The complete guide to monitoring employees in the workplace
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Monitoring employees in the workplace may be controversial, but stats speak for themselves: companies that use employee monitoring to follow the internet usage of their team report a 30% productivity boost within the first month.
Look:
Studies show that people waste as many as 8 hours a week - close to one full day a week - on non-work tasks. Note that this time does not include lunch breaks and other resting moments throughout the workday, but the time people spend on their mobile phones, surfing the web, doing online shopping, etc.
Now, let's do the calculation: with the average hourly wage of $27.12 per hour (as in April 2022), companies in the USA are losing more than $10000 a year on every person they employ.
Therefore, it's no surprise that as many as 66% of employers have started to track employee hours in their company.
In this guide you'll learn:
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The types of employee monitoring.
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3 reasons why companies monitor their employees.
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The benefits of monitoring employees
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How to explain employee monitoring to your employees?
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The dos and don'ts of employee monitoring.
The types of employee monitoring
Employee monitoring is the use of various methods to gather information about the worker's computer activity and locations of staff members. There are many and varied types of employee monitoring - here's a selection of the most commonly used:
Computer monitoring
Often used as a synonym for monitoring employees' computer and internet usage. Time tracking software collects data about programs, apps and URL's a person has used during the workday, and for how long. That way, managers can track employee hours and make sure the company's time is used productively.
The top industries using employee computer monitoring are marketing and IT, followed by web development and web design.
Call monitoring
Phone monitoring is mostly used at call centers for reasons of quality control. Recording employees' interactions with clients allows managers to make sure that everyone provides customer service according to the company's standards.
Apart from the quality control, the phone recordings are also often used for trainings - workers listen to their conversations for self-evaluation.
Email monitoring
More than 50% of larger companies monitor their employees’ emails in order to make sure workers don't waste company's time, as well as for security reasons.
Companies monitor their employees' emails to protect confidential information leaks. Managers also admit that email monitoring is a way to detect and stop potential abuse or inappropriate behaviour. Simply put, letting employees know that they are monitored helps employers protect both their business and employees of the company.
Time-clocking
Time-clocking basically means tracking employees' times of arrival and departure using a time clock app. That allows employers to keep an eye on their workers to make sure they're not late for work and don't leave before the workday is over.
Some companies use electronic cards or chips that employees must scan upon arrival and when leaving the office building. Other employers use time tracking systems that start automatically and log the arrival time when the employee turns on the computer.
GPS tracking
Companies usually use GPS to track employees who spend most of their time "on the road". A very classic example are truck drivers, taxi drivers, visual brand merchandisers, and other professions that include driving a car for work purposes.
Attached to their vehicles, the GPS tracking system allows managers to keep track of their employees and plan daily routes more efficiently. Employee GPS tracking is also commonly used to make sure the car is not used for private reasons unless the company's policy allows it.
Now that you know the most common types of employee monitoring, read on to learn why companies decide to track their employees in the first place.
Monitoring employees in the workplace - the 3 reasons why
Every company has its own reasons for monitoring employees in the workplace. Most often, the need for employee monitoring emerges after disputable or inexplicable situations.
For example, when an employer notices that the team is constantly missing deadlines without any obvious reason and can't find the answer through employee performance reviews. Or the staff feels annoyed to write weekly reports, so employee performance tracking is a way to automate the process and save the team's time.
Either way, here are the three most common reasons why managers of companies – large and small – choose to monitor employees in the workplace.
Employee monitoring boosts productivity and motivation
One of the most common reasons why companies use employee monitoring is to follow the productivity of its employees. That's totally understandable when you think how much time people waste every day.
Managers monitor the activity of their employees because they're interested where people spend their work hours. It allows the employer to make sure that everyone dedicates their office hours to the work-related tasks that they are paid for.
Besides, studies show that when employees know they're being monitored, they become more disciplined and motivated to stay on task. That explains the instant 30% productivity boost that companies report just a week after they start monitoring their employees.
On a larger scale, team monitoring creates a transparent, open and honest company culture. People are more disciplined and motivated to do their best.
