Have you ever heard of the Hawthorne effect? Well, it occurs when employees behave as they should when they feel they are being watched.  One of the ways to achieve this is by using employee monitoring software in the workplace.

Also known as productivity monitoring software, this is simply a computer tracking tool that manages employees’ online behaviors in the workplace. When used correctly, it’s a crucial tool that will save your company time and resources brought about by poor productivity.

The software can track how much time is wasted and assist in project management, all of which provide useful insights into your employees and company as a whole.

Keep reading to learn how monitoring your employees can help hype up workplace productivity.

Identify time wasters

Monitoring software can identify employees who are not working on their projects as they should.  Most good tools that we’ve seen offer a wasted time feature that sends a report to the management when employees are wasting time while on the clock. For example, it alerts those in charge when an employee spends time on apps not permitted while at work.

The software will alert you on how much time the employees are wasting each day, so you can come up with the right measures to improve productivity. A good place to start is assigning each employee with a productivity score to encourage healthy competition.

Tracking project management

For your business to succeed, you must combine different workforce management tools to facilitate communication and improve productivity. Project management software gives managers a clear image of what projects the employees have on their plate at all times.

Combining monitoring software with project management software will help gain insights into how productive they are on these projects. You can then ask the different teams to use their time wisely and let them know the projects are taking too much time than normal.

Tracking employees attendance

Most employee monitoring tools make it easy for you to track the attendance of your employees. You can tell which employee showed up and those failed to show up for work. You can also tell which employee is not working on their assignments even if they say they are.

Tracking employee attendance is particularly crucial for remote work. Even if the employees are miles away, you can tell if they are working on their projects or not. 

While at it, the software can provide metrics around their tasks and projects, which will help improve productivity. Instead of your managers relying on their judgment which can sometimes be biased, they can trust reliable data from the software. This data can then help them focus on areas of improvement and reward successful teams.

Block websites and applications that distract employees

Sometimes employees can lose focus and turn their attention to distracting websites, which end up taking up valuable time. But with the help of monitoring software, you can easily identify these websites and then take measures to block them from the workplace.

Provide insights into the difference between poor and positive productivity

Monitoring systems help to give clear and detailed information on how your employees are performing. You can then clearly point out what they are doing wrong and show them how they can improve. Without the data, it can be difficult for the employees to get convinced that they are not as productive.

Rolling out an employee monitoring tool in your company

Now that you know how monitoring systems can benefit your organization, let’s find out how you can effectively implement this software in your organization.

• Start by identifying the goal for adopting the system.
• Choose a suitable employee monitoring software that has the right features for your business.
• Familiarize yourself with all the legal requirements concerning monitoring software in the workplace. This will help you prevent any risks resulting in bad press or hefty fines that can hugely affect your business.
• Sit down with your employees, explain what the software is about, and do your best to eliminate any concerns.

Conclusion

So there you have it! Monitoring systems are crucial tools that will significantly increase the productivity of your employees if implemented correctly. They help to gather data concerning how your workers are behaving during office hours. You can then use this information to take effective actions that solve and eliminate any behaviors not in line with your company goals.

Remember, the key objective here is to ensure that your employees are aware they are being monitored, hence encouraging them to work.