How to Monitor All Employee Computers in Office
As businesses expand, it becomes difficult for employers to monitor each employee’s workplace activities manually. Such situations create the need for a tool that can allow employers to monitor all employees’ computers.
This can be in the form of an employee monitoring software. This software keeps an eye on the activities the employees perform on their computers, including different websites visited, downloaded and/or uploaded files, and any portable devices inserted into the computers.
In this article, we will explore how to monitor the employees’ computers and the benefits they can bring.
How to Monitor All Employee Computers in Office
Most businesses today use employee monitoring software like Wolfeye to track their employees’ computers in the office. With employee monitoring software, employers can see exactly how much time their workers are devoted to work-related activities, what programs their staff members are using, and more.
Most employee monitoring software in the market has the following features that facilitate employee tracking:
Web Activity Monitoring
Web activity monitoring keeps track of the websites that employees view. In most cases, it will include the date as well as the time that the webpage was accessed. In many cases, you can create categories of websites that are restricted or could potentially cause problems.
The most effective employee monitoring software will detect such incidents and provide an alert to the system administrator.
App Tracking
Software application monitoring is similar to website monitoring. If a worker is playing games or using non-work related software on company time, an administrator can observe when and for how long this occurred. Some programs can even take screenshots or make recordings of this kind of action.
Chat Monitoring
This type of monitoring typically monitors live chat interactions across many platforms, such as messengers and social media. Chats that are dated and time-stamped reveal not only the location of the chat but also the participants and the topics that were discussed.
Email Monitoring
Monitoring emails is a lot like monitoring live chat, but it works on all big email platforms. Attachments, if any, are normally re-created and made available for administrators to view.
Device Monitoring
Flash drives and other removable storage devices pose a significant security threat to confidential business information.
Many monitoring tools for the workplace reveal which data were downloaded and/or uploaded and whether or not portable devices were attached to company assets.
Keylogging
Keylogging keeps a record of every key pressed by the user in any application during the session. The software displays time- and date-stamped logs that include information about the program used and the file or website where the keystrokes happened.
Screenshots
Screenshots are a feature that is included in many different employee monitoring software systems. Screenshots are taken at regular intervals and allow administrators to view employee activities at any given point in time. In some instances, managers can even check brief video clips of what a user was doing at any given time.
Webcam Monitoring
Some software for monitoring the workplace can access a user’s webcam remotely. By activating their cameras, administrators can check if an employee is at their desk.
How to Maintain Employee Privacy While Using Employee Monitoring Software
Employers must be mindful of employees’ privacy concerns when introducing employee monitoring software. In principle, businesses have the right to monitor employee activities on company-owned computers, but they are required to strike a balance between that right and data collection and privacy laws.
Privacy
Employees should be informed of what information their employers want to collect about them in the workplace to establish reasonable privacy expectations. The implementation of an electronic monitoring policy can help educate workers about the company’s usage of employee monitoring software.
Transparency
In order to maintain trust and confidence, make sure your staff knows what information is being gathered, why it’s being collected, and how it will be utilized.
Limited Invasion
An employee monitoring approach that prioritizes privacy just keeps track of the bare minimum to achieve the goal it has set for itself.
For instance, if the purpose is to track employee attendance, the employer need not track the worker’s social media activity. Capturing camera feeds and tracking individual keystrokes would be significantly more invasive than necessary.
Benefits of Using Monitoring Software in Office
Monitoring the computer at the workplace can be beneficial for both employers and employees. Some expected benefits that can be earned by using computer monitoring software have been discussed below.
Monitoring Boosts Productivity
Monitoring software can boost the productivity of the employees. Employers or managers, with the help of computer monitoring software, can keep track of where the employees spend their work hours.
Monitoring software makes sure that the employee doesn’t waste their time and completes the assigned task within the provided time frame. Besides this, if employees know that they are being monitored, they become more disciplined and dedicate their energies to the task during working hours.
Monitoring Helps in Planning the Resources
Monitoring software also keeps track of the time spent on the projects and takes into account resources allocated for the particular project. The data from the monitoring software can help you give your resources differently. For example, you can check how much workforce you need for a particular project by looking at the data provided by the software.
Monitoring Increases Employee Engagement
Monitoring software is helpful when it comes to employee engagement with the work. Engaged employees are often more innovative and productive and prove to be beneficial in driving team success. Monitoring can help you find out the factors that are involved in employee disengagement, such as the use of social media in office computers, etc.
Monitoring Secures Company’s Data
Monitoring software supervises the activities on the computer, and it tracks what websites are accessed and what files are downloaded and uploaded. In this way, it keeps an eye on the activities and protects the company’s data. This is especially important if your company is dealing with sensitive data.
Moreover, having monitoring software on the computer also prevents employees from visiting malicious websites. In this way, your data on the computer will not be at risk.
Conclusion
So if you are looking for an easy way to monitor all the employees’ computers in the office, you can do so by using an effective computer monitoring software. This software has many other features that can help you make managerial decisions.