With everything happening around us, many companies are considering making working from home a permanent option for their employees. One of the biggest struggles business owners that hire remote workers face is how to know whether or not their employees working from home are doing the work they are being paid to do. 

That is the main reason why so many businesses that are working with a remote workforce are introducing productivity monitoring software. These types of software are designed to tell you exactly which websites and software your employees are visiting during their work hours and are very popular among both companies hiring remote and in-office workers.

However, you have to keep in mind that if you want to introduce employee monitoring software in your company, some employees could get anxious about the whole process. Usually, this happens either because they don’t have enough information about the practice,  or because of a bad previous experience.

To get over any anxieties your employees might have about employee monitoring, you have to properly communicate all the benefits and expectations of such software. Do your best to explain to all employees the reasons why you want to introduce this software in the first place.

In this post we will be talking about how to overcome some of the most common issues regarding employee monitoring all of your employees, no matter where they are working from, might feel.

Employees Are Fearing That the Productivity Monitoring Software Will Jeopardize Their Private Time

In today's world, where slowly but surely remote work and flexible work hours are becoming the new norm, the line between work and private time can sometimes blur. 

However, it is important to do your best and keep the two separated. Some productivity monitoring software, like Insightful, gives you full control over the level of employee monitoring both you and your employees are most comfortable with. How deep you monitor someone can be set on a team by team basis or even individually. 

Our multiple levels of tracking include:

• Stealth mode - which you can use to monitor those employees you’re suspecting of malpractices without them knowing it;
• Unlimited tracking - a mode that tracks computer activities whenever the computer is turned on. The tracking can also be turned on only on certain days, at specific hours, or when connected to a specific network;
• Manual clock-in/out - this mode allows your employees to clock-out whenever they are doing private activities;
• Project-based tracking - In this mode, Insightful only tracks the activity when the employee is working on a certain project or task.

By providing you with these four modes we believe that you are getting the maximum flexibility in the way you track what your employees are doing while at the same time respecting their privacy.

Employees Are Feeling They Are Being Watched

The stress and anxiety with these employees usually come from them feeling scrutinized. However, in all companies there are rules about do’s and don’ts while at work. 

Employees know that they should abide by the company's rules and do not do anything disrespectful of the company's policies, their coworkers, and the company itself. While this is obvious, what is not is where do these feelings of anxiety come from. When monitoring the activity of your employees, it is imperative that you already have company policies in place that state the acceptable and unacceptable online behavior. 

If all of your employees are familiar with and respective of the policies, they will not have to worry about whether or not their behavior is monitored.

Employees Are Worried About How the Collected Information Is Used

Transparency can do a lot for your company's success and reputation and productivity monitoring software can help your company be more transparent. The real-time data you get from an employee monitoring software can be used to improve the efficiency of employees, better manage the workload employees get, it can also help improve the expenses of the company as well as the way future projects are planned and organized. Employee monitoring can also improve the growth and retention of employees.

To put your employees’ minds at ease when it comes to the data you’re collecting, you can give them access to their own data. This way, they’ll see what you see, and they won’t have to worry about it.

Final Takeaways

Most employees are anxious about productivity monitoring software usually due to the lack of communication from the employer or the spread of false information.

For a PC monitoring software to be properly implemented, you need to start with properly communicating all the benefits of the software, as well as any specific expectations and goals you may have as an employer. By being transparent with your employees about what you expect from them, you will earn their trust and they will be able to do their jobs stress-free.

‍