A global shift of workforce from offices to homes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the soaring demand for PC monitoring software. This powerful tool provides business owners with detailed insight into the way their workers spend time while working at home, including their online activities. This way you can see the apps your employees use and websites they land on during work hours. Employee monitoring software can also get you screenshots of the sites visited and access the data on their USB drives.
Even though this monitoring software offers a wide range of Internet monitoring options, you shouldn’t use all of them. The line between monitoring employees’ productivity and invading their privacy is delicate and, if you cross it, be prepared to bear consequences for unethical or even illegal behavior.
Let’s show you, now, the most efficient ways to use employee productivity tracker as an Internet activity monitor, accompanied by a couple of solid reasons for this action. Software for tracking remote employees provides business owners with detailed insight into the way their workers spend time while working at home, including their online activities.
Use Internet Activities Tracking Employee to Measure Productivity
Once an array of businesses have adopted the remote work or work-from-home model, they’ve all started using various web-based apps to keep their business going.
When you start monitoring employees’ internet activities, all these meeting and project management platforms and apps you use to communicate with each other will be labeled as productive. Contrary to this, social media networks will fall into an “unproductive” category.
Tracking the time spent on the Internet will get you real-time insight into the amount of time employees have spent on productive or unproductive sites and how they’ve used them. In this way, you’ll be able to see what apps help them be more productive and the ones that interfere with their work on a daily basis.
You can use data collected for an accurate and transparent performance evaluation and recognize hard work and improvement. Even though you can punish employees for wasting their time on unproductive sites, this may not be such a good idea. Instead, you can point out the negative effects the time spent on social media has on someone’s productivity, suggesting they visit their Facebook or Instagram feeds during breaks.
Internet Usage Monitoring Will Keep Your Data Safe
By moving most of your business operations online, you exposed all of your vulnerable information on a shared cloud to potential insider cyber threats. The good news is that PC monitoring software will act as a guardian of this data by tracking harmful activities to their source. In this way, you’ll be able to control the damage done and prevent future harmful behavior.
Make a Clear and Transparent Internet Usage Policy
You need to inform employees about monitoring their online activities beforehand, pointing out what kind of Internet browsing will be acceptable for the company. Therefore, you should devise a detailed and clear Internet Usage Policy, containing all the information and guidelines on acceptable online activities on the company’s computers.
Make sure this policy includes detailed instructions on how to handle confidential data. Here, you should also explain how you intend to use productivity tracking software the time employees spend online. Name all the apps and sites that will be monitored, dividing them into productive and unproductive. Also, make sure employees understand how this data will affect their performance evaluation.
By investing some time and effort in creating a transparent Internet Usage Policy, you may shed significant concerns your employees may have when it comes to monitoring.
Limit Monitoring to Work-Related Websites and Apps
When monitoring your remote workers, it is always a good idea to check the specific country’s legal framework to see if and how monitoring is regulated. This said, many countries still don’t have effective monitoring laws and they need to catch up with the changed circumstances. So you should lean on your common sense when deciding what to monitor.
In other words, put yourself in your employees’ shoes. Think about how you would feel if someone monitored your online activities in an intrusive and inappropriate way, and you’ll get the answer on what Internet usage you should monitor.
Shortly put, you should avoid monitoring sites that may contain employees’ personal data, limiting specific Internet monitoring features only to work-related sites. For example, you should use data collected to evaluate the time spent on productive sites, comparing it to the time spent on social media. But, if you use the screenshot option on their social media pages, you’ll cross the line and act unethically.
Employee monitoring software is a reliable ally that can help you keep your employees productive and your vulnerable data safe. But you need to use it responsibly and transparently to make the best of it.
