Best Employee Monitoring Software

What is Employee Monitoring Software?

Employee monitoring software is a cloud-based solution that allows company administrators to remotely monitor and supervise their employees’ laptops and promote easy centralized log reviews via a unified network PC.

An employee monitoring software is a computer program used by employers to track the activity on the computers assigned to their employees. Employee activity surveillance used to be limited to CCTV cameras in any office. However, advances in technology have now incorporated more accurate tools for recording employee activities. There are several bases of differentiating between various employee monitoring software. There is software targeting performance and productivity, some go after surveillance, while some project management.

The main concern of having such software is to monitor the productivity of employees. Companies often experience loss of business due to the low productivity of their employees. Moreover, when employees surf a website for personal use, they generally mean no harm, but it is often that employees spend too much time on non-work-related sites. According to a survey in the US, 64% of employees admitted that they surf non-work-related websites daily. Of all respondents, 21% spent five hours, and 3% spent ten hours on such surfing, so the companies experience 40% of productivity loss per year.

Such factors indicate that your company needs an employee monitoring system. Moreover, when your company consists of off-premise executives, it is desirable to see whether they are working on their projects for suitable time-span. Here is the need for remote employee monitoring software. Besides, the inclusion of analytics brings in more ways to analyze your employee activities.

How does Employee Monitoring Software Work?

There are different ways of keeping track of your employee activities. Some of them are listed here:

1. Through Software

It includes records of what goes on screen viz; screenshots, site-blocking, and filtering, etc.

2. Phone Tapping

Another effective way of ensuring track of productivity is by tapping the phone calls of your executives.

3. Email Access 

This states that employers have access to employee’s emails to see the number of personal errands ran through office hours.

4. Surveillance

Use of cameras to record what goes on over particular regions of your office premises.

5. Location Monitoring

A useful way of monitoring when employees are constantly changing position.

6. Keystroke Recording

Keeping a log of the keys struck on the keyboard.

How to Choose the Best Employee Monitoring Solution?

In order to choose a high-quality employee tracking software tool, first of all, you need to have a clear goal. If you just need to keep track of the productive (and unproductive) time of your remote employees for payroll purposes, it will be enough to install simple time trackers without additional features. However, if you want to track all of your team’s activities, keep constant screen recordings, monitor all apps and websites used by your team, and prevent data leakage, you should choose an all-in-one solution, which is totally worth your investments.

Make sure you read all the terms and conditions carefully – some monitoring tools offer a license only after entering a contract with the manager to protect yourself from prohibited use of the tool. For example, this can be installing an agent on the PC without notifying the user. 

Don’t forget about ratings on review sites to understand if the chosen tool is worth installing. That’s where you can find detailed information on pros and cons, and read about the company’s overall experience. 

We hope this review will help you find the best solution to maintain reliable control over your remote employees and boost your organization’s productivity. If you have any experience in using such tools (or similar options),  please, feel free to share it below in the comments.

By the way, if you’re only planning to launch a business entity, say, form an LLC, before you hire employees and get to monitoring tools, you might want to check this list of the 7 best services to help you with LLC formation. This is where you can learn about companies like ZenBusiness, IncFile, Northwest Registered Agent, and other reliable online formation services to help you do everything right from the start, saving your precious time (and even money, in the long run). 

If you don’t want to handle all the paperwork by yourself, if you doubt that you have enough knowledge to cover the legal issues related to your new business, you might want to check the article to save yourself from all future risks.

What are the Types of Employee Monitoring Software?

• Project Supervision and Management Tool

Such a type of employee monitoring system is helpful when the company needs to distribute and monitor various tasks and projects to their employees. There are different features for analyzing metrics like time consumed for completing a task.

• Productivity Regulation Tool

Such software targets the regulation and increase in productivity of the company. The key feature of this type of software is smart analytics. Different facilities for analyzing how much time do the employees waste and who are lagging in their assigned tasks. It helps the organization to identify the sources of decreased productivity and figure out ways to rectify the issue.

• Surveillance Tool

The type of software here is helpful when a company is facing severe data breaches. The software of this kind mainly targets the information flow in the organization. It gives the administrator the authority to restrict file access, monitor emails, etc.

