Working from home has now become more common due to the pandemic, but even before that, many businesses had already been using this practice in their working environments because of the positive results it has on employee productivity.
So, if you ever decide to employ a remote or hybrid working regime for your company, keep in mind that to be effective, both employers and employees need to follow specific guidelines and protocols to ensure smooth and productive operations. And one of the things that employers need to do to ensure that their workforce is putting in quality effort while working from home is the practice of fully consented remote employee monitoring.
While monitoring work-from-home employees may be perceived as micromanaging, besides ensuring that the employees are working on their everyday tasks, it’s also a safety measure and security protocol to protect against online predators and cybercrimes.
For instance, if you’re a manager who’s in charge of a remote team, you are probably wondering whether your workforce is using Linkedin for lead generation as you agreed on during that last in-person meeting in your company’s offices. Meanwhile, with the help of monitoring software, you can also ensure that your employees are conducting their company tasks in a manner that puts your company at no harm of leaking company or customer data and protect your legacy software from intruders.
To do that, there are several ways to monitor work-from-home employees, including using some of the latest available monitoring tools and implementing a monitoring process. It’s important to implement at least one monitoring method out of the following to ensure the productivity and quality of the business’s products or services.
Software For Monitoring
Most paid applications that monitor devices also function pretty well as employee monitoring tools. This is because these applications are loaded with cutting-edge and contemporary capabilities that can provide remote and real-time access to any device that is compatible with them. You may remotely observe, access, and monitor all of your employee’s activity, both online and offline, simply by installing a monitoring app such as, for instance, a remote worker time tracker app on the laptop that your company has provided for them to use.
You can do various things when you use a premium monitoring program. Some of these things include tracking the location of a device using GPS, recording phone call records, capturing messages and emails, gaining access to files, filtering available information, and blocking specific applications or websites.
Email Reporting
If the majority of your employees’ work involves sending and receiving emails, then an email analytics program that watches over their computer or all other devices from where they send out emails could be an excellent choice for you. The vast majority of email service providers offer built-in reporting capabilities, particularly for premium or corporate accounts that require paid subscriptions. These types of accounts are typically reserved for businesses.
Depending on the provider that you use and the package that you take advantage of, you may have the option of manually generating such reports or of automatically extracting data with just a few clicks to alter filters. Alternatively, you may have the ability to do both. Email analytics typically give users access to data such as total and/or average work hours, number of emails sent and received, number of currently active interactions, a list of issues that have been resolved via email, and other information.
Project Management Apps
Apps and websites for project management and computer monitoring are mainly built for business owners and operations managers to help them conduct all necessary procedures as effectively as possible and deliver desirable outcomes. These kinds of management applications can take a variety of shapes, but in the vast majority of instances, they take the shape of cloud-based platforms that need users’ login credentials to access, manage, and organize project work.
This might be an excellent tool for keeping track of which jobs have been completed and which ones are still outstanding and ensuring that the effort is equally allocated among the team members. It functions much like a large board with a list of tasks written on it, and it directs both the employer and the employee effectively.
Self-Reporting
Implementing self-reporting might be an effective method of remotely monitoring workers who are working from home if there is a well-established level of trust and confidence inside the business. Self-reporting could also be a fantastic technique to improve workplace morale. If you manage a small team or a large team of professionals that are capable of functioning with minimum supervision, this may be an excellent solution for you.
You may ask them to provide a summary report every time the shift concludes, outlining what has been completed, what still needs to be done, the obstacles that have been faced, and any additional information that you consider essential. You might also ask them to provide you with a report as a diary or suggestions if you want to have a deeper understanding of their perspectives. The knowledge that you obtain from such reports when accompanied by facts or recorded figures might assist you in better managing both your organization and your workforce.
Final Thoughts
It is not enough to just lack faith in one’s workforce to implement a monitoring program. This is especially important to keep in mind if your company operates in a virtual or remote environment. In the realm of cyberspace, there are several external and/or uncontrolled forces that may be found. Employee monitoring is the firewall that protects the safety, security, and privacy of your organization, as well as your employees, your customers, and their data, most of the time.
