This Is How Employee Tracking Software Works

Employee tracking software, also referred to as employee monitoring software, is a computer program designed to monitor and track employee activities during their time at work. In essence, employee tracking software provides employers with greater insight into the productivity of their workforce.

Employee tracking software helps give employers helpful insight into how many work hours employees spend doing actual work. These applications’ popularity has been driven in part by the growth of social media and the proliferation of computers.

Accordingly, there is a tendency for employees to get distracted from visiting non-work websites or spending their work time on social media. With employee software, employers can determine the amount of time employees spend on non-work activities on their computers.

How Employee Tracking Software Works

Employee tracking software works by monitoring and tracking several aspects of work. These include:

• Time spent on a project
• Employee attendance
• Malicious messages
• Time spent on applications or non-work websites, and
• Data transfer

To use this software, the administrator installs the software on target computers. The administrator can install this software on multiple computers via the central console connected to the workstations or network. Generally, an administrator has access to the tracking software and can access the software via a web browser or web portal.

It is important to note that employee tracking software will only monitor the behaviors and activities you set it to track, including those mentioned above.

An employee tracking software can be configured to match the needs of any business. For instance, you can set the software to send periodic reports to specific individuals within the company. You can also configure the software to send alerts once particular keywords have been detected from the target computers.

To better understand how this software works, let us discuss some of the valuable functions that employee tracking software performs below.

Features and Functions of Employee Tracking Software

Time Tracking

One of the core features of employee tracking software is time tracking. It’s estimated that workers spend about half an hour each day doing activities completely unrelated to their jobs. According to an article on EnterpriseAppsToday, at least 31% of employees misuse at least one hour of their workday.

The source above also highlights that some employees can waste upwards of 2 hours for each eight-hour workday. This is an alarming statistic, especially for employers. Employee tracking software allows the employer to identify where this time is wasted and to minimize time wastage.

Attendance Monitoring

Employee tracking software helps promote a company’s employee monitoring efforts. The software allows employers to implement certain features, such as time stamps and attendance logs, to determine attendance.

This program also allows an employer to track the remote working days, days off, and holidays.

Screen Monitoring

Most employee tracking software support remote screen monitoring. This essentially allows the employer or administrator to view what the employees do while on their desktops.

Remote screen monitoring can take several forms, from regular screenshots of the computer screen to screen sharing or video desktop recordings. Some tracking software allows the administrator or employer to view an employee’s desktop computer in real time to determine what they are doing.

Keystroke Monitoring

Keystroke monitoring, also known as keystroke logging, monitors the employees’ strokes. Using this feature, the employer can track employee productivity by recording conversations sent from a given computer.

This feature also comes in handy to determine whether the employee logs in to non-work websites and applications. It can also capture emails, instant messages, and programs from the employees’ keyboard activity.

Remote Desktop Control

Employee tracking software also supports remote desktop access. This is especially important for IT professionals who can better fix specific issues by remotely gaining access to the desktop.

Security Tracking

Employee tracking software also has a security aspect to them, especially as it relates to data protection. For instance, an employer can use employee tracking software to monitor abnormal behavior from a given computer or to alert managers when certain files have been altered.

By using keystroke logging, the administrator may also be able to determine when a user is sending sensitive data, accessing malicious sites, or typing in a dangerous command code.

How To Determine if You Need an Employee Tracking Software

Employee tracking software has a significant impact on employee productivity. Not only do they have the potential to minimize time wastage, but this software can also result in massive cost savings, especially when handling and tracking large projects.

Employee tracking software is also useful for creating insightful performance reports and rewarding productive employees while singling out lazy ones. This software also positively enhances cyber security while at the same time alerting the administrators of negative behavior.

Whether employee tracking software is ideal for your situation depends on how valuable these features are. I recommend implementing this software if you are looking to:

• Boost performance
• Enhance cyber security
• Monitor negative behavior, and
• Enhance project management