Everything to Know About the Best Employee Monitoring Software to Track Activity in 2023
Are you managing a handful of employees, or are you a business owner with thousands of them? Obviously, not all employees will be attentive to their job, and the easiest solution to that would be using employee monitoring software.
For instance, if you have collected the perfect team, software for employee monitoring can help you analyze their performance peaks and create the perfect schedule for them.
Reasons Why You Should Track Employees
Employee tracking is a great way to get a clear picture of your team’s productivity, ensure compliance and accountability, and keep data safe. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of monitoring employee activity.
- Increased productivity. Employees work better when they know they are watched, and research confirmed this by presenting a study that showed that profits increased by 7% when employees knew they might be watched.
- Elaborate on spending. Employees were found to waste 4.5 work hours a week, which strained companies, whereas screen monitoring will allow you to pay for actual work hours only.
- Increased security. Protect your company’s data by tracking what employees do with it. In a survey, 41% of employees admitted that their work cell phone calls have evidence that could get them fired.
What Is Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee monitoring software is a type of surveillance where managers and employers can access data about their employee’s productivity, computer usage, actual work time, location, and more, basically all the details for a detailed assessment, without invading the employee’s privacy.
The software can be used to monitor in-office employees or monitor remote employees. In-office staff can often lose their train of thought because of office noises, chatty colleagues, multitasking, or simply an uncomfortable setup. Whereas work-from-home employees, who cant prioritize their time, can encounter distractions like child care or housework.
Despite all the negatives you can find out, by tracking employees, it is possible to analyze what technologies and strategies work best, what simulates their performance, and discover what hours work best for the team.
Benefits of Implementing an Employee Monitoring Software
It is no secret that a successful organization is built on its employees’ work. Accordingly, an employee’s performance relies on his/hers interest and motivation. By using employee monitoring software, these employees will either get scared off or more stimulated to work even better. So let’s look into some benefits of PC monitoring software.
Distraction management would be one of the main benefits. Internet monitoring is quite important since a report showed that the main distractions were browsing the web, social media, and emails. As an employer with remote employee monitoring, you can block these apps or certain websites.
Coming out of distraction management, the employee monitoring software will help engage employees. With complete observance, employers can detect early signs of disengagement and take measures into their hands. In fact, a study claims that engagement can decrease absenteeism since employees are looking forward to work.
Drawbacks When You Monitor Remote Employees
Remote employee monitoring can provide you with many insights and carry many benefits for your company; however, when misused, it can damage your culture and employees’ trust. For you to be aware of the negative aspects and drawbacks of tracking members, analyze the following points, and what measures to implement so you can avoid them.
- Negative stigma about being watched. Instead of becoming more productive, most times, if monitoring isn’t introduced right, you’ll notice drawbacks in employees’ performance. Many feel that the employer is collecting their mistakes and looking for ways to either fire them or use the mistakes against them.
- Making sense of data takes time. Employees spend hours on end in their workspace, meaning the employer will need to spend that much time analyzing and examining the data. While insights from data are amazing, the process isn’t quick.
- Privacy concerns. Privacy and legal concerns are valid complaints. With screen monitoring, employees are uncomfortable with the fact that you can see them logging into bank accounts or entering social security numbers. You need to ensure them that specialized monitoring software will blur their personal information.
Top Employee Monitoring Software: Select from the Best Options for Yourself
There are many software options available to create your perfect team performance schedule. These tools may help you gain the necessary visibility to make informed decisions and build methodical controls. Check out these best employee monitoring software providers to see which one may be better for your needs.
Cell Phone Monitoring Software: FlexiSPY
This top iPhone spy app offers many advanced features. With the help of the tracking and monitoring tools FlexiSPY, you may covertly and remotely monitor both online and offline activity on a target device. You may see and record calls using this app, as well as view text and social media messages, track location, and even shoot photos and videos. All of this without the owner of the device noticing you.
There are two options available: FlexiSPY Extreme (with call recording features) and FlexiSPY Premium. If you really want to be able to listen to voice calls and calls made using messenger apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, and others – then you will need to pay the extra fee and get the Extreme version. The provider offers the installation service to help you to jailbreak or root the phone and install the software, as it would not be supported in other cases.
Employee Computer Monitoring Software: pcTattletaleÂ
pcTattletale is available as a spy app for Android and spyware for devices supporting Windows. Once the app is installed on the target device, it starts recording all the activities happening on it in a video format. To see the activities of the target device remotely, you need to log into your own pcTattletale account and select the device that you wish to monitor.
