7 Best Employee Monitoring Software to Boost your Workforce Productivity in 2024

As an employer, do you often wonder how involved and productive are your employees? Do payroll irregularities frequently cause problems with HR and your employees? Or are you worried about the efficiency of your remote workforce?

We have the right solution for you, coming up!

Modern businesses recognize employee monitoring as a method of obtaining vitally important productivity metrics that enhance productivity, efficiency, and engagement.

When done correctly and transparently, employee monitoring may give insight into employees, tasks, and productivity.

But, keeping tabs on each individual employee can be a tedious task in itself requiring a huge workforce and time. But with modern technology rolling out tools to improve productivity, it is time you switch to automated employee monitoring software.

In this article, we will cover a corporate attitude to apply to effectively increase staff productivity, keep tabs on workers, the benefits and drawbacks of employee monitoring, and useful resources for developing your employee monitoring plan.

To start with, let us see what employee monitoring is.

What is Employee Monitoring?

Employee monitoring encompasses a broad variety of activities, from the collection of work reports to outright surveillance.

It is defined as the process of tracking and monitoring employee activity to get a clear picture of their performance, and productivity and maintain the business optimum workflow.

Employee monitoring is a growing practice in most modern companies that use digital tools to keep track of and improve the overall productivity of the team.

Employers monitor employees to boost output and secure the company’s valuable assets. Employers are increasingly using digital technologies to monitor employee performance, work in progress, and completed tasks. Businesses employ a variety of monitoring techniques to analyze behavior, monitor attendance, measure production, and verify employee hours worked.

Modern employee monitoring systems have enhanced features to provide solutions for workforce analytics and chances for productivity. Organizations improve labor efficiency, increase employee engagement, improve performance, and boost profits by tracking and examining employee work behavior.

Why is Employee Monitoring Software Important?

Employee monitoring software may benefit employers, to bring the overall productivity of their team to the rise and maintain workflows.

A fully engaged team will help you discover unrealized revenue. Employee monitoring data from these software reveals how much time staff waste on useless programs and activities leading to a loss in productivity.

Let’s examine the most popular advantages to implement an employee monitoring system that’s best for you.

1. Improved Proactiveness

Better understanding of what your team members are doing enables you to identify errors before they go out of hand. This can spare the frustration of spending hours of exhausting corrective tasks.

You also have concrete evidence of how long tasks take. Thus, you can provide a precise estimate based on prior work the next time a project manager requests an hour estimate for a new assignment.

This gives you adequate time to do the task and provides a more palatable due date.

2. Security

Employee monitoring also improves security and stops security breaches by ensuring that in-office or remote teams are not in peril. Employee monitoring software secure the entire workflow and data.

Employees exchanging passwords carelessly can be detected by managers monitoring emails and instant messaging can detect employees exchanging passwords carelessly. If the issue is prevalent, you may then make plans for greater training or tighter security measures. The likelihood of unintentionally disclosing firm information or inviting threats is thus reduced for employees.

3. Better Resource Allocation and Transparency

With increased transparency, managers can better take control of their tasks and projects.

For instance, if you know that your content writer is taking longer than anticipated to complete an assignment, you might let your marketing freelancer know in advance. The contractor can thus move forward with other projects rather than waiting.

Thus you won’t have to wait around for assignments. You also won’t be asked to begin a project until all the necessary components are in place, and projects are given achievable deadlines.

4. Fairness and Wellbeing

More than 72% of employees say they have experienced workplace bullying.

And it is indeed a major factor in the loss of employee morale and team spirit. Bullying may occur through any channel, so keeping an eye on office conversations is crucial. Employee monitoring creates a level playing field, enabling staff to point to particular instances as evidence that the corporate culture is just.

5. Control and Delegation

The better you can delegate, the more you will comprehend each employee’s advantages and disadvantages. However, delegation does not imply total control loss.

Meetings and routine status updates might prevent you from completing your most crucial job, which is hazardous when a deadline is approaching.