• Remote Employee Monitoring Tool

Such type of software is useful when you have a large number of executives working remotely. Here, the concentration is on features like Live screen recording, screenshots, etc.  

What are the Features of Employee Monitoring Software?

There are a lot of features that a perfect employee monitoring software should incorporate as it includes numerous tasks. Some of these features are as below.

Basic Features

1. Timesheet

This feature is at the heart of any employee monitoring system. It automates the log-in & out activities of the employees.

2. Productivity Evaluation

Whenever the productivity of an employee goes up or down suddenly, the analytics tools help in making corresponding arrangements for the concerned individuals.

3. Location Monitoring

The feature is vital for a remote employee monitoring software. It is useful when deliveries and pick-ups of a company are concerned. Incorporation of GPS in the software is an excellent addition.

4. Task Management

Task management feature allows the employer to see up to what stage the employee task is complete.

5. Alerts

This feature ensures that any breach in the sensitive area of your business doesn’t go unnoticed.

6. Stealth mode

If the law allows, Stealth mode is helpful if the company encounters any data breach, and needs to find the source of the offense. Announcing the deployment of such software will facilitate the culprit to circumvent the software functionality.

Advanced Features

1. Screenshot Monitoring

The feature captures the screenshot of remotely working employee at a fixed interval of time. Display of the screenshots as thumbnails on employer screen ensures proper workflow.

2. Keystroke Recording

Such a feature allows the recording of data entered on a keyboard by the employee. The data is retrievable for future reference.

3. Email Monitoring

The feature gives the employer easy access to employees office inbox, opening the possibility to review any personal activity on the expense of work hours.

4. Real-Time Monitoring

With real-time monitoring, the administrator can log-in and watch the on-going session of the remotely working employee.

5. Social Media Monitoring

The feature allows recording the social media traffic on the employee screen in terms of session-time. It enables the employer to know how much time does the employee spends on social media instead of working.

What are the Benefits of Using an Employee Monitoring Software?

Below given is a list of the benefits of using an employee monitoring software.

• Minimized Management

Here the point is that, when individuals know they are monitored, they waste minimum time. Hence, reducing the work of their managers. Besides this, now managers don’t need to ask the executive what tasks they are working on personally. It is done quickly with the software.

• More Accuracy in Billing

Manually filling timesheets is a loathsome work and there remains a question on the authenticity of such methods. With the time monitoring feature of the software, it becomes easy to calculate and execute payroll and overtime for your employees automatically, resolving the question of authenticity.

• Manpower Assessment and Work Distribution

It often happens that some of the employees have more work on-hand than others, not because others avoid work, but the unequal distribution of work. It is because we are unable to say how much time does a team or individual takes to finish a task. So, the allotment of work is on hardly accurate guesstimates. Here, the Employee monitoring tools help managers to accurately distribute the workload based on the reports provided by the software.

• Informed Decisions and Fewer Errors

When employers can view the live feed of the employee computer screen, they can spot the probable errors quickly and correct them. Moreover, the data form the software gives employers, a better insight into their employees’ distinct capabilities. It helps the managers to decide the type of work to be assigned to certain employees.

What are the Common Issues of Using Employee Monitoring Tools?

• The Legality of the Software

The risks of mishandling the data related to an employee are dangerous as the policies like GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) and the CCPA(California Consumer Privacy Act) came into effect. It is advisable to consult an attorney to construct an employee monitoring policy for your company safely.

• Disguised Virus Threats

Nowadays, many software that in disguise of exchanging employee monitoring tools collect sensitive information. The information can be regarding the company or individual, which is then further sold to interested buyers.

• Unexpected Effects on Morale

Employees may not readily agree to the idea of something or someone always monitoring behind their shoulders.

How to Track Employee Productivity with Employee Monitoring Tools?

The productivity of an organization is equal to the productivity of its employees. They are the key elements to build a successful business at an unbelievable speed. And that’s why employee productivity should be a part of every organization’s business strategy. Any hindrance to their productivity will leave a sore effect on your business.

So no matter which industry you operate in, you must consider ways to boost employees’ productivity. If not, it will only lead to the wastage of human and capital resources from your end.

