Employee monitoring software is an application you can use to track the activities of your employees. Through it, you can see where your employees spend their time, track the total time they work, and gain valuable insights into your workforce.
Many companies find that using PC monitoring software helps them to better understand their employees, especially those working remotely. It also helps managers ensure that their employees remain productive.
If you’re interested in boosting productivity and performance in your organization and want better workplace analytics, employee monitoring software may be the solution.
Below, we’ll highlight nine leading applications for you to consider. Then, we’ll discuss tips on best implementing this new software into your organization.
Best Employee Monitoring Software Solutions
There are many employee monitoring software solutions available for you to choose from. To help you with your search, below are nine of the more popular options to explore:
Hubstaff
Hubstaff is the creator of workplace management software, ideal for when you have employees working remotely. Through its employee monitoring software, you can see what your workforce is doing in real-time and collect essential data about their activities.
You can also do the following with the Hubstaff employee tracking software:
- See the apps used and URLs visited by employees
- Take screenshots of employees’ digital workspaces
- Generate detailed timesheets
Hubstaff also gives your employees privacy control, including full control over their data and the ability to delete screenshots or time entries. This helps your employees feel more comfortable about using the software.
Teramind
Rated by Forbes as the N0. 1 overall employee monitoring software application, Teramind is an excellent solution for organizations of all sizes. This software is best for organizations concerned about data security from the inside. With its insider threat prevention, you can quickly detect any insider threat to your data.
Other benefits of the Teramind software include:
- Employee productivity tracking
- Ensure security and compliance of the workforce
- Generate forensic reports regarding data threats
- Live screen recording
- Remote desktop control
- Email and instant messaging monitoring
- Keystroke logger
- Printed document tracking
If you’re looking for an all-in-one security and employee monitoring tool, Teramind is an excellent option to consider.
ActivTrak
With ActivTrak, you can gain powerful insights into your workforce’s productivity without invading their privacy. ActivTrak does not monitor emails or personal devices, has no keystroke logging, and does not access the user’s camera.
It tracks where your employees spend their time and helps pinpoint sources of distraction. Through ActivTrak, you can set productivity goals and review employee progress over time. It also helps organizations spot signs of burnout and improve workload balance, ensuring that employees remain at their best throughout the year.
Through the coaching feature in ActivTrak, you can also gain valuable insights into improving productivity and efficiency in your organization. These employee surveillance features make it an excellent option for managers focused on getting more from their employees without micromanaging or invading privacy.
DeskTime
DeskTime comes with numerous employee monitoring features, making it an excellent choice if you’re not exactly sure what you need. Through DeskTime, you can automatically track your employees’ time, including when they arrive and depart, along with how much time they spend on work-related tasks.
Beyond that, you can also track your employees’ apps and URLs. This can give you insights into how productive each person was at the end of the day based on where they spent their time.
Another feature of DeskTime is the ability to monitor specific projects and tasks. It automatically collects screenshots of employee desktops to determine the status of your projects and estimate how much more time you need for completion.
With DeskTime, you can also generate custom reports based on the data you consider important. Compare productivity over time, track a specific employee’s performance, and much more, all through DeskTime.
Controlio
Controlio is a cloud-based computer monitoring software application. This means your Controlio dashboard is available from any device through a secure HTTPS connection. This dashboard gives you insights into how your team spends its time.
Controlio provides a productivity score, instantly letting you know which users or groups perform their best. You can also control user behavior, including restricting certain websites or applications. Other features of Controlio include real-time surveillance, an optional stealth mode, and continuous screen recording.
Insightful
The goal of Insightful is to provide managers with actionable data insights. Through in-depth productivity analysis, you’ll better understand how your team works and how to best support them.
Insightful makes it easier to spot trends and patterns in your employees’ work so that you can optimize performance and prevent burnout.