You can tailor employee monitoring tools to meet your unique requirements. Without unnecessary interruptions, you may get the most relevant information.

This means fewer in-person interruptions and check-ins are required for staff.

6. Streamlined Management

You can automate many of your administrative tasks, including payroll, invoicing, and more, with the correct employee monitoring tools.

For instance, Moon HRM combines payroll and records employee work hours, allowing you to automate timesheets, invoices, and payments.

The client bill rate for each team member only has to be specified once. After that, the sums are computed based on hours worked and prepared to be paid whenever you need to invoice a client or pay your staff.

How does Employee Monitoring Solution Work?

An employee monitoring solution is a very efficient and non-intrusive approach to gauging employee productivity. It uses a compilation of various features to establish objectives for attendance, productivity, active time, and track progress. This monitoring and time-tracking feature boost staff engagement and productivity.

Its features offer actionable information and clear instructions on how to boost productivity and enhance performance so that teams get better every second.

With a cloud employee monitoring solution, you can see exactly how your staff uses the working hours both when they are active and when they are not during business hours.

Advanced employee monitoring software solutions like Moon HRM can help you record which working schedules were utilized by employees during the workday to evaluate their working potential and possibly improve productivity.

It provides a way to assess and improve team and employee distraction levels. Based on the data, it also aids in lowering distraction levels, enhancing the work atmosphere, and enhancing productivity.

While the employee monitoring software is turned on, it monitors the programs your team uses. It computes the activity rates of your team members based on their keyboard and mouse usage, which aids in establishing a baseline for their regular productivity.

Here are some top features implemented:

• With these employee monitoring solutions, you can put attendance tracking into practice. In turn, increase the attendance of your employees.
• Make the current check-in process better and more efficient.
• Track logins and logouts, and keep an eye on employee computer idle time.
• Keep track of whether or not your staff arrives at work on time. Keeping track of your staff’s work time will help you know what gets done and when.
• Each project, customer, and task’s time spent can be summarised. Observe how much time employees spend on the computer and time spent away from it, as well as how long their breaks are.

7 Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2024

You can also choose the best fit for your business from our well-researched list of best employee monitoring software comparing the features, pros, and cons.

1. Moon HRM

Moon HRM is the best employee monitoring software that lets you track employee working hours, task management, and efficiency. You can easily automate attendance and leave management processes, get daily work reports, and assign roles and responsibilities to various segments o the team hierarchy.

Features of Moon HRM

• Employees can start the timer when clocking in with this tool.
• Provides screenshot monitoring feature for task management, time tracking, and managers to keep track of tasks in real time.
• It lets you stop the timer to take breaks and to continue working, press the play button.
• You can obtain precise estimations of the working hours, both daily and weekly, both with and without break times.

Pros

• Simple user interface and dashboard
• Flexible deployment for on-site or distant PCs
• Transparency into worker activities and communication
• Monitoring and analytics are well-balanced in one UI
• Employee monitoring with a productivity emphasis
• Keep track of individual productive and distracting actions
• Staff roles and shifts are easily scheduled
• Excellent reporting and notification automation

Cons

• Does not work in stealth mode
• Lacks keystroke logging

2. Teramind

Teramind is a comprehensive employee monitoring software that includes functions for tracking user activity, preventing sensitive data leaks, and analyzing user behavior. These elements offer in-depth perceptions of worker activities at work.

The extensive tracking capabilities of Teramind may record any user action. These options include screen recordings, live viewing of staff PCs, tracking emails and keystrokes, and Zoom meetings.

However, several of its in-depth monitoring functions (such as Optical Character Recognition and User Behavior Analytics) may be a little challenging for inexperienced users to understand.