As per a report by Voucher Cloud, the average employee productivity rate throughout the day is just 2 hours and 53 minutes, which implies that on a shift of 8 hours. The study also depicts an employee losing a valuable time of 4 hours due to unnecessary intrusions and delays.

All these are the main reasons that result in the overall performance gap of an employee.

So how to measure and track employee productivity in the organization to fill these performance gaps?

Best Measures to Track Employee Productivity in an Organization

Below are a few proven solutions that organizations come across with the help of technology and business intelligence to track employees’ productivity.

1. Set A Baseline With Clear Expectations

An employee must follow a set baseline with clear expectations that ensure what they can or cannot do. They must know that they are supposed to meet certain specific standards for their tasks.

By mentioning clear expectations, you can set a borderline for all your employees that they must follow. Also, with set deadlines, there will be less time for procrastination among your employees, and they will be able to deliver their work timely. Your employee must understand that they need to adhere to the given job responsibilities.

2. Set Clear Goals And Objectives

Defined goals and objectives help employees boost their productivity and reach their set targets quickly. With a target in mind, they can channelize all their energy into achieving them. They will lead to no distractions or disturbances, or any sort of confusion.

A clear goal will encourage them to:

• Know their role
• Expectations related to the goal
• Timely delivery of tasks

Informing your employees beforehand about a task gives them a clear outline that won’t waste their time and encourage them to start immediately to finish it up in due time. Keep examining the employee performance towards their goals and how much they contribute towards it regularly.

This can be done by:

• Weekly or biweekly feedback or one on one discussion sessions
• Quarterly reviews
• Defined performance metrics

3. Follow Process

Productive companies have an entire process layout for recurring tasks and projects that an employee must execute. The loss or absence of these processes has a massive impact on the employee’s productivity and increases the performance gaps.

How to define processes?

• Observe your team’s current work and enlist their tasks and ask a lot of questions
• Make a flowchart and draw processes
• Highlight the problem areas
• Now work backward by starting with a goal and making the desired solution as a process.

4. Measure Tasks and Not Hours

An employee is supposed to work 8 to 9 hours a day, but that should not measure their productivity. Instead of following an industrial-age mindset, one should calculate and track employee activity as per their work efficiency and completion of tasks. Even a study shed light that managers must not fall for passive ‘face time.’

Instead:

• Evaluate what a threshold of an employee and minimum work s/he can do in a day.
• Accordingly, set it as a standard time for every task.
• Offer motivation, support, tool, and environment to maximize the productivity
• Later, when an employee completes a job, observe the productivity rate and modify the current set criteria to track their productivity.

5. Daily Updates From Project Manager

Create a feedback culture in your organization, make sure that you get daily updates on the working environment of your employees and about their productivity reports. It might be difficult for you to handle everything yourself, so interact with your project manager.

Why?

• Increases transparency
• Boosts performance
• Elevates engagement
• Helps in resolving problems
• Mitigates any risk due to miss (or no) communication

6. 360-Degree Feedbacks

360-degree feedback model ensures that you must receive feedback about an employee from everyone in the organization and customers. This tracking model is instrumental but not applicable to all business models, so make sure you are fit for it before adopting it.

How to give feedback?

• Avoid offering unrequested advice.
• Don’t be vague as it will further increase confusions
• Be empathetic and maintain secrecy
• Don’t wait for an annual performance review for offering feedback
• Offer room for two-way discussions

7. Measuring a Healthy Work Environment

Some individuals associate the work environment with lighting, ventilation, pantry, and other infrastructural facilities, but it also includes the work atmosphere in an organization.

A healthy working atmosphere will promote transparency, cooperation, teamwork, and productivity among its employees. On the other hand, an unhealthy work environment will cause depression and dread among its employees.

As an employer, you must take care that your organization must follow etiquette and provide a positive work environment to ensure productivity among your employees.

8. Use Time Tracking Software

Monitor the amount of time your employees spent on your job with time tracking software. This tool will help you measure the perfect time an employee takes to accomplish a task. Every time your employee is given a task, ask them to monitor it with time tracking software. Make sure your employees keep a record, and you can examine it to measure their productivity.