Other features of Insightful include:
- Automated time tracking
- Remote capture capabilities
- Bottleneck identification
- Application usage monitoring
- Website usage monitoring
If you’re looking for an all-in-one software that includes employee monitoring, time tracking, and workforce analytics, Insightful is a great option to explore.
We360.ai
We360.ai has a wide range of features, making it an excellent choice regardless of your situation. The main benefit of this software is the dashboard, which quickly provides users with the essential information they need about employee performance.
Whether you’re a manager, an admin, or a member of the human resources management team, the We360.ai dashboard will help you quickly analyze performance daily.
But there’s a lot more to We360.ai than just the dashboard. Through this software, you can also:
- Monitor employee attendance
- Track application and URL usage
- Generate detailed reports about employee productivity
- Take screenshots of users’ desktops
- View a live stream of a user’s computer
- Monitor employee wellness
Traqq
Traqq is a lightweight employee tracking software that’s suited for overseeing teams. One of the biggest benefits of using Traqq is how easy it is to get started. You can have the software up and running in a few minutes.
However, just because Traqq is a lightweight application does not mean it does not have plenty of features.
Through Traqq, you can track time, generate reports, detect when your employees are idle, monitor application and website usage, track billable hours, and much more. With its easy-to-use interface, Traqq is a good choice for anyone looking to get started with employee monitoring quickly.
Interguard
Interguard is an employee monitoring and security protection application. With it, you can monitor computer activity, measure productivity, and track idle time, all while protecting against insider threats and data loss.
Interguard is built for the modern world, with availability on PCs, Apple devices, Google Chrome, and Android devices.
No matter where your employees work or what devices they use, you can monitor them remotely and gain valuable insights into how they work. If you want maximum monitoring capabilities of your employees, Interguard is an excellent option.
Features of Employee Monitoring Software:
Employee monitoring software applications can come with a wide range of features. Knowing more about the available features lets you decide which employee monitoring software is right for you.
Below are some common features available in employee monitoring software applications:
Time Tracking
One of the biggest features of employee monitoring software is tracking how long your employees work. This is useful when working with employees or independent contractors hourly.
With this feature, you can see how many hours your employees work and only pay for those hours.
This is also useful if your company provides services on an hourly basis to clients. Time tracking software allows you to accurately bill your clients and provides concrete evidence as to how much time your company did the work.
Activity Tracking
Like time tracking, employee computer monitoring software can also track users’ activities. For example, you can see how much time employees spend inside certain applications or how often they take breaks from work. With activity tracking, you can easily identify productive employees or common time-wasting activities.
Internet Usage Tracking
Internet usage tracking monitors how your employees use the internet. There may be certain websites you want to block while your employees are at work, or you may want to ensure your employees aren’t spending too much time on certain sites. Internet usage tracking is especially useful for remote employees, as you don’t have direct control over their online activities.
Productivity Monitoring
With productivity monitoring, you can gain valuable insights into the productivity level of your employees. For example, some software applications will show you which employees complete their tasks quickly, while others can show you who spends the most time working on a project. From the collected data, you can then make adjustments to your organization to improve productivity.
Screen Time Monitoring
Screen time tracking allows you to see your employees’ computer screens. Some applications allow you to do this in real-time, while others take occasional screenshots. In either case, this feature allows you to directly see what your employees are working on at any given time. This is useful for confirming that your employees are accurately reporting the amount of time they work.
Keyboard and Mouse Activity Monitoring
Another way to track whether your employees are working is with keyboard and mouse activity monitoring. This feature monitors when your employees go idle by detecting when they haven’t used their mouse or keyboard after a specified amount of time. This is a simple way to confirm that your employees remain at their computers.
In some applications, keyboard monitoring can go even further. This means recording each key that your employee presses. Many organizations don’t need this feature, but some require it for security purposes.
Application Usage Monitoring
If you want to track how your employees use specific applications, there’s application usage monitoring. Monitor whether your employees are using specific applications correctly or track how often they use an application. You can also gain insights into how well employees use certain applications, measuring productivity levels or the average amount of time spent within an application.
