A remote employee monitoring app is critical for making the best use of work time and keeping employees productive. Remote work monitoring holds people accountable by tracking employee activity and motivating them to maintain their work ethic. 👨💼
Remote employees work from the comfort of their own homes and have a great deal of flexibility. With flexibility comes the risk of becoming distracted. Employees are frequently distracted and begin browsing social media, news websites, online stores, and so on.
As an employer, you have no idea where your remote workers spend their time.
Remote employee monitoring software can improve time management and other activities by providing detailed reports on employee internet usage, productive and distracting activities.
Why should you use remote employee monitoring software to keep track of your remote employees?
You may believe that you have faith in your employees. So, what are the benefits of using a remote employee monitoring app? While remote worker monitoring apps may appear to be about managing distrust, they are actually about the positive effects of monitoring tasks and increasing productivity.
Monitoring remote employees will allow you to not only hold employees accountable, but also balance workloads. You’ll be able to determine whether someone is overburdened or capable of doing more. Employees who work more efficiently can also be rewarded or incentivized. You’ll be able to maximise employee output without having to micromanage every task.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Remote Work Tracker Software
Including remote work monitoring software for your remote workers is a big step. Remote employee trackers have both advantages and disadvantages.
In this section of the article, we attempted to include some well-known benefits and drawbacks of remote employee monitoring software.
The Benefits of Remote Employee Monitoring Software
Consider the following key benefits of implementing remote work monitoring software:
1. Effective use of time
You want your employees to make the most of their working hours as an employer. If your employees work from home, this should be a major concern for you.
A remote employee monitoring app can help you ensure that your remote workers are making the best use of their time. Remote employees will be far more cautious if they know their time is being tracked.
2. Increased Productivity
When you implement remote worker monitoring software for your remote employees, they will be more vigilant about their tasks. Because you will actively monitor their time and activities, they will focus more on their responsibilities, increasing productivity.
3. Performance appraisal
You are not required to assess the performance of your remote team. You can easily assess the performance of your remote workers by using remote employee monitoring software.
You can also obtain a work report detailing the time spent on various activities from your remote employees.
4. Beneficial to ROI
The money you spend on payroll for your remote employees is an investment in your company. You are entitled to the best possible return from them.
A remote work monitoring tool can help you get the most out of your remote workers.
5. Workplace transparency
A remote worker monitoring software gives you the advantage of remaining transparent about the tasks that you as an employer and the employee are responsible for.
6. Enhancement of Accountability
When your remote employees realise you are actively monitoring their activities, they will consider the accountability of their actions.
7. Management cost cutting
You most likely spend a lot of money manually monitoring your remote employees. A remote employee tracking app can help you get more optimised data on the work of your remote employees while also lowering your management costs.
8. Simple payment calculation
If you have hourly remote workers, which means you pay them based on the amount of time they work for you, payment calculation should be a concern for you.
No need to be concerned; a remote worker monitoring app computes the total payment based on the time log. Only a pay rate must be entered.
9. Establishing a Performance Standard
While evaluating, many businesses struggle to create a benchmark. They frequently compare their performance to industry standards or set ambiguous expectations of their employees, only to fail to materialise the entire context. Bringing a remote work tracker can help you turn the tide because you will know your actual performance. You can now compare your performance to that of the past.
10. Retention of high-performing employees
When you choose to hire overseas, you are entering a much larger talent pool. Despite having a replacement for almost everyone, you don’t want to lose your best performers because they provide you with more than you expect. But how do you find them?
A remote work monitor software can point you in the right direction. You have all of the necessary information about the employees’ work hours, activity, and productivity, and you can quickly evaluate based on the prospects. Retaining top performers has not been easy, but it is now!
Again, thanks to integration with various payment processors, you can send payments to your remote workers directly from the remote employee monitoring app.
The Disadvantages of remote employee monitoring software
There are some drawbacks to remote worker monitoring software, just as there are some advantages. It would be foolish to ignore the disadvantages of purchasing remote work monitor software. However, in comparison to the benefits, the number of drawbacks is small.
Let’s take a look at some of the disadvantages of remote worker monitoring tools.
1. The issue of early adaptation
Many employees will need more time than usual to adjust to the new work flow that you will create by implementing remote employee monitoring software in your organization. Some people will despise the fact that they will be monitored by software that will track everything they do on their screen from now on.
2. Employee churn
If you implement the remote employee monitoring tool after you have already hired the employees, employee turnover is likely to increase. As the remote worker monitoring software ensures, many employees will dislike accountability. Some people may take things personally, while others may dislike it right away because they want to work with complete freedom.
However, it would be preferable if you could measure employee efficiency and productivity. So, you should keep the employees who will comply with your employee monitoring policy. Most employee productivity drops during remote working because of the distance. It is better to create a healthy environment which could nurture, and appreciate the employees effort even miles away, than remind them of the constant monitoring. Small employee appreciation signs are some of the best tokens to send to your remote working employees to get them connected.
3. Costs may occasionally rise.
When selecting remote work monitoring software for your remote employees, you will consider the tool’s cost. However, if you do not conduct adequate research and end up selecting a costly remote employee monitoring app, this may increase your management costs.
Our advice is to spend some time researching different remote employee monitoring software and selecting the most cost-effective option.
4. Concern about being micromanaged
Micromanagement has been a problem in the corporate world for years, so it’s not surprising that after implementing a remote work monitoring tool, some of your remote employees may develop a fear of being micromanaged. It can have a significant impact on the team’s productivity as well as their motivation to work, both of which can deteriorate.
However, if you can make your WFM employees understand the monitoring policy, you can mitigate this disadvantage.
5. Complicated software may take up your time.
As human instinct dictates, we always seek the easy way out. You should go through the onboarding process after selecting a remote employee monitoring software. You can also request a live demo from the organisation that provides the remote employee monitoring tool.
6. Nothing can be monitored.
Certain intangible things are impossible to monitor. For example, you can’t track data if your employee spends time brainstorming, right? Similarly, there are some things that remote work monitoring software cannot measure.
Organizations that use remote employee monitoring software include:
1. Businesses in which all employees work remotely
This organisation would benefit most from remote worker monitoring software. There are companies where everyone works remotely, and they may not even have a premise to represent themselves. They ensure their remote employees’ time utilisation and productivity by using remote worker surveillance software.
2. Virtual assistant firms
There are numerous virtual assistant companies all over the world. Employees of these companies are typically not on a permanent basis. Many employees work from home. To manage their employees, these virtual assistant companies use remote employee monitoring software. It allows them to supervise employees who work thousands of miles away.
3. A mix of in-office and remote workers
There are companies that have both in-office and remote employees. Companies will sometimes outsource work by hiring remote workers. Managers can look after employees who work in the office, but what about those who work from home? Yes, they use remote employee monitoring software to track the progress of remote workers’ work.
4. Companies with employees who work remotely
There is a culture in which some employees are given the option of working from home. During the COVID-19 period, the number of employees working from home surpassed any previous record, and the practise is gradually becoming the new norm.