9. Keep A Check On Employees Digital Activities

Monitor the time spent by your employees by keeping a check on their digital activities. Most of the employees today spend a lot of time every day on their phones while working in an organization. These hours are enough to hamper their daily productivity and increase their performance gap.

As an employer or an HR professional, you can block the URLs of social media sites and other websites on your organizations’ system and WiFi. By doing this, you can limit the use of phones by your employee and can increase their productivity.

10. Utilize Project Management Software

Project management software is a great tool to optimize the daily handling of your business. The software helps you keep a daily tap of your employee’s work and check their efficiency throughout the day. The software also allows employees to complete their work on a set routine with total efficiency. With project management software, you don’t need to use the extra time to calculate your employee’s productivity; they will automate it for you.

10 Best Employee Monitoring Software

Each of the solutions presented below is suitable for a certain task type. Read on to find the ones that will fit your business structure.

1. ActivTrak 

ActivTrak is a cloud-based service for monitoring employees. It allows you to analyze the daily activity and behaviour of the staff at their computers. The tool is constantly updated and develops rapidly, offering an intuitive interface and solid monitoring capabilities. According to various sources, $20 million has been allocated for its development in 2020.

To install ActivTrak, you should simply create an account and install agents on the computers you intend to monitor. The server part of the program is automatically installed on the cloud.

Pros

• Monitoring employee activity (screenshot recording, video export, etc.)
• Automatic alarm notifications
• Flexible customization. Set notifications by screenshot types
• Privacy features
• Monitor employees’ corporate emails
• Plenty of reports on working hours
• Fully cloud-based version
• Two-factor authentication
• Integration with Active Directory
• Apps for iOS and Android
• Block unwanted websites and apps

ActivTrak is available at an affordable price and somewhat reminiscent of Google Analytics in terms of its dashboard. The tool is suitable for any type of medium to large business, but most of all – to FinTech companies.

2. InterGuard 

InterGuard Employee Monitoring software allows you to track and record all of your employee’s computer and phone activities. It was originally designed to allow businesses to track their employees’ activities, prevent data theft, and develop emergency response technology.

The app stores all data related to employee activity in the main interface, even when there’s no network connection. The stored data includes all employee activities, which are carefully analyzed to create logs, replay, alerts, audit trails. and behavioural standardization. The employer can view all messages, social media, emails, files, programs, browser history, printed materials, and even geo-location (helpful for tracking planned routes for deliveries).

InterGuard logs all system enterprises to produce readable data that can be used for alerts, reports, and searches. It also controls data access by blocking any unauthorized requests and monitors those apps and users that are associated with sensitive data. This also includes data channels, routed to them, and final locations of the recipients. Apart from that, the tool also learns about any DLP policy violations that may occur and block them.

Pros

• Performance monitoring. InterGuard provides quantitative measures of time spent on websites and apps that you consider productive/unproductive. 
• Employee investigations. InterGuard logs all employee computer activity, providing evidence in case you need to act fast in terms of internal, criminal, or civil investigations. 
• An invisible InterGuard agent can be deployed silently and remotely so the purpose of the investigation is not disclosed. 
• Insider Threat Detection. Ensure that your employees are not abusing your trust with employee monitoring software. Get alerts on suspicious activity and stop data filtering before a malicious or careless employee causes a data breach from within.

3. Veriato 360 

Veriato offers an app with the ability to collect large amounts of data, provide reports, and automatic incident response for screen recording. It’s an easy-to-use tool for large organizations, but there’s no cloud option.

Veriato 360 is the flagship product of the company for centralized monitoring of employee activity, providing a high-level view of how employees are using their work PCs and the Internet. The tool allows you to inspect the work activities of your entire organization with easy-to-use graphical charts.

Veriato 360 includes tools for automated deployment and remote management. It records a variety of activities, including email correspondence, chats, instant messages, websites visited, searches, keystrokes, and apps used. The tool is also a solution for recording screen images in camcorder mode.