Email Usage Monitoring
With email usage tracking, you can track the communications of your employees. With real-time monitoring, you can see how much time your employees spend checking emails, whether personal or business emails. You can also collect the contents of these emails to monitor your employees’ communications. Email usage monitoring is useful for organizations requiring a high level of security.
File Access Monitoring
To monitor important organizational files, you’ll want file access monitoring. With file access tracking, you can see who opens certain files on the company’s hard drive or the cloud. You can also track who edits these files or the documents printed.
With file access monitoring, you can block certain users from accessing files. This ability to block users and track the users who access certain files is essential for organizations needing to protect sensitive information. For example, if sensitive information was leaked, you can view the access logs of that file to determine who recently opened it.
Report Generation
One of the best features of employee monitoring software is the ability to generate reports about user behavior. Through these reports, you can learn valuable information like where your employees spend the most time, which employees are the most productive, and whether your recent workflow changes are boosting productivity.
Employee monitoring software tracks all kinds of information in the background while your employees work. Then, it turns this data into easy-to-read reports. Once you have this information, you can make better decisions on how to run your organization.
Integration With Other HR Systems
Many employee monitoring applications can be integrated with other HR systems. If you have HR software applications in place, choose to implement compatible employee monitoring software. This way, you won’t have to interrupt your current operations, and you can immediately monitor employees on a higher level.
When evaluating employee monitoring software applications, make sure to check for their available integrations before choosing one.
How to Implement Employee Monitoring Software in Your Business
The process by which you implement your employee monitoring software is almost as important as the software itself. To get the best results from your new software, follow these implementation steps:
- Get Buy-In From Your Employees
First, it’s important to get buy-in from your employees. Some employees may initially be opposed to having their activities monitored. Rather than just surprising employees with this new monitoring software, discuss it with them first. Explain your reasons for implementing it and the benefits that come with it. It’s best to have the support of your employees before implementing the new software, as this will make the transition process much easier.
- Communicate the Benefits of Employee Monitoring Software to Your Employees
Part of getting your employees to buy in is explaining the benefits of this new software. While your business as a whole may benefit from the software, you need to explain how these benefits will extend to your employees.
For example, with this new monitoring software, your employees may no longer need to submit time logs manually. You may also be able to quickly identify the top performers, allowing you to better reward strong performance. By showing your employees that they will also benefit from this software, you can help ensure its success.
- Establish Clear Policies and Procedures
Next, make sure your employees know exactly what’s expected of them. Provide clear guidelines on how to use the software or how you expect them to spend their time each day. By establishing clear policies early, you can rely on them if there are any issues down the road.
- Train Your Employees on How to Use the Software
Many employee monitoring software applications require action on the part of the employee. For example, they may need to click a button when they start working to begin the tracking process. Spend some time training your employees in this new software so that everyone knows how it works. This will lead to less confusion and better results.
- Monitor Employee Usage and Provide Feedback
Start monitoring your employees using the new software. Don’t make any immediate judgments based on the first few days, as everyone is still getting used to it. After a significant amount of time passes, you can start analyzing the results. Use the results of your analysis to provide feedback to your employees so that they can improve going forward.
For example, you may find that some employees spend significantly more time on specific tasks than others. In this case, you could provide those employees with additional training to help them complete their tasks faster. After the training, keep monitoring those employees to ensure that they make progress.
How to Use Employee Monitoring Software Effectively
Once you properly implement your computer monitoring software, you should ensure you get the most from it.
Below are a few tips for using your monitoring software effectively:
- Set Clear Goals for Employee Monitoring
First, it’s important to have clear goals. Think about why you’re interested in using employee monitoring software and what you’re hoping to achieve. Then, take these goals and turn them into concrete targets.