Features of Teramind

• Keep track of employee productivity metrics and identification
• Monitoring for remote employees with employee-owned devices, tracking employee activity, and contractors for data loss prevention
• Automated compliance management
• Live screenshot recording, keystroke logging, and screen recording employee devices while protecting employee privacy

Pros

• A full suite of tracking tools
• Simple user interface and dashboard
• Unique video recording and watching of live sessions
• Tracking keystrokes
• Flexible deployment for on-premises or cloud settings
• Maintaining employee privacy protection, data loss prevention, and access management

Cons

• Comprehensive monitoring tools might be challenging.
• Lacks in-person alerts.

3. Veriato

In addition to tracking employee activities, Veriato offers powerful employee tracking, engagement, and data-collecting tools that are driven by artificial intelligence (AI).

You may learn more about your remote and in-office employees’ productivity.

However, the technology can be too expensive for certain firms.

Features of Veriato

• Provides idle and active time tracking and remote desktop control
• The employee monitoring features provide custom dashboards and alerts for audits and investigations
• Web and application usage monitoring
• Omni-device user activity monitoring, blocking, and reporting

Pros

• Unparalleled transparency into worker activities and communication
• A useful risk score dashboard can identify different hazards.
• Strong company security alerts for insider threats
• Analyses and measures employee engagement
• Excellent combination of analytics and monitoring in a single interface

Cons

• Expensive for larger teams
• Massive data files can consume a lot of space
• Isolated installation is difficult.

4. ActivTrak

ActivTrak is one of the best monitoring software solutions and data loss prevention software that is firmly focused on worker productivity thanks to attractive pricing and a helpful user interface. This tool is one to keep an eye on during the COVID-19 pandemic due to improved capabilities for remote employees. It has helped employees engage and be productive.

A cloud-based workforce monitoring tool called ActivTrak offers in-depth insights regarding worker productivity and the effectiveness of your business operations.

By gamifying user reports, this project management software may also increase engagement for your remote staff, enabling them to understand how they can improve their productivity.

Unfortunately, using the app to manually input time is not an option for employees.

Features of ActivTrak

• Provides employees’ activity monitoring, project management capabilities, and reporting feature
• Productivity insights into the top performer and best employee
• Advanced analytics and insights
• Reporting and alerts for insider threat detection, employee computer activity, etc.

Pros

• Rapid and simple user interface
• Installing is easy and provides remote desktop control
• May identify popular applications and websites
• Monitoring findings may be applied to enhance staff mentoring
• Tracks productivity on a project-by-project basis.

Cons

• The definition of user and group productivity measures has to be refined.
• There is no OCR for keyword searching inside screenshots.
• Keystrokes are not logged
• Dashboard widget customization is not possible

5. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is an employee monitoring tool with great features, including URL and network monitoring, keystroke logging, GPS and employee location monitoring, and more.

Hubstaff is a remote employee monitoring tool that offers information on employee behavior to boost productivity and profitability in the workplace.
However, this tool does not let you rank websites and applications as productive or ineffective, in contrast to other tools on our list.

Features of Hubstaff

• Web tracking app tracking, idle prompts, and other activity monitoring capabilities
• It has basic features like time management, detailed productivity reports, real-time monitoring, and scheduling
  Integrations with over 30 apps over the internet

Pros

• Monitoring and taking screenshots of keystrokes
• For remote workers, productivity tracking features
• Characteristics of the job site and location
• Shifts are simple for workers to arrange

Cons

• No sophisticated tracking
• Stopwatch needs an additional desktop application for reporting.

6. DeskTime

DeskTime is a good option for SMBs who also require employee monitoring platforms and employee monitoring features, thanks to its excellent features. A platform that is simple to set up and use also benefits greatly from having calendar and invoicing tools.

DeskTime is a time-tracking program that may also be utilized as a tool for managing staff attendance and workflow.

To directly pay your staff, this cloud based hr software does not provide payroll interfaces.