Pros

• Full control over data collection
• Screen recording with playback
• Customizable alerts and reports
• Keyword tracking
• Quick reports. Veriato 360 fills the database with information received about activity from each user’s computer and provides more than 75 built-in, easy-to-read, versatile quick reports
• File tracking and email capture. Veriato 360 provides a complete record of all emails received/sent, including attachments
• Simple admin interface
• Automated grouping by behaviour, anomaly detection, incident response;
• Performance tracking
• Synchronization with Active Directory

4. Teramind 

Teramind is a powerful software suite for employee monitoring, internal threat detection, and performance optimization in the workplace. Teramind combines the functions of a time tracking system (EMS) and an information leak prevention system (DLP).

Pros

• Flexible plans. Depending on your needs, you can choose between the Starter, UAM, or DLP plans
• User-friendly dashboard interface 
• Video recording of employee monitors. Ability to view monitors based on user activity
• Mic-recording ability
• User-friendly tools for comprehensive email monitoring
• Behavioural analysis of users and Flexible risk adjustment
• DLP system functions
• User-friendly, informative demo version

The installation process for the cloud is standard. You create an account, download the agent, and install it on your employees’ PCs. After that, the data appears on the dashboard. On-Premise deployment, though, is more time-consuming. 

Teramind is focused on large companies, whose tasks include not only analysis of employee productivity but also protection of corporate information.

5. Time Doctor 

Time Doctor is an employee time-tracking system with advanced features. You can expect invoicing in the mobile app and integration with third-party services such as Asana. Just like Hubstaff, the tool is suitable for companies that have remote employees or working with freelancers.

Time Doctor contains many useful features, from online monitoring of employees to time tracking and project management. The interface looks somewhat outdated, but it’s still a solid platform that definitely deserves attention. 

Time Doctor is designed for a wide user audience, whether remote employees (even one freelancer) or engineers developing software at large companies like Apple and Verizon. 

Pros

• Ease of use and accurate capturing of productive and unproductive time
• Integration with Trello, Slack, Asana, GoogleApps, GitHub, Bitrix24, Zoho CRM, etc
• Works with all popular platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS
• Takes screenshots from users’ webcams

Time Doctor program is often referred to as an analogue of Hubstaff because it too is focused on controlling the work of remote employees. The tool offers a bit of everything, including project management and time tracking.

6. Monitask 

This is a time tracking and time management system aimed primarily at remote workers. Monitask is an easy-to-use time tracking software designed for remote groups of employees that includes automatic schedules and screenshots of employee workstations as proof of work done. Screenshot monitoring is completely transparent to employees, and they control when monitoring starts and when it stops. It’s also suitable for recording the efficiency of office employees. 

Monitask consists of two parts:

1. Client (Desktop App). This application is designed for Windows OS. It allows you to enter the system with your login and password. You can set the current project, task, run a time report or pause it. The application collects screenshots and sends them to the server. Each screenshot is accompanied by a description of the time it was taken. You can see what project and task the screenshot belongs to. All the information transferred can be edited on the Monitask server.
2. Server (Website). This is the place where all information about employees, projects, and screenshots is stored. Information is available in the form of reports and screenshot gallery. User settings are set individually or for a team. Employees can edit their information, and supervisors can edit any information sent to the server.

Manager Capabilities

• Monitoring screenshots to confirm a remote employee’s work
• Online monitoring panel – see who is currently working and what they are working on
• Detailed team reports (time spent on projects, days of the week, activity, software used, etc.)
• Access to the employee’s individual statistics (screenshots, activity, programs used in work)
• Invite new employees (via email)
• Customize settings for each employee individually or for an entire team
• Paid rates – the ability to set individual rates for each user
• Automatic timesheets – precise timesheets, accurate to the minute
• Adding projects and assigning them to employees

Employee Capabilities

• Manual start/pause time tracking
• Ability to specify current tasks and projects
• Set time manually (if allowed by privacy settings)
• Delete unnecessary screenshots and time (if allowed by privacy settings)

7. Workpuls 

WorkPuls is an automatic time tracking program that provides insights into how employees spend their work time at their computers. It’s an ideal solution for monitoring, analyzing productivity, and tracking time spent on various projects. With WorkPuls, managing your remote workforce becomes much easier. The tool is suitable for small businesses, enterprises, and remote teams.

