Understanding Employee Activity Monitoring and Why it Is Needed

If you have a business with employees, you do need user activity monitoring software in place. This is how you can find out whether your workers are actually focused on their job. And, through this, you will have greater control over you r business as well.

What Is User Activity Monitoring Software?

It is a type of software that can be placed on a local network or server, monitoring every device within that network. Through the software, you can monitor exactly what each employee is doing in terms of the internet and their email. You can make sure you see which attachments are being sent, which will help you to prevent hacker attacks and security breaches. At the same time, you can see which sites people have seen, and what is said in chat messages. Through the system, a central server stores any keystrokes that have been typed, as well as which programs were used and when. Put together, this will help increase return on investment and productivity.

What Are the Key Features of the Software?

This type of software links together a server and a client. The server monitors the user in a fully invisible way. Key features depend on which software package you choose, but some of the most common ones include:

  • Being able to see every user’s desktop.
  • Having a full picture of chat conversations, email, passwords, and keystrokes.
  • Being able to take pictures of PC screens as and when you want.
  • Being able to watch invisibly.
  • Having the ability to take over control of the computer.

How Can You Benefit from This?

You can monitor any PC within the overall LAN of the computer, and you can do so remotely as well. This means you have all the tools at your disposal that you could possibly need in order to see what your employees are up to. It is very easy to use and very convenient, giving you all the details about your employees’ activities at any given moment. You should be transparent about this and tell employees that you are monitoring their activity, which should, all being well, stop them from doing things in the first place. One of the reasons why transparency is so important, is because it will also stop other people from making false accusations about other people not doing their job properly. Put together, this builds a company culture of trust and honesty, while at the same time increasing security and productivity in the workplace as a whole.

In an ideal situation, you shouldn’t have to monitor your employees at all. However, in reality, you cannot trust everybody to be diligent and focus 100% on their job. This isn’t because people are dishonest necessarily, but perhaps simply because they become distracted by the treasure-trove of information that is available on the internet. It is all too easy to have a legitimate reason to be online, and to see something else of interest and click through, after all.