$666,400 — that’s the amount companies can recoup year-on-year by implementing a time tracking software. It doesn’t come as a surprise since employees’ productive hours per workday stretch just over 2 hours. Compounded with a total of 261 working days in a year, the number becomes staggering — 1400 hours unaccounted.
Realistically, utmost productivity across an 8- or 9-hour shift isn’t possible. But, that shouldn’t be an excuse because only 25% of the working hours each day are dedicated to accomplishing tasks that directly contribute to the company’s revenue and growth.
Imagine what could be achieved if organisations could improve employees’ productivity by even 1%. Or, better yet, 2%. The entire gamut of business impact would radiate out to the broader society, making employers more competitive and customers happier.
The Importance of Employee Monitoring
Time is the only resource companies cannot reinstate. This dynamic has obvious implications for employers. But it should be put in perspective with employees’ overall productivity. The crux of the matter comes down to knowing exactly what tasks employees are doing during their day.
If records are kept, employers can identify which tasks are truly productive and which aren’t. They can then allocate employees to tasks that are more likely to lead to higher productivity. Or, to put it another way, employers can assign the tasks that benefit their business the most.
Elizabeth Ledet and Keith McNulty from McKinsey and Company say that “leading teams have a robust and flexible survey strategy for monitoring employee sentiment.” More so, they are inclined to integrate their monitoring surveys with “multiple other data sources to create multi-dimensional qualitative and psychometric models.” The result? Well, the existence of multi-dimensional monitoring allows firms to gain a holistic picture of how people are doing across organisations, departments, teams, and roles.
In that light, the importance of employee monitoring can’t be stressed enough.
1. Tracking Productivity for Boosting Production
Modern companies are lean. As a result, everyone has to pull their weight. And not just at work — but also off the clock. Unfortunately, many employees don’t feel prepared to do so. As a result, many employees neglect their personal and educational commitments.
Employees who don’t put in enough effort — or who just don’t feel like it — can be detrimental to their growth and success. But, most importantly, they aren’t giving it their all. And, in a results-driven world, that’s unacceptable.
Employers have turned to time tracking software primarily due to the need for up-to-date and accurate information. It allows them to track employees’ daily activities, including keystrokes, website visits, etc., which, in turn, enables them to improve productivity and, ultimately, profitability.
2. Assisting Employees in Better Time Management
A common problem among employees is that they overbook their days. They spend the majority of their waking hours doing non-productive activities. In other words, they don’t know what tasks to prioritise. And without records of their daily activities at their disposal, employees have no idea how they’re spending their time. They have no objective point of reference from which to gauge the time commitment involved in each task.
When employees have to take on multiple tasks, they often have no clue which ones are worth the effort. Hence, they fail to give them the priority they deserve. An employee productivity monitoring application can help make the employee aware of the exact percentage of their day they should dedicate to individual tasks. That way, employees can optimise their time and get more accomplished.
3. Identifying Problems Early On
Productivity is a two-way street. Companies have to measure their productivity too. And when they don’t, they’re likely to miss out on signs of trouble. For instance, if employees don’t buzz through work as efficiently as before, there’s a problem.
Early identification of productivity problems can help companies fix them, which can boost employee performance and curb any further issues. So, it’s safe to say that employee monitoring is also a safety measure that defines productive facets and conceptualises them for trendsetting.
4. Improving Communication
From sharing reports across the company to receiving employee feedback, good communication is a must-have in the workplace. In fact, according to CMS Wire, more than 97% of the employees favour effective communication for sustaining efficiency, and understandably so. In order to ensure that all employees are on the same page, employers need to provide clear instructions.
Unfortunately, as Deloitte’s analysis explicates, only 23% of managers believe that they are able to communicate clearly and consistently and concretely set employee-related goals. That’s where employee time tracking software comes in. It can be used to create interactive communication modalities such as project portals and task boards. Task boards for team communication, for instance, can allow employees to communicate with each other and their managers — thereby improving the overall knowledge-sharing capabilities of the respective firm.
Top 5 Employee Monitoring Tools for Tracking Productive Time of Your Employees
The comprehension of the aforementioned benefits of employee productivity tracking is paramount. Yet, many employees are unaware of their progress or lack thereof, and some managers don’t have the time to track individual performance.
