How to Choose a Computer Tracker for Employee Monitoring

Chances are, you have reached this article because previous methods of staff management and monitoring are no longer that effective in the workplace. You may be looking for a better system, software, or a better way to motivate staff. Employee monitoring software provides all of that and a whole lot more.

Benefits of Employee Monitoring Software

While there are many benefits of using employee monitoring software, here are our top two:

1. Increased Productivity – During the average 8-hour workday, employees waste an average of 4-5 hours. This time is spent on activities such as social media, surfing websites, reading the news, and job hunting.

   With employee monitoring, the staff knows that they are being monitored and so significantly reduce these ‘negative’ activities. If they don’t, then management is alerted to any issues.

2. Insider Attack Protection – The majority of cyber-attacks are initiated by someone within the company. In competitive niches, employees can be head-hunted or bribed to gain access to insider information. 69% of employees surveyed admitted to taking or keeping valuable data after leaving a company.

   With proper employee monitoring, this is prevented by alerting those in charge whenever information is transmitted or when employee behavior shifts away from ‘normal’ activities.

   

Why do Employers Need Employee Monitoring Software?

Effective employee monitoring software brings both peace of mind and more productive staff to the workplace. In today’s world of cyber-attacks and strict data protection laws, any company that falls foul to a breach could suffer terrible consequences.

GDPR is an EU data protection policy. It is strict and comes with heavy fines that have seen millions of Euros for data breaches or mismanagement of data. It applies to any company that stores data on someone that lives in the EU, regardless of where the company is located. This alone makes data protection a priority.

Moreover, company data is valuable, even when it isn’t consumer related. Trade secrets, suppliers, internal emails and more can all devastate a company if leaked. When staff takes data home on devices or USBs, if uncontrolled, the data can be accidentally leaked through device loss or other people accessing the devices.

Employee monitoring software helps to make sure that this doesn’t happen, by monitoring the transfer of files, staff behavior, reporting on key activities, and even remotely securing devices.

As an additional benefit, when employees know that they are being monitored, they tend to perform better.  This results in more focus on work-related tasks, instead of killing time or social activities. If combined with regular reviews and rewards for productive employees, the monitoring software can revolutionize employee attitudes and productivity.

What Device Activities Should be Monitored?

Employee monitoring can monitor a range of services and should give you full control over how this is applied. When shopping for monitoring services, a comprehensive system should include all of the following:

• Recording and screenshots
• Web searches and websites accessed
• Email and webmail usage
• Social media and chat apps
• All application usage
• File movement tracking
• Uploads, downloads, and external devices
• Productivity records
• Printer usage
• Network access
• Keylogging
• Geolocation

With all of this being tracked, reported, and recorded, every aspect of the device and its usage is protected. Filters and rules can be set up to block negative activities, problematic websites, or external networks for additional protection.

Does Employee Monitoring Work for All Types of Devices?

While some systems are restricted, an employee monitoring software should be able to monitor any device or OS. Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs can all be easily managed and monitored.

In the case of mobile devices, monitoring is a necessity, especially if they leave the workplace. There is always a high chance of a mobile device being lost or stolen. Without monitoring, tracking, and remote control, the risk of a significant data breach is always lurking. So, make sure your service covers all devices.

Conclusion

More security means less chance of expensive data loss. Employee Monitoring services also create efficiency improvements. Better productivity and reduced costs are where the benefit is truly visible to companies. Here is a simple example of how much can be lost without employee monitoring software:

• Ten staff members at $25 per hour result in an expense of $2000 per workday.
• If 50% of the day is lost to other activities, productivity is reduced and $1000 per day is wasted expenditure.
• With approximately 262 workdays a year, that is $262,000 and hundreds of work hours wasted.
• If productivity was decreased by only 20%, that’s 20% of the potential income lost in addition to the extra costs.

For the relatively low cost of employee monitoring software, a company can become far more profitable by increasing output and reducing costs. So, have you signed up yet?