Pros

• Real-time employee performance tracking – see what apps or websites your employees are using at the moment
• Screenshots – automatically takes screenshots as proof of work time and attendance
• In/out and overtime automatic recordings 
• Timekeeping – access all data retroactively so you can analyze everything later 
• Payroll integration with PayPal, Payoneer, and Quickbooks
• Employee Login – allows employees to access their own performance-related data
• Client Login – client access to data for employees or virtual assistants who are working on their tasks/projects

Features

• Screenshots
• Real-time overview
• Data policy
• Tracking computer activity
• Timekeeping functions
• Verified attendance
• Sensitive information security
• User Behavior Analysis (UBA)

8. Ekran System 

Ekran System is an insider threat management platform known for its intelligent incident reporting system and advanced monitoring tools for IT-system managers. The system’s main advantage is its versatility – it combines activity monitoring, access control, and user identification, providing lightweight software agents for all types of endpoints.

You can expect full desktop and server OS support, reliable protection from insider threats, and a low cost of ownership. Manage identities, collect evidence, get useful notifications, investigate incidents, respond to them, and do so much more with the Ekran System. 

9. Kickidler 

This powerful tool is primarily aimed at controlling the productivity of your colleagues in the workplace. Kickidler features an advanced timekeeping system, including control over vacations, sick leave, business trips, lunchtime, and breaks. Kickidler also offers a production calendar to create a work schedule for a team.

Pros

• Total control over the working time of employees
• Analysis of each employee’s efficiency and identification of the most productive workers, presented in graphs and bar charts
• Ability to monitor remotely in real-time
• Detection of irregularities during the work process

Features

• View employee screenshots in real-time
• Timekeeping: total hours worked, in/out time, productive/unproductive time
• Production calendar to maintain the work schedule
• Histogram of workplace violations (activities, such as job searching or visiting entertaining websites, not related to work, will be defined as violations)
• Work efficiency statistics (find out at what time the team’s productivity decreases/increases, and which of the employees works more efficiently)
• Control over apps used

10. NuovoTeam

This tool is designed to specifically address the needs of organizations that employ non-desk workers and field forces. NuovoTeam is an all-in-one productivity application for non-desk workers, frontline workforce and essential workers. It enables the organizations to keep a close try on employee productivity, schedule and assign tasks for each employee while facilitating team communication and collaboration. 

Pros

• Quickly assign tasks to the workforce within the corporate directory
• Keep a track of employee location
• Facilitate team communication, collaboration and file transfer
• Communicate important information by broadcasting messages
• Personalize dashboard for easy navigation

Features

• Centralized corporate directory
• Work schedule and task assigning to the employees
• App-based employee clock in and out
• Real-time location tracking
• Communication over VoIP calls, instant messaging and group chats
• Role-based dashboard access

10. WebWork Time Tracker

WebWork Time Tracker is an all-in-one software that provides you with all the features and functionalities to monitor employees in real-time and track their working hours. It allows you to manage daily workplace operations and analyze team performance to reach higher productivity. Its multiple features automate many processes, thus allowing you to save time and achieve greater output. It is a great match for all types of businesses, freelancers, and remote employees due to its complete customization. 

Pros

• Affordable pricing: $2.99/user/month for all features
• 4 types of time tracking: 

• Desktop
• Web
• Mobile
• Chrome Extension

• Integration with numerous well-known tools to level up your performance
• 4 versions of screenshots to have full transparency of employees’ work activities
• Request additional features on demand to have every aspect of your project covered with WebWork Tracker 
• 24/7 customer support to have instant answers for all your inquiries 

Features

• Time tracking with screenshots
• Automated attendance monitoring 
• Apps & websites usage tracking
• Activity level recording based on keystrokes and mouse clicks
• Real-time reports with powerful insights
• Task management system

Conclusion

Maintaining a regulated standard of productivity is a crucial aspect of any business. Hence, choosing a proper and accurate Employee monitoring system is a determining one. There are various tasks related to employee monitoring and several aspects to be kept in mind while choosing a suitable software for your business. Cost and Customizability are the important ones. There are specific challenges in employing such software, which one should tread carefully