Features of Desktime

• Time, task, and employee locations data gathering for insider threat detection and to prevent a data breach
• Quickbooks integration
• GPS and geofencing
• Mobile devices for end users

Pros

• Tracking time automatically
• Payment feature
• Calendar function
• Tracking of URL, app, and documents
• Time for workers to be alone
• Task and project management

Cons

• Limited reporting
• No exports of CSV; only XLS
• No schedule for shifts

7. Workpuls

Workpuls offers SMBs a choice of productivity and time tracking features, as well as basic reporting, and is both affordable and adaptable to empower both managers and staff.

An employee tracking application called Workpuls helps increase productivity. To improve team performance, it integrates staff monitoring, time tracking, and automated time mapping features.

However, Workpuls’ versatility is constrained because there isn’t an iOS or Android mobile app for the product.

Features of Workplus

• Free trial available for tracking employee activity plans to ensure employee productivity
• Intuitive UI and real-time alerts
• Employee time tracking web-based dashboard
• Extensive monitoring & advanced features
• Keystroke logger and interactive monitoring software

Pros

• A cutting-edge, simple user interface
• SMB-friendly prices
• Employee Desk Application gives employees control over monitoring
• Concentrating on distant workers and group output
• Options for installation in the cloud and on-site

Cons

• More flexibility is required for mail reporting.
• Consultation and a demo are necessary for trial and setup.
• No mobile apps

Do I Need to Use Employee Tracking Software?

According to studies, demand for employee monitoring software shot up by 80% in 2020 after the coronavirus hit! Thus, it is time for you to look into its features suitable for your business.

Since business operations are now totally digital, companies in a range of industries and workforce structures have moved beyond using whiteboards and sheets to track employee workloads.

Modern employee monitoring software has become popular among businesses as a means of streamlining, planning, and job distribution.

Using employee time tracking software can offer really useful workforce and company data. Hence it is in the best interest of your business to use employee monitoring software.

But to reap the best benefits, you need to choose the best employee monitoring software for your business.

Using a tool like Moon HRM can help you focus on quantitative workforce management and deliver a great employee experience. Moon HRM’s open and considerate monitoring procedure assists businesses in identifying productivity problems and generating cost savings.

By offering insights into time usage while the program is tracking time, Moon HRM promotes productivity.

Here is why your business should employ this best employee monitoring software:

• You can accurately see what each person is working on at any given moment thanks to employee monitoring software with a built-in task management feature. Moon HRM analyses staff productivity indicators including idle time and attendance.
• Using the Team HRM feature on the dashboard, managers can determine if team members prioritize important activities or devote more time to low-value jobs. The employee engagement levels are displayed by Moon HRM’s live screenshot monitoring feature. It is designed to provide workers access, transparency, and control.
• Another key feature of employee monitoring software is that you can easily track employee attendance. The employee’s manager will be made aware right away if there is an issue through real-time alerts and most issues can be handled before they escalate.
• Most employee monitoring software can track employee hours to help manage employee performance & payroll. Moon HRM makes payments precisely to the second, assisting you in avoiding financial conflicts.
• Moon HRM offers real-time employee tracking insights into the team’s work record and aids in your ability to comprehend. This fully cloud-based software will raise the overall efficiency of your business.

Ultimately, with Moon HRM, you can work smart with premium features like strong employee monitoring, manual & automatic attendance tracking, keyboard and mouse activity monitoring, time tracking, and more.

Key Features of Employee Activity Tracking Software

For any healthy functioning company, employees are its true assets. But keeping track of each one of them is a necessary but difficult task.

Furthermore, maintaining an overview of the complete workforce is considerably trickier. As a result, the sophisticated features of all average employee monitoring solutions listed may help you manage remote workers’ schedules and optimize the use of human resources.

1. Easy-to-Use Interface

The usability of workforce management solutions should be taken into account first.

Employee schedules are no different. For managing hundreds or thousands of employees, your system should be easy to use and friendly.

Advanced tracking software has fundamental, user-friendly features like automated alerts, an integrated workflow for desktops, and simple task management.