For example, you may want to reduce employee downtime by a certain percentage. Another possibility is improving how quickly employees complete certain tasks. With these clear goals in mind, you can track your employees’ progress over time to see how much the monitoring software helps.
- Use Employee Monitoring Data to Identify Areas for Improvement
One of the best features of employee monitoring applications is the data they provide. These applications can provide insights into how your employees spend their time. To get the most from your new software, make sure you’re regularly analyzing this data to find areas for improvement.
For instance, you may find that a certain task takes a long time company-wide, in which case you could explore changing the process.
Or you might find that one employee slows down an entire team and decides to provide extra training to that employee. Explore all the data your software offers and use it to make operational improvements.
- Provide Feedback to Employees Regularly
Another notable benefit of employee monitoring software is that you can provide more specific feedback. Rather than giving feedback like “We need you to work faster,” you can pinpoint the exact areas where your employee needs to improve.
This not only gives the employee a clearer picture of what they need to work on but makes it more likely that you’ll see improvement.
It’s a good idea to schedule regular meetings with your employees to provide feedback. A simple performance review every few weeks or months can go a long way toward ensuring your employees are performing at their best.
- Use Employee Monitoring Data to Reward Employees for Good Performance
Make sure you’re using employee monitoring data to not only find areas where your employees need to improve but also where they’re excelling.
Everyone likes to have their work appreciated, and your employees are no different. Using your software’s data, you can identify the best performers and reward them.
Rewarding strong performance helps your employees feel appreciated, making them want to continue with your company.
It also encourages others to work hard, as they also want to get rewarded. And finally, it demonstrates the direct benefits of monitoring software on your employees.
Best Practices for Employee Monitoring
If you’re going to use employee monitoring applications, there are some best practices you should follow. These steps will not only yield better results but also protect your company.
- Be Transparent With Your Employees About Employee Monitoring
To start, you must be honest about using monitoring software. If your employees discover that you’re secretly using monitoring software to track their work, there could be significant backlash. Many employees are content with using the software once you explain to them the reasons and benefits of the measure.
- Use Employee Monitoring Data in a Fair and Ethical Manner
Monitoring your employees’ activities requires a high level of responsibility. As the manager, you should use this software ethically.
For example, no employee can work every single moment of the day. There will be times when you’re monitoring an employee, and they are taking some downtime between tasks.
Rather than immediately reprimanding this employee, you should remember that everyone needs to take the occasional break.
- Respect Employee Privacy
Along the same lines, you must respect employee privacy when implementing monitoring software. Just because you can monitor everything your employee does on their computer doesn’t mean you should.
There may come a time when an employee has a private conversation or shares private information on their work computer that you shouldn’t see. Part of using this software ethically is respecting your employees’ privacy and only monitoring aspects that relate to work.
- Use Employee Monitoring Data to Improve Employee Productivity and Performance
The best use of employee monitoring data is for improving employee productivity and performance. Your goal shouldn’t be to immediately catch anyone taking a break and reprimand them but instead to investigate overall trends and improve them.
Take a long-term approach to employee monitoring software, where you seek to improve performance over time rather than micromanage daily.
The Future of Employee Monitoring Software and Its Role in Productivity
As more organizations become virtual, with a larger number of employees working remotely, employee monitoring software is expected to increase in popularity. It’s a useful way for managers to improve employee performance management despite being in different locations.
At the same time, employee monitoring software will also become more sophisticated. With the introduction of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, employee monitoring software will better analyze employee behavior and provide more useful insights.
Explore Employee Monitoring Software for Your Organization
Employee monitoring software can provide many benefits to your organization, including higher productivity and better performance. To get started, think about which monitoring features are most important for your organization and then explore various software options that contain those features.
Once you find a fitting workplace monitoring application, begin integrating it into your operations. Start by getting your employees to buy in and establishing some best practices. Setting up employee monitoring software can take some time, but you’ll likely find the long-term productivity benefits worth the investment.