Employee tracking helps plan resources more effectively
It's said that you can't improve what you can't measure. Similarly, you can't optimize your workflow when you don't know how much time and human resources each project takes.
Look - stats show that on average, large IT projects run 45% over budget and 7% over time. That's why tracking your past projects is important, so you can better estimate your future project costs and deadlines.
Similarly, historical data from your employee monitoring app can make you rethink the allocation of human resources. For example, if your sales team spends just 5% of their time on a customer that generates 50% of your monthly revenue, you may want to assign more time for this customer because there's a great chance for even better results.
Employee monitoring is crucial for the management of remote employees
Employee monitoring makes following the work of remote employees much more effective, since managers can follow the progress of task completion without asking for weekly or daily reports.
Here's how employee monitoring can be incorporated in team management:
For example, a remote employee is given a task to complete by the end of the week. Once defined, the task is out of your hands until the deadline comes. Most managers rely on their employees, yet still admit they want to track the progress - just to make sure everything goes according to the plan and timeline. Employee monitoring software allows managers to take a quick peek at their out-of-the-office employees to make sure they spend their time on the right tasks.
How to explain employee monitoring to your team?
Whenever anyone starts talking about employee monitoring and time tracking, employees tend to storm out. Fearing increased control and invasion of their privacy, employees perceive it as their enemy.
However, employee monitoring is not the employees' enemy. It's the lack of communication between the management and the team. So, once you've made the decision to start monitoring employees in your company, take the time to explain it to your team.
Instead of presenting employee monitoring at the workplace as a tool for management to keep track of how employees spend their time, teach your team to use the software for their own growth and benefits. Because employees don't care why it's important for the company, they're looking for the "what's in it for me". So give it to them.
Here are some benefits employees can enjoy from employee work tracking:
It saves time
Look - from time to time, we have those days when we work like crazy, but at the end of the day, nothing is really done. Not knowing where the time has gone, we can't learn from mistakes and become more efficient in the future.
Monitoring the work of employees is a way to help people discover their biggest time sucks and change their unproductive habits that hinder their professional growth. The most successful people don't have more hours a day than the rest of the team, they are simply better at their time management. Productivity monitoring gives you the information you need to get better and master your time management skills.
When you think about it - those who benefit the most from employee monitoring are teams of highly motivated and ambitious people.
It helps to notice hard work
It can be very discouraging when you work harder than anyone else, but it stays unnoticed. Some people work harder and that should be acknowledged. Using the data collected by monitoring employees, managers can easily notice their best-performing and most dedicated ones.
For example, let's say you notice that some of your employees spend all their workday on work-related programs, while others take frequent (and long) breaks scrolling through social media or shopping online. It's unfair to ignore the effort of those team members who are all-in, and put them in the same box with those who are slacking.
When presenting employee monitoring to the team, let them know that you'll take the data into consideration when discussing promotions or raises. That way, your best employees can rest assured that their dedication won't stay unnoticed.
It helps managers to realize how much time things take
Many people feel like they could literally explode whenever they hear someone saying "here's this small task that should take you 5 minutes". Because often it’s obvious to everyone but the person saying it that the said small task will probably take at least an hour to complete.
The truth is, managers whose job it is to organize workflow and assign tasks often have no clue how much time certain tasks actually take, because they have never done them. As a result, employees are often overloaded with unrealistic deadlines, which leads to frustration and sometimes even true despair.
Monitoring employees means getting to know their work specifics better. Explain to your team that when they track their time, it helps the management realize the volume of their work tasks. As a result, there will no longer be impossible deadlines and unrealistic expectations anymore.
When presenting your employee work tracking software to the team, start with a story they can relate to - a situation that made them frustrated and angry. Then, explain how employee monitoring can help them avoid such situations in the future.
It saves employees from overworking
As a manager, you want your team to be happy and well-rested. That improves job satisfaction and productivity. However, the problem with medium-sized and large teams is that the management can't possibly check on each employee and make sure they take care of themselves by taking breaks and leaving work at a reasonable time.