2. Live Screenshot Recording

Live screenshot monitoring is frequently regarded as the most accurate way to keep track of employee development and policy compliance. This way, managers can access employees’ tasks and performance data whenever required. This system is most commonly applied directly in a firm and is a crucial feature to improve productivity, reduce frauds and data breaches, and much more.

By accessing internet servers, managers may quickly obtain the information gathered by the best employee monitoring software. This data is accessible through the cloud.

3. Email Reporting and Alerts

A quick and simple method of tracking employee performance and engagement that enables real-time action. With this feature, you can receive alerts in case your employees are falling behind the productivity wheels.

You can get simplified reporting on emails for the timesheets and tasks completed by employees.

4. Project Management

Handling projects becomes a breeze for your employees and managers with these time tracking tools.

An employee monitoring program may be set up to track who is working on what, what level they are at a given job, and who has exceeded deadlines even when working remotely. These features are crucial for managing huge teams spread across different countries or continents.

5. Time Logs

Attendance logging and monitoring is the forerunner of all employee monitoring software, and the functionality of these reporting tools tracking of employees’ log-in-out data remains at its core. Features of the employee monitoring tool assist keep track of the amount of time each worker in the whole workforce spends doing their assigned responsibilities. This covers the time spent logging in and out, being active or not, and working on various tasks, programs, websites, etc.

6. Monitoring Employee Attendance

You may quickly discover your top performers and staff members who are not performing effectively or completing deadlines on time with this feature of employee tracking software.

You can keep the exact login and logout times of your employees working onsite or across the globe.

7. Productivity Evaluation

You may identify periods of idleness where none of these occurrences are present by monitoring mouse and keyboard activity.

You can also generate productivity reports like mouse and keyboard usage, human resources operations, entity behavior analytics, and productive and distracting activities.

Looking at the many analytical tools and detailed reports collated and generated by employee monitoring software will most likely help you determine the specifics of whether an employee’s performance has improved or declined over the previous few months.

The employee monitoring system gives managers a comprehensive image of the work being done by employees in real time and enables them to provide extensive information on daily productivity.

8.  Payroll Processing

Payroll administration that is error-free is a characteristic of employee monitoring software. It is a time-saving procedure that may assist managers or HRs in keeping payroll management for the workers in your firm current, correct, and transparent. You can automate all payroll processes and in turn the billing processes for employees.

9. Alerts

Employee monitoring software helps you stay notified when your company’s operations are seriously threatened, which is especially important when crucial procedures and secured areas are violated.

10. Dynamic Dashboard

You get a complete overview of everything at once with an easy-to-use dynamic dashboard.

Customers will adore the employee monitoring software when all information, including timesheets, balance sheets, productivity charts, attendance sheets, etc., is simple to view and monitor. Consequently, a versatile dashboard is a need, demonstrating various elements at once.

11. Visualization of Data

There are other circumstances in which time-tracking data might be useful. The volume of data may also be enormous, especially when dealing with timesheets for several employees or people working on numerous projects. With clear detailed work reports and time logs, evaluation becomes easier for all parties involved.

12. Create User Roles

With the super admin feature, you can create managers or use admins with given roles. Super admins may keep an eye on the managers and staff, while managers can keep an eye on the screens of their teams. HR managers can also designate user responsibilities. You can take advantage of allocating various user roles by the duties and requirements for managing the workforce.

Last Words

Employers no longer have to rely on manual and time-consuming tasks to keep track of employee workplace productivity.

The employee monitoring software provides more accurate and reliable data and gives small business owners and managers invaluable insights into how employees spend their time at work.

It can help maintain a high level of employee satisfaction and improve workflow efficiency.

The best employee monitoring software can provide various insightful reports. Thus, when choosing employee monitoring software for your firm, take into account all the relevant aspects.

Moon HRM’s employee monitoring tool helps your staff members maintain a more effective work-life balance. It has features that can boost overall performance.

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