The Benefits and Pitfalls of Deploying Employee Monitoring Software
Many companies are looking towards using employee monitoring software throughout their business so they can keep an eye on their employees and track their activities better. However, implementing such a system can be a lot more complex than it might seem at first. Deploying monitoring software throughout your company will come with numerous benefits, but there are also a few pitfalls that should be avoided.
Benefit: Increased Productivity
One of the biggest benefits of introducing monitoring software into your company is the ability to use it to increase staff productivity.
Distractions are one of the biggest productivity drains within any organization. Employees tend to waste time browsing the internet or otherwise slack off instead of working.
With monitoring tools, it’s possible to reduce distractions throughout the entire organization. You’ll be able to monitor what your workers are doing and where they spend most of their time. With this data, it’s possible to pinpoint where the biggest distractions are and work towards removing these distractions from the workplace.
Another way monitoring your employees can help increase productivity is through better prioritization.
Because you’re able to see what tasks each user is working on, it’s possible to help direct them towards things that are more important. This kind of prioritization will show benefits immediately as employees start getting their more important tasks done quicker.
Pitfall: Not Reassuring Employees
One area you have to be careful about when deciding to deploy employee monitoring software is in employee morale. Privacy concerns are incredibly high these days and people are often afraid of losing theirs. The simple act of deploying computer monitoring software could cause employees to grow worried over being watched.
If employees start to feel this way, then it could lead to a massive drop in morale and trust for the company which, in turn, will lead to lower productivity and possibly even result in employees leaving the company.
Therefore, it’s very important to reassure employees before implementing a monitoring system. You need to make them feel good about this new system so they worry less.
One of the best ways of reassuring employees is to show them how monitoring their work can benefit them. Show them the personal value in a monitoring system such as explaining how it can help them become more productive and improve themselves.
Benefit: Better Feedback
Because you’ll be able to track your employees’ progress on tasks and how well they are getting their work done, you can give them more accurate feedback. This feedback will help them to improve as employees and, in turn, will lead to more efficient work.
On top of this, receiving better feedback will make the employees feel like the company is more invested in them and this will lead to them being happier with their work.
Pitfall: Not Tracking the Right Things
Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that, in order to get the most out of your monitoring system, you need to be tracking all the right things. With so much that you can track, it’s easy to miss something and end up losing valuable data that you could otherwise use.
Some companies will just track work computer use and leave it at that. But there’s much more worth tracking, such as their internet usage. By tracking what they’re doing on the internet will give you a lot of insight into what timewasters they may be getting distracted by and how often.
It’s also important to make sure you’re monitoring any and all software that your staff uses. This includes messaging and email apps, logging their communication in the process.
Benefit: Increased Security
A big reason for an organization to deploy computer monitoring software is to help beef up their security and protect their assets. In specific, having a monitoring system in place will help stop insider threats.
Insider threats can be incredibly devastating to a company, especially if they manage to steal valuable information.
Having a monitoring system in place can go a long way to stopping these kinds of threats. Since you’ll be monitoring everything your employees are doing, you’ll be able to tell when they access something they’re not supposed to as well as have a better idea of who might be an insider threat before they’re able to do anything that would damage the company.
And when it comes to insider threats, early detection is everything.
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By SoftActivity Team