you can track productivity through the Kanban system and use time tracking to gauge how long each task takes to complete. This will allow you to quickly identify the bottlenecks in your project management process and make improvements.

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Likewise, you can experiment with communication tools like Slack, and with time tracking establish whether this approach can ultimately save you time in the long run with faster communication.

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Get the Most out of Employee Monitoring

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While the results may differ from one company to the next, the tips for composing and utilizing successful employee monitoring practices are largely the same. 

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Endeavor to implement them as you’ve read them here and watch the way your company is becoming more productive and successful.