Why Is It Important to Conduct Research Before Buying Employee Monitoring Software

Implementing an employee monitoring software into your business might seem like a piece of cake - you just get the software you want and with a few clicks you install it to the computers of your employees. But it’s not that easy. Or in other words, you could do something similar, but it’s not the way to go if you want a long lasting investment. 

What’s extremely important is to conduct a bit of research before buying or implementing spy desktop monitoring software into your company. It’s a new thing for you and your employees, thus, you need to make all necessary preparations in order for it to see the light of the day smoothly and effectively. 

Do I Need to Monitor My Employees’ Computers?

First and foremost, ask yourself do you really need an employee monitoring software? This is the first step of implementation but probably the most important one. If you suspect that your employees are being unproductive and behaving in such a way that they aren’t really working on their tasks, then introducing computer spying programs is maybe a good decision. But, if your employees are working productively and you don’t have any issues regarding this aspect, implementing such a software doesn’t seem very logical. 

Employee monitoring is a big deal for both you and your employees and it shouldn’t be taken lightly and implemented just for the sake of “I saw in a magazine that I should do it”. 

You need to have a valid reason if you want to use an employee activity monitoring software and you need to talk to your team about how they feel about being monitored. Be open with them because you’ll have a higher chance of implementing it the right way if your employees trust you and believe that you’re doing this for the wellbeing of the business. 

Find the Perfect Software for Your Business

If you decide that you want to introduce an online monitoring software to your business, you need to investigate what kind of software do you really need. Market is flooded with monitoring platforms and picking the best desktop monitoring software can sometimes be a tough call. Look into your options on the Internet. Based on what are your expectations of such a tool, you can eliminate the ones you don’t find appropriate.

For example, you own a small law operating firm and you just want a simple software which will track what are your employees doing throughout the day. Which means that you don’t need a more professional screen spying software that has a screenshot capture mode. Find out what are your needs and go from there. In most cases, free software might serve you perfectly. If you just want something to track your employees without fancy detailed reports at the end of the day, free platform can offer you just that. They have limited usability and often aren’t the top software available, but they could be enough for everything you may need. So, you really don’t need to spend anything and pretty much can monitor employee’s computer activity for free. 

But, what needs to be said as well is that most professional platforms have a free trial option available. This is something that you'll want to take full advantage of. Try it out, and if you like it and want to keep it for the sake of the future, you can do it. Free, or paid software, it really makes no difference if you just want to monitor your employees. It’s similar to time tracking tools, so you can find more about it in one of our previous blogs.

Browse the Web

The internet is an inexhaustible source of information. And you should utilize it as much as you can. If you clearly understand your needs and have an idea of what kind of software you really want, Google can become your best friend. Use it to your advantage and spend some time researching everything about what software do companies use to monitor employees. 

We talked about how forums can be a good source of information when it comes to real reviews about a specific product. Use them as well! It might sound silly, but in most cases, I personally buy certain products based on the opinions that people have on forums. 

Apart from forums, there are sites which offer reviews about various products. It’s a good place to conduct your research and find out what other people think about a specific topic. Computer monitoring software reviews are out there, waiting for you, and hopefully you’ll find the ones you need which will help you to be one step closer to your final decision. 

Speak to Your Colleagues 

If you don’t trust the Internet, speak to your fellow business owners. The chances are some of them implemented a web monitoring software for small business and therefore can give you a real first - hand information about how it works. It’s helpful if you can speak to a trustworthy person. They can tell you all about the pros and cons of such a platform and maybe point you in the right direction when it comes to picking the best tracking software for PC for your business. 

And maybe the case is that your fellow business owner has a similar business to you. And he has an employee monitoring software he’s satisfied with. Add 2 and 2  and you’re in perfect situation. Not only that you know exactly which software you should apply to your business but you have someone who can help you out (if they are willing to) when the time of implementation comes.

Educate Yourself on Legal Requirements

This one is very important. Not every country is the same and therefore not all legal requirements are the same for every business. In some countries the law is very strict and pretty much doesn’t let you monitor your employees at all. In another, they let you monitor them, but to some degree. Some countries let you keep an eye on your workers but only if you tell them that you’re using employee monitoring software first and have their consent. And other countries basically don’t have a law regarding employee monitoring at all and you’re pretty much free to do whatever you want to even without telling your employees about it - which we strongly oppose.

All in all, you need to conduct research and maybe talk to your lawyer about the legal requirements of your country regarding program for monitoring PC. Last thing you need is that your activities aren’t legal and that your employees can sue you. It’s something we want to avoid and therefore educating yourself on legal requirements of implementing windows PC monitoring software is a must. 

Safety

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This point isn’t exactly connected to researching before implementing a monitoring software but we think it’s important to have it listed here anyways. 

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It’s extremely essential to adapt a data protection policy to your company so that the staff private information that you collect and maintain is properly taken care of.

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The data monitored should be securely stored and available only to those concerned. This data should be maintained only for a lawful period of time, just as long as it is necessary to achieve the purpose of employee monitoring. The fact is that spy computer monitoring software collects various information about your employees. Therefore, it’s important that you keep that information secure. It’s just for your own safety and for the safety of your employees.

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Conclusion

Implementation of employee monitoring software can be life changing for your business. Having said that, you would like to conduct a fair amount of research for something that will change your business entirely right? Right. That’s why it’s important to follow every single step from this list and cover all the aspects you can when it comes to implementing a computer spy app. That’s the only way to ensure that your software will work correctly and do its job efficiently, without causing any issues for you and your employees. 

Oh, and I just noticed that the word “spy” is used a bit too much together with employee monitoring app or software. To clarify immediately - employee monitoring software has nothing to do with spying on your employees. Always and I mean always, talk to them about it and inform them that you think of using such a tool in your business. They are your employees and have the right to know all about it.

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