Why Do Project Management and Employee Monitoring Tools Go Well Together?

There are many tactics you can deploy in an effort to find the right one that will make your business thrive. However, can there really be just one?

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Modern times require modern methods of doing business. Especially useful are all kinds of new workforce management tools that come out every day - those that enable and facilitate communication and collaboration, as well as project management and employee monitoring software, just to name a few.

Some would argue that a mix of several different tools and techniques is necessary for achieving the best possible results in all you do. Take the best part of each one and make it your own, they say. 

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We are inclined to agree - sometimes the combination of tools can make a great difference in the way people work and how productive they are. 

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One such example is project management and employee monitoring tools. Here is why they go well together and can help you run a successful business. 

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Project Management Software

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This kind of tool allows management to have a clear image of what their employees are working on at all times. 

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In a team that consists of more than even one person, keeping track of everyone’s responsibilities can be quite difficult, unproductive, and sometimes unsuccessful. And whenever a process is unsuccessful, you can expect a revenue loss. 

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But how to prevent such a disaster on your doorstep? 

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The first thing you need to remember is that project management is not the same as employee monitoring. 

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Tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, and others aren’t designed to provide information about the level of productivity of your employees, they are meant to help you see where each employee is with each task. This is useful for managing the resources needed for achieving the defined company goals and planning ahead. 

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Moreover, not only are they useful for tracking task progress, but also for properly assigning and redistributing workload to employees according to their job description, skills and affinities, as well as level of efficiency and busyness. 

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For instance, while using software to monitor a PC any of your employees works on will tell you that their work efficiency has gone down, but not all such tools will tell you why. Only those that have integrated the project management option, like Insightful, can help with that one. 

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As with employee monitoring software, different project management tools come with a different set of capabilities - and by extension, price tag. 

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The free ones have a limited feature set that can probably cover only the basic project management needs for a low number of employees. 

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On the other hand, paid solutions open a whole other world of options, especially the more pricey ones. Depending on the industry your company is in, its size, and its financial status, you will be more inclined to choose one type over the other. 

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For example, Jira seems to be the preferred tool for development teams, while marketing teams require a more simple solution like Trello. But this is by no means a rule you should follow before you start testing different project tracking software for yourself. 

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And anyway, companies change and grow, so what works for you now probably won’t work in five years’ time. When the time comes to switch from a more simplistic solution to the one that can keep up with your complex company operations, at least you will have some idea of what to keep and what to change in the way you manage your projects. 

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Employee Monitoring Software

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Even though companies are implementing this type of software in staggeringly increasing numbers due to the pandemic, not all of them are comfortable with disclosing that to their employees and the public. 

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That is a big mistake, especially in those regions and countries where it’s mandatory by law to inform the employees they are being monitored. Moreover, simply knowing their work is under some kind of systematic inspection will boost employee productivity, especially when it comes to remote work monitoring. 

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But, what is more important is the reason behind such an act - data security and employee privacy. 

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With Insightful, the companies should rest assured that their information is being unconditionally protected no matter the solution they choose. With on-premise solutions, all the data is at their location, and only authorized personnel have access to it. Cloud solutions are hosted on Google’s servers - the most secure option there is. 

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Moreover, employee monitoring software is not installed so that managers can watch what you do on company computers when working, but to be able to identify bottlenecks in company processes, assess employee work discipline, and task-to-skillset alignment. 

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Insightful, for example, allows screen capture manually, in random patterns, or when triggered by suspicious activity. But instead of managers berating employees for going on Twitter during their work hours, they can decide for whom that is an activity necessary for completing work tasks and for whom it’s not. 

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Moreover, they can label different types of websites and apps employees use as productive, unproductive, or neutral according to employee assignments. In this sense, employee monitoring software is there to better understand behavioral patterns, correct them if necessary, and boost productivity in doing so. 

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But even more importantly, Insightful gives insights not only on the individual level, but also for the entire team and organization. This, in turn, allows for a complete overview of employee behavior and productivity level, as well as the necessary steps for improving company performance.

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But what makes these two types of software go together so well?

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Project Management and Employee Monitoring Tools

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Simply put, these two types of tools give you complete control over all the doings in your company. You can see who is working on what, when, how, for how long, and with what tools. You can also get intrinsic data usable for complex business analyses and future planning. 

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And while you may want to find a way to interconnect these two types of tools to get all the information, you don’t have to with Insightful - it’s all integrated into one software. 

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Not only does it provide you with a way to monitor employees’ web usage at work, you can also just track their comings and goings, or automatically map the time needed to finish a project. 

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With the best options from both world, Insightful enables you to keep a good track of billable hours, which is especially important for the legal industry or freelancers, for example. 

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Features like this aren’t available in free monitoring software, but that doesn’t mean Insightful isn’t economically viable for your business either, no matter its size. All successful companies want to see results behind every single investment, which is why tools like this are a welcome addition to the toolbox. 

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Final Thoughts

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As more companies are seeing their value, project management and employee monitoring tools are experiencing a rapid expansion right now. Their value for your business is not measured in financial means, but in the way they enable your company to develop and scale. 

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So what are you waiting for? It’s implementation time!

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This article was originally written on August 20th, 2019 by Aleksa Misic. It was updated on July 10th, 2020 by Aleksandra Djordjevic.