Top Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Monitoring Software

Employee monitoring is not such a new normal, where employers are practising this traditional method for decades to analyze employee productivity and their performance. Though it is an old practice, the methods have been changed drastically from the traditional way of monitoring employees to the conventional method of monitoring with the help of automated employee monitoring tools.

Many employers are still searching for the related topics like the best way to monitor with the advanced features of automated employee monitoring tools, whether it is ethical to monitor employees, what are best and affordable tools, etc. It is quite obvious that before implementing this practice at your workplace, you would search for top frequently asked questions about employee monitoring software so that it provides a better insight into this advanced practice and helps you to arrive at a final decision as per your requirements.

Whatever your suggestions or requirements are, the fact is that many employee monitoring tools are emerging every year, advanced features are added, and these tools are finding their places at almost all workplaces. If you had never encountered such a tool, definitely many questions would arise in your mind.

Here in this article, we will help you to know the top frequently asked questions about employee monitoring software.

Now we will briefly look into Questions and answers

#1. What Is Employee Monitoring?

We can say that it is a method or way of observing employee activities and track worker engagement with their daily assigned tasks. There are different ways of monitoring and depending upon the way of monitoring it can be used to protect company assets, track employee productivity, monitor daily attendance, ensure security, record proof of productive hours, ensure business standards and policies are met, and so on, etc. 

Some of the ways of employee monitoring are as follows:

• Email Monitoring
• Attendance Monitoring
• CCTV
• Network Monitoring
• Keycards
• Employee Monitoring Software

#2. What Are Employee Monitoring Tools?

The hardware and software tools that are used to monitor employees are called employee monitoring tools. For example, CCTV monitoring will have a camera and the required software to check on those ongoing or recorded videos. In Keycards, there will be inbuilt-software to alter employee access levels and keycard locks where the employee access will be restricted to open doors with their swipe cards. For email, attendance, call, email monitoring, you can install an employee monitoring software on their device to capture their activities.

#3. Is It Ethical To Monitor Employees?

It is ethical the way you do employee monitoring at your workplace. If you are monitoring your employees without any prior notice or without their knowledge and trying to access their private information via a system tracker, then you are not monitoring ethically.

You can call it ethical, but it mainly depends on you and your company’s value or standard policies. To make it an ethical process, you need to promote transparency in your business. Inform your employees that you intend to track their system activities, define what will be monitored, when and how it will be monitored, or stored their private data, etc. You can also include a written policy regarding employee monitoring and share the same with all your employees.

To ensure ethical monitoring is always better to restrict access to the collected data. As an employer, you will have complete admin access and your managers should only be able to access their team data and all the employees should be enabled to track their activities.

#4. Is It Legal To Monitor Employees?

This depends on the country you reside in. but, in most countries, employee monitoring is considered legal. However, you need to meet certain requirements to use system trackers for employee monitoring.

In some countries, it is mandatory to notify the employees regarding monitoring whereas in some countries it is not required. It is always better to consult with a legal team before taking any action with respect to employee monitoring software or remote monitoring software.

#5. How Employee Monitoring Software Works??

Employee monitoring software is of two modules: User module and Admin module. The user module is a software piece that you can install on an employee’s system, whereas the admin module where you can analyze all the employee activities.

The web-based admin module can be accessed from anywhere and the user module of the software can either be used under stealth mode (employees will not be able to see the software and it will automatically track the activities on the system) or it can be visible to the employees. Depending on the features of the software, it can track productive time spent at work or on different apps with app usage reports, capture auto screenshots, record the break time intervals, idle time intervals, etc. Most of the system trackers focus on data security too.

Read the blog on How does Employee Time Tracking Software Work

#6. How To Notify Regarding Employee Monitoring?

This is one of the difficult parts of implementing employee monitoring- announcing the new practice to your employees. You don’t know how all the employees will react to the introduction of such a practice at the workplace and don’t know how many will support or reject this idea.

It is better to notify your employees personally rather than using mail communication. Conduct a conference or a wide meeting and announce that you have the plan to implement an employee monitoring tool and also inform that during the initial phase, the employees will be asked to check all the functionalities till you find the right and perfect employee monitoring tool.