That’s precisely why managers need to invest in an online time tracking system that monitors every employee’s activity visually maps it for a swift understanding of the patterns. To help you with your choice, here’s a list of the top 6 employee monitoring tools in the market:
1. Clever Control (Editor’s Choice)
Not all employee monitoring tools are made equal. Some are feature-rich, while others offer a minimalist, bare-bones approach. Clever Control cleverly manages the assimilation of both worlds by facilitating a cloud-based solution that’s both feature-laden and intuitive.
Here’s what Clever Control facilitates:
a. Comprehensive Work Process Insights: With the company’s dashboard, managers can see employees’ progress in real-time. More so, they can also monitor their daily activities. This is accomplished through facilities like activity tracking, internet control, webcam broadcast, and sound recording.
b. Discipline Maintenance: From keeping records of employees’ inactivity to amalgamating hourly working statistics, Clever Control allows managers to formulate data-driven policies to effectively manage the workforce and keep them disciplined for garnering utmost productivity.
c. Remote Data Access: After the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more critical to access concrete statistics and reports whenever and wherever you want. Clever Control offers users remoteness-free access to corporate data so that they can remotely monitor their employees’ efficiency and alert them of any potential problems.
Best Price: $4.70 per month per user
Best For: Both SMEs and MNCs
2. Hubstaff
Favoured by more than 40K businesses, Hubstaff is one of the most popular employee monitoring tools in the market. The company’s straightforward approach to time tracking sets it apart and makes it an easy choice for employees looking for a simple yet effective way to monitor their productivity.
Hubstaff offers the following prominent features:
a. Geofencing: This is a ubiquitous yet convenient feature that facilitates employees with the ability to track their productivity through the use of GPS. The system will start tracking their activities as soon as the employees enter the specified boundary (job site). Now, employees can focus on their tasks instead of worrying about logging in or out.
b. Real-time Monitoring: Hubstaff lets employers take a peek into their employees’ performance in real-time. It facilitates real-time monitoring by notifying managers of any changes that occur to their employees’ activity. Moreover, it also enables them to interact with the employees by sending them notifications for any significant changes.
Best Price: $7 per month per user
Best For: Large-scale Enterprises
3. Clockify
The industry-leading platform, Clockify, offers a highly effective solution for managing time and helps companies convey their best practices in favour of productive employees. This employee monitoring tool keeps track of an employee’s activity from start to finish and offers the following features:
a. Timekeeping: As the name suggests, this feature facilitates employees with an easy and straightforward timekeeping system that tracks hours spent on the web (both applications and websites), develop timesheets, and manage the working hours in an automated calendar.
b. Reporting: Being able to generate visual reports in just a click is crucial in the success of employee monitoring. Clockify presents an easy-to-use interface that not only makes it possible for employees to set up automatic reports but also facilitates managers with the ability to report on an employee’s performance quickly.
Best Price: Free Sign-up
Best For: Small Businesses
4. TimeCamp
Another go-to employee monitoring tool in the market, TimeCamp, makes for a perfect choice for companies with several remote employees. Its enterprise-class features make it the ideal choice for quality tracking — not to mention the seamless integration with project management apps like Asana, Trello and business communication apps like Slack.
TimeCamp offers the following popular services:
a. Team Performance Tracking: This is a timekeeping platform that lets teams track each other’s performance. It gives users the option to set up different timesheets for each member, allowing rapid updates on the company’s productivity.
b. Team Productivity Mapping: Every productivity-killing activity comes with a cost, and we must find a way to reduce or eliminate them. TimeCamp allows managers to generate reports of the “total work time” pertaining to the activity of each employee, thus, helping them devise ways of effectively spread the workload.
Best Price: $5.25 per month per user
Best For: Both SMEs and MNCs
5. Workpuls
Similar to Clockify in its straightforward approach, Workpuls has also managed to gain popularity for its uncomplicated time tracking system. With a massive 100K+ user base, this employee monitoring tool is a popular choice among remote employees for its simplicity.
Here’s what its features entail:
a. Activity Tracking: Workpuls expedites the ability to monitor employees in stealth mode by implementing an activity tracking system. This works exceptionally well for real-time monitoring and productivity tracking.
b. Productivity Labeling: Workpuls’ gives managers the flexibility to configure the working environment to assign projects with different stamps and set up productivity quotas with percentages — all of which is reflected in the reports.
Best Price: $6.40 per month per user
Best For: Large-scale Enterprises
Wrapping Up
All said and done, an employee monitoring tool can help businesses improve their overall productivity by keeping track of how their employees spend their time. However, it’s a matter of knowing exactly what you want and choosing a tool that suits your requirements the best.