Productivity is key to success.

But how to go about achieving it in our increasingly remote world?

With more employees than ever working remotely, the need for productivity software has grown--beyond its already wide usage in our digital age.

On first glance, it’s clear to see the need for productivity software from the perspective of employers with remote workers. 

But, as we will see, productivity software can also make the lives of remote employees easier and more effective.

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How Technology is Good for Productivity

The purpose of productivity and employee monitoring software is sometimes mistakenly thought to be about micromanaging and monitoring every single move of employees.

The reality is that most employers have no interest in tracking every keystroke of the employees, nor do they have the time themselves to review every minute of every day. 

For any productivity-minded employer, productivity software is about getting a complete picture of individual and team productivity based on behavioural data and insights.

Productivity software encourages a positive feedback loop: employees get more satisfaction from better time management and performance incentives; and employers get more productive hours to improve organizational performance. That’s a clear win-win.

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Remote Employees are Happy Employees & More Productive

A recent report by PwC found that 55% of employees want to work remotely at least three days a week. A perk that, when granted, makes for happier employees.

Beyond just being the right thing to do, it’s in an employer’s best interest to help their employees become happier.

A 2019 study by Oxford University found that happy employees were on average 13% productive!

So, now we know happy remote employees make for more effective employers, let’s dig into how productivity software helps boost remote workforce management. In the process, making life easier for your remote or hybrid workforce. 

  Key Takeaways:

• The data shows that happy workers are more productive, and productivity software can help employers provide greater job satisfaction.
• Productivity software can help identify high achievers to be properly rewarded and recognized. 
• Time tracking for remote employees can also help act as an early warning system for burnout and workplace stress. 

Now, let’s take a look in more detail at how productivity software makes life easier for remote employees...

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1. Better Manage Staff Workloads

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Remote employees face a unique set of issues such as a day entirely booked up with Zoom meetings. 

When the office is the kitchen table, work can also unhealthily blend into all aspects of life.

One of the best ways to manage remote work's unwanted side-effects is to set clear goals and expectations that line up with what your organization has learned is “normal” output.

Employee tracking software helps quantify normal output, so it can be modelled when employees work remotely.

Employee monitoring software creates a new data set that shows benchmarks based on task type. That data is aggregated across a range of employees, which provides decision makers realistic benchmarks.

Remember, more time doesn’t necessarily translate into greater output 

If an employee is 25% more effective for one month and operates at 50% capacity the next due to fatigue, you’re at a net negative. 

Preventing Remote Worker Burnout 

Employee monitoring software also provides managers with valuable insights into which employees may be spending too much time “on the job.” Then, this can be used to remind them to take necessary downtime.

Data from employee tracking software helps managers proactively manage their employee workloads and tasks, equipping managers with data-backed information when having productivity-oriented conversations with their team. 

The best way to prevent burnout is to prevent it well before it begins to take hold.

2. Make Your Workforce Equal 

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Because of the stage of life they are in and personal responsibilities, not all employees can work the extended hours of others.

Suppose you have a remote sales workforce with a wide mix of individuals with different personal responsibilities–let’s say half are young college graduates with wide swaths of time whereas the other half are new parents. 

If the young college graduate cohort is working extra hours compared to the new parents, the latter may feel the pressure and strain of not being a top performer.

If they feel overly stressed and unmotivated, you may see an overall drop in performance, or even willingness to work at your organization. 

This “hollowing out” effect or “talent drain” can be avoided by constructing proper and fair incentives for each individual. Good remote work software can help keep your entire team motivated over the long-term by rewarding employees with realistic and fair criteria. 

An effective productivity solution with time tracking software capabilities will also capture key time management nuances to help you more deeply understand team performance.

3. Reward Your People and Celebrate Success 

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Your employees are arguably your most important stakeholders. And reward and recognition of them goes a long way.

A survey by a leading human resources research firm, Achievers, showed that the 44% of employees said they have felt like leaving their jobs due to a lack of recognition. 

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What’s the point of hiring talented staff if you can’t keep them? 

Work from home software brings the right data to the forefront to make sure employees are rewarded for their good work.

Data shows that rewarded and recognized employees are happier and more loyal.

Close to 7 out of 10 employees said that better rewards and recognition would make them more likely to stay at their current job. Now that’s a metric worth optimizing for every company!

It also helps ensure that you are incentivizing the right behaviors. What are the activities that truly move the needle for an organization? 

A basic view of productivity would say that more hours equals more money; but that’s not necessarily the case for high performing organizations. 

Positive client feedback, productive hours, and other “multipliers” of success all deserve recognition. Remote work software like Insightful can be customized to produce reports for managers and decision makers that helps gather the data around those key reward categories. 

4. Reduce Painfully Boring Administrative Tasks 

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Few employees enjoy the process of manually filling out timesheets and attendance logs to show when they started or stopped work. 

Manual logging is archaic, and it can cost organizations hundreds of otherwise productive hours per year. 

Automatic employee time tracking helps put time back in your employees days. 

That means less time spent on fiddly, irritating reporting tasks and more time freed up for productive, creative, value-added work.

5. Remove Hurdles and Blockers

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Social media is a polarizing subject when it comes to office productivity; and the lines begin to blur even further from role to role. 

For example, let’s say you’re a social media manager or blog editor researching the competition.

A blanket ban or a one-size-fits-all social media and website policy can bar your team from gaining key insights that move in the social media world. 

Customizable computer monitoring software makes it possible to automatically track productive value-add social media use and prevent unproductive use. 

This isn’t just applicable to social media.

With effective remote work software you can track all app and website usage to determine which tools your remote employees need to be most productive. This makes their life easier by ensuring they have all the tools they need to do their job.

Platforms like Insightful allow custom user profiles to be configured so specific employees have access to particular apps and websites.

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Easier Remote Employee Life = More Productive Organizations

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The verdict is in: happy employees are productive employees. 

Whatever gets measured gets improved, so using productivity software such as Insightful can help an organization align productivity and happiness as key performance indicators. 

By identifying high achievers in both in-house and remote environments, you’ll be able to create reward and recognition systems that actually work. 

Doing so will help motivate and retain high-performers and incentivize average performers to improve, while capturing key operational insights that can be shared with the rest of your team. 

Employee time tracking and remote employee management software can also help be an early warning system for burnout and workplace stress–especially when the human connection from interacting face-to-face every day isn’t guaranteed.