PCTattleTale lives up to its reputation as being an easy-to-use but powerful monitoring tool. This monitoring app has a dashboard where you get a great overview of all important data. The most frequently called and texted contacts, the GPS location, and device information are typically included in dashboards. Without having to delve into the specific features, this might assist you in evaluating the device’s general summary.
Consider PCTattleTale if you’re searching for a capable spy tool that can be used to keep an eye on the online behavior of your coworkers, especially in video mode. But, it’s recommended to search elsewhere if you want more comprehensive security and surveillance that would let you examine the files and data on the target device.
Remote Employee Tracking Software: HoverwatchÂ
With Hoverwatch, you can keep tabs on calls, SMSs, social media messages, calendars, and more. Location monitoring is another feature included in this cell phone monitoring software that is crucial for most employers.
Hoverwatch runs in stealth mode, which prevents the app from being seen on targeted phones. It automatically records all calls made on the target phone. It is possible to record calls for later listening or archive them rather than having to set up alerts and listen to them immediately. This is an excellent tool for companies where it makes sense to record all calls made by both customers and employees.
Hoverwatch offers plans that support up to 25 devices. Employers may, however, install Hoverwatch on 25 iPhone and Android devices and gain access to all of the app’s surveillance functions for $6 per device every month.
Employee Remote Monitoring Software: InterGuardÂ
For organizations with remote staff or remote work policies, InterGuard would be a top choice for employee monitoring software. With capabilities including employee activity recording, keystroke logging, continuous screenshots, email and chat logs, limits on web content and applications, and system breach prevention, the comprehensive system helps companies to monitor remote employees.
InterGuard is considered to be one of the most common employee monitoring software used by enterprises. It helps protect important corporate information even when your employees are away from the office by monitoring productivity data, archiving it for later review, and preventing unwanted file transfers and downloads.
Activity Monitoring Software: ActivTrak
ActivTrak helps companies unleash the productivity potential of their employees. The software provides workforce analytics and employee productivity management tools, which offer insights into which areas should be optimized to empower people and improve their results. This software is used not only to track employees but also to identify points to improve operations and processes.
Through maximizing technology, business executives can achieve better results software provides expert insights that empower people and optimize processes. ActivTrak boasts of supplying more than 9,000 customers and having over 550,000 users.
Employee Monitoring Software for Mac: TeramindÂ
Teramind is an advanced tool that uses user behavior tracking in order to automate the detection of potential data leaks and security threats. This software for Mac enables real-time monitoring and recording of employee, remote user, and outside contractor actions both on- and off-site.
By allowing administrators to set up rules to alert, block, log out, redirect, or lock out any user based on their behavior, the program also protects against insider threats. Teramind generates weekly and monthly reports that include information about the number of hours that employees spend working, relaxing, and working extra on a given project.
Teramind complies with rules and ethics regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, FISMA, ISO 27001, and NERC to protect their users from infringement.
Employee Productivity Tracking Software: BambooHRÂ
The HR software BambooHR assists growing enterprises in centralizing, automating, and connecting their people data. You can handle employee data and compile insightful information, streamline payroll, track hours, and handle benefits, as well as identify, hire, and onboard the finest personnel—all in one place.
Additionally, when you expand, the sizable marketplace of pre-built connectors will assist you in achieving even more business goals and maintaining the connectivity and accessibility of all your data. You can free up some time to concentrate on other important tasks, including growing the team, enhancing the employee experience, and moving your organization towards your goals, while all mundane and repetitive tasks can be automated by using technology. Other HR tools may be combined with the BambooHR platform to smoothly improve important processes.
PC Tracking App: MoniVisorÂ
With the help of MoniVisor’s various functions, you may spy on the Microsoft Windows devices of your work-from-home employees. Also, all the features work well and deliver precise results. Also, the software is simple to use and is accessible to even complete beginners.
Many professionals share in their reviews online that one of the greatest Windows monitoring programs for tracking employees working from home is MoniVisor. You are able to remotely monitor every action the target user takes on a Windows device.
This PC tracking software combines affordability with efficiency. Another great aspect of trying this provider is that it offers a free demo, so you may test it out before committing to it.
Is It Legal to Track Your Employees?
Yes, it is legal to monitor your employees; however, some regulations and laws apply to this practice. According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), employers can monitor their workers on any device they provide to them. They can track files, downloads, internet usage, social media activity, etc. All of this does, however, vary by state; each has different guidelines and worker consent guidelines.
Conclusion
There are many monitoring services available, so you should find the one that suits your needs and requirements the most. If you want to be able to monitor the calls and text messages of your employees, then it’s good to consider Hoverwatch. If you want to manage employee data more effectively, choose BambooHR software.