Look, I used to work up to 16 hours a day. Then, one day my boss saw my time tracking report and pointed out to me that I should not stay that late so often. Not just because it's unhealthy, but also because he noticed that the next day I was extremely unproductive after my extremely long shift. Staying late in the office didn't help me get more done. It did, however, make me more tired and unable to focus the next day.
Let your team know that monitoring the time of employees is one more tool for the management and HR to follow the well-being of the team. It's not forbidden to stay a little longer in the office, but working double shifts every other day is a no-no - for the employees' own good.
The dos and don'ts of employee monitoring
Okay, so now you understand that employee monitoring in the workplace has its benefits and you've made the decision to track employees' computer usage. You've even chosen the solution that fits your needs and are ready to start monitoring your employees.
But wait a sec!
Before you start, here are some dos and don'ts to remember to keep the management out of trouble, and your team - happy.
DO inform your team
Employee monitoring is for increasing transparency between the team and the management. It's just ethical to let your employees know they're being monitored, otherwise you're practicing double standards.
DON'T interfere with your employees' private life
Don't ever use employee tracking to stick your nose into your employee's personal life, even if something private is caught on the software. Monitoring the performance of your employees is one thing, but using the data to interfere with their private lives is unethical and illegal.
DO use it to boost motivation
Allow your employees to see how they're doing in comparison with their colleagues - it's a way to boost their self-motivation. Because no one wants to be the worst-performing member of the team.
DON'T threaten your team
Acting like the Big Brother is ineffective in the long-term, so don't monitor employee activity with the aim of intimidating your team. In other words, don't confront your employees about every little thing - fear is not the route to productivity, especially when it comes to knowledge workers.
DO look at the big picture
It's important that you see the whole picture and only pay attention to extreme cases and continued patterns. For example, do pay attention to the employee who's constantly missing deadlines, but don't make a scene out of a one-time delay.
DON'T micromanage
Unless you want to lower your team's morale and increase the employee turnover rate, don't monitor their work for micromanaging. Give your employees autonomy and only use employee monitoring as a tool to help them stay on track.
5 best apps for monitoring employees
DeskTime
DeskTime is a powerful and automatic employee tracking software that works in the background, never interfering with your work. It offers powerful features for productivity measurement, attendance tracking, and effective workflow management that boosts performance for teams and individuals alike. DeskTime also measures employee productivity based on the usage of apps that the team admin designates as productive or unproductive. It will not only track attendance and time worked by every person on your team, but also provide a breakdown of how much time is spent on each project, client, or task. It also allows managers to take desktop screenshots to see what their employees are working on at the exact moment and minimize the chances of slacking off.
Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a mix between time tracking, employee monitoring, and project management. It's a diverse tool that records what web pages and apps each employee uses. Managers will receive a weekly report outlining which websites and applications were used and for how long. Individual users will receive the same report outlining their own time usage statistics. The app includes other employee tracking features, as well as online timesheets and payroll, project management and budgeting, screenshots and activity levels, integrations, and more.
Workpuls
Workpuls is an excellent replacement for manual time entry systems. This software tracks attendance and hours in real-time and generates timesheets automatically according to the tracked work time and other data. It gives you very detailed information about your team allowing you to track what employees do during their time at work. It offers useful features like employee monitoring through computer activity tracking and regular screenshots, project overview and budgeting, as well as automatic time mapping.
Hubstaff
Hubstaff is an app that lets you track employees in terms of time and productivity, and turns the data into convenient timesheets. Managers can review the timesheets, approve or ask for specifications, as well as manage employee absences. Additionally, Hubstaff offers GPS timesheets with employee location data that can be especially useful for companies having remote teams or workers in several locations.
Toggl Track
Toggl Track is a flexible employee monitoring app that can fit into any workflow. It allows you to create projects, log tasks within the projects, and then set an easy one-click timer to track your hours as you begin working. It offers an easy-to-use timer that syncs tracking across multiple devices in real-time. The app eliminates unprofitable projects, uneven work distribution, and manual admin while keeping track of your team's productivity and structuring huge amounts of data.