Explain the benefits of implementing this tool, issues that can be solved using this tool, and make them feel comfortable rather they misunderstand you with micromanaging concepts. Also set aside some time for interaction so that you can clarify all their doubts regarding this tool and its working procedure.

#7. How Employees May Trick This Software?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions regarding employee monitoring software. Since employers don’t spend enough time to inform the benefits of employee monitoring, employees would misunderstand it as micromanaging and eventually get frustrated with such monitoring.

Therefore, as an employer, you should know how employers may trick the monitoring software and get to know what actions to be taken to prevent such mischievous behaviour.

It sounds ridiculous but it is happening all over to trick monitoring software with different ways to record employee productivity. Employees may keep moving their cursor to avoid capturing idle time intervals. They can attach an operating toy to the mouse to keep it always moving. However, you can have the features to capture the screen at random intervals, where you can see whether the employee switched over the windows or websites and also the percentage time spent on that particular window to analyze whether the employees spent their productive time on work.

You should keep monitoring with auto-screenshots to identify any suspicious activities and resolve them before they go out of track.

#8. Which Is The Right Employee Monitoring Software?

Now, it depends on what you need in monitoring software, whether it meets your requirements with advanced features or whether it is affordable. Everyone will try to depict their monitoring software as the best in the industry. We made detailed research to know about the top 10 employee monitoring software. Here you can check out to see which software meets all your requirements.

#9. What Are The Benefits Of Employee Monitoring Or Why Is It Important?

Employee monitoring is important because of the following benefits:

• It improves data security
• Enhances overall business productivity
• Improves employee performance
• Helps to identify malicious behaviours like malware, harassment, etc.
• It will make use of the project deliverables, resources in a well-organized way.

As already discussed, different tools focus on employee productivity or data security. They all can be integrated with project management or some time tracking software to scale employee productivity.

#10. What Do You Mean By Remote Employee Monitoring?

It is similar to employee monitoring but it is used for the remote teams. Most of the employee monitoring software that you use for your employees at your workplace can be used for your remote teams too. However, here you cannot use the stealth mode, also you should use it after considering the laws of their country where the remote team reside and ensure it is followed legally. Read on more about Remote Work Management and Monitoring Software

Read the blog on Remote Work Management Software

#11. Is employee monitoring software useful for freelancers?

Employee monitoring software is highly useful for freelancers. Freelancers tend to work on multiple projects in different stages of development at the same time. It can be hard to keep track of multiple projects simultaneously. Employee monitoring software can help with that. It also lets freelancers keep track of how much time is being spent on each project. This will help freelancers who charge by the hour. Remainders and deadlines can also be set on employee monitoring software. These features will prove it worthy for freelancers to make use of employee monitoring software.

#12. Will I get backlash from my employees about deploying employee monitoring software?

You might. Employee monitoring software demands a behavior change and it will display immediately when employees are slacking. Some of your employees may not welcome it. Commonly, the hardest working and productive employees will accept it because they can understand the benefits of such a system. Team members who productively work from home, or like to practice flexible hours will also embrace the implementation of employee monitoring software.

#13. Are there privacy concerns regarding employee monitoring software? software?

Employee monitoring software does not monitor anything on your computer when you are logged out or when not working. So even employees working from home can be at ease understanding that they are not being watched during their private time.

#14. Is employee monitoring software safe? software?

Employee monitoring software is safe. Most employee monitoring software, like Desklog, store all your data on their secure cloud, where it’s secure from third parties or malware attacks. The protection of information is considered seriously in this industry. Employee monitoring software won’t change the files and settings or even slow down your computers.

#15. How much does employee monitoring software cost? software?

The price of employee monitoring software changes according to different software. But there are some common ways in case of payment for employee monitoring software. The majority of employee monitoring software charge monthly per employee. So, the strength of your team will decide the overall cost. This amount can be anywhere between $4 to $20 every month for each employee. The price is usually based on the company and the range of features you choose. Most employee monitoring software has multiple pricing options depending on the functionalities you require.

Know the Advantages of using Employee Productivity Software

Conclusion

Finally, here are the top 10 frequently asked questions about employee monitoring. Hope you understood some important concepts before implementing this practice. Moreover, you may have some questions as well, feel free to go through our FAQ section to know more about employee monitoring software.