Every business faces similar challenges on a day-to-day basis. There are dozens of distractions to contend with, issues with employee productivity, and remote working time management concerns, to name a few.

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But what if there was a tool that can help your business replace these challenges with amazing growth opportunities? 

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In 2023, more and more companies are turning to computer monitoring software to address these challenges - and in this guide, we’ll show you why you should too. Pre-pandemic, the percentage of employers using monitoring tools was around 60%, and over the next 3 years, it’s set to climb to 70%.

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Even so, you might doubt whether PC monitoring software is the right solution for your company. 

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That’s why we put together this guide - to walk you through exactly where the software can fit into your current business model and how it can help you overcome some of the most common business challenges.

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Addressing Distractions in the Digital Age

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The office can be a distraction-ridden place - even at the best of times!

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Don’t take this the wrong way, here at Insightful we’re all up for having a bit of fun in the office! Co-workers should get their coffees together and have a few laughs - why not? But sometimes those situations can get out of hand, and suddenly you have an office with 10 or more people, and no one’s doing any work.

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Distractions are everywhere… even in the newly-emerging working from home era, there’s no getting away from smartphones buzzing, notifications flowing, and feeling the pressure of being always online at work.

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The solution?

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Keep everyone on task with time-tracking software that encourages full focus throughout the day, regardless of location. 

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With an employee monitoring tool like Insightful, you can use features such as ‘Office vs Remote’, which allow you to track productivity levels wherever your team is working.

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Once you’ve installed the software, you’ll likely notice that employees are less prone to distraction. Not only will concentration levels increase, but productivity will skyrocket as accountability reaches an all-time high and individuals are motivated to put their best foot forward every day.

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The additional accountability afforded by monitoring software is hard to overstate. When employees know that their time is being tracked, they know that their hard work isn’t likely to go unnoticed. More accurate time and productivity tracking incentivizes high levels of performance.

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This doesn’t mean that you’ll create an office full of robots programmed only to perform their daily tasks and leave. Your employees will still get to joke around and talk to each other - it just won’t affect their work as much as it did before.

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Using Insightful’s dashboard overview, you’ll be able to:

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•  View app and website usage
•  Benchmark performance for different teams
•  Track in-office and remote working productivity

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Simply implement the tool, educate your team on the benefits, and see if it doesn’t diminish the appeal of giving in to distraction.

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Time Management 

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If your office has flexible working hours, it may seem as if there’s less need for time management and punctuality since team members can show up to work whenever… right?

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While this may be true in the most extreme of examples, most work environments can’t support such a fluid approach to time management. It’s more likely that even though team members have more leeway in a remote work environment, there’s still a need for effective time management.

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If your company has recently returned to a fixed 9 to 5 environment, you’ll already be well aware of the importance of showing up on time to improve operational efficiency.

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So how can you use monitoring software to address poor time management and punctuality? 

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With a PC monitoring program that has a time and attendance feature, you’ll get an overview of when your employees are coming to work, as well as how many hours they’ve worked every day. You can also use the data reports to track breaks and PTO, so you can check if anyone is spending more time than necessary away from work.

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There’s also the fact that employees who are aware that their time is being tracked are much more likely to show up on time. When employees know that their superiors can see when they’re clocking in a few minutes late every day, it can be the wake-up call they need to improve their punctuality.

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The employees themselves can stand to benefit from the monitoring, too.

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Especially if you’ve implemented a WFH policy, you can use PC monitoring software to protect employee work-life balance. If you notice employees that aren’t on overtime working beyond their shift consistently, you can raise the issue with them and work together to ensure they get the time off they need.

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Balancing Autonomy and Oversight

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Almost every manager has been in a situation in which their close supervision looks more like micromanagement from the employee’s perspective. 

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Managers can start losing track of their own projects and tasks as they get caught up in every little thing their team members do. On the other hand, employees feel like they're being observed around the clock and that they lose their sense of independence and autonomy at work. 

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These practices can cause large employee turnover because each one of your workers will feel stressed, tired, and exhausted - until they eventually find a better job and leave.

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Such work conditions are unhealthy for everyone involved - including the company itself. This can be an uncomfortable situation for both parties, and it’s one which can be mitigated entirely with the right tools.

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To get the correct balance between autonomy and oversight, try implementing an employee monitoring platform like Insightful to take care of the heavy lifting for you.

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With computer monitoring software for businesses, your managers will have an overview of employee activity logs. Business activity monitoring software usually tracks website and app usage, and some tools can even track projects and tasks automatically.

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In just a few clicks, a manager can reach an analytics dashboard and know what everyone’s been up to without having to look over their shoulders.

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Data-Driven Performance Evaluations

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No matter how hard you try, it’s hard to avoid inserting your bias during performance appraisals. Employee reviews are usually carried out with a form and are steeped in the manager’s subjective views - which can prove problematic when aiming for objective performance appraisals.

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It’s hard to remember what each of your employees has done in the past year and more importantly HOW they did it. 

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Biased reviews can cause many problems:

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• Poor performers could be adjudged positively based on your recency bias as you notice they’ve done a few tasks to a high standard in the past few weeks.
• Top performers could fly under the radar and miss out on performance-based bonuses as they do their work diligently yet silently.
• Employees coasting in the middle might lose out on valuable insights into how they can improve and become top performers.

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This is where employee monitoring software comes in. 

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Based on app and website categorizations, managers can see who’s had more productive time in the past period, who’s completed more projects, and much more. 

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Although with a software like this you can’t see if the project was done successfully or not, it can prompt conversations with line managers and team leaders regarding an employee’s work on a particular task or project.

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With employee monitoring software, you don’t have to settle for subjectivity. Instead, you can build objective performance reports based on concrete data to help employees grow in their roles and reach their professional potential.

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Updated June 12th 2023

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