How Employee Surveillance Software Can Protect Your Business

Employee surveillance software allows employers to track their employees’ digital activity on company-owned devices. Many people assume that this software is used simply to confirm that employees are staying focused during work hours. It’s true that this software can be used to track employee productivity, but this is far from the only benefit that it offers to employers.

In addition to monitoring employee productivity, employee surveillance software can also be used to protect your business. Here’s how:

Records Evidence For Legal Disputes

Every company will most likely be involved in a legal dispute at some point. These legal disputes may involve current or former employees, vendors, partners, shareholders, clients, or other parties.

Losing a legal dispute can cost your business dearly. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that the median judgment awarded in a business contract dispute is $103,000. A judgment of this size could seriously hurt your business, which is why it’s important to use employee surveillance software to help you win or avoid these disputes.

Employee monitoring software records and stores crucial data that can be used as evidence in legal disputes.

For example, say a recently terminated employee accuses you of workplace discrimination. You can use the data collected by the software to prove that the employee was terminated for legitimate reasons. This may include emails discussing the decision to terminate the employee with Human Resources or data collected from the employee’s device that shows he violated a company policy or was the least productive member of his team.

Being able to access this type of evidence could save your company thousands of dollars in legal fees and judgments. It could also help you win or avoid public lawsuits that could potentially harm your company’s reputation.

Protects Your Network From Malware

Employee surveillance software gives employers the power to block or restrict access to certain websites. Many employers use this feature to ensure that employees don’t get distracted during the workday, but it can also be used to protect your business.

Blocking risky websites can prevent malware, viruses, and hackers from entering your private network. Therefore, using this feature to block risky websites is another step you can take to protect your company’s sensitive data.

Secures Lost or Stolen Devices

Every company-owned device may contain sensitive information that needs to be protected at all costs. But if a device is lost or stolen, this sensitive information could fall into the wrong hands. Employee surveillance software can help you secure lost or stolen devices—and the data stored on them as well.

This software allows employers to remotely access and lock down lost or stolen devices. Employers can even remotely delete or retrieve specific files stored on the lost or stolen device. By acting quickly, employers can use this feature to protect their sensitive data and prevent data breaches as soon as a device is reported as lost or stolen.

Once the data has been secured, employers can use the software’s geolocation tracking tool to find the lost or stolen device.

Sends Real-Time Alerts of Suspicious Employee Digital Activity

Insider threats are the source of many data breaches. For this reason, it is crucial that companies know how to detect insider threats before they are able to carry out an attack. This may seem like a daunting task, but employee surveillance software makes it easier than ever before.

You can adjust the settings on this surveillance software so you immediately receive a notification whenever an employee engages in a specific type of digital activity.

For example, the software can alert you whenever an employee accesses a file with sensitive data, downloads a file with sensitive data to a USB device, or sends it to someone else via email. You will be notified of these predefined activities right away so you can quickly investigate the circumstances to determine if you are at risk of a data breach.

In addition to these alerts, the software is also designed to immediately notify you if an employee engages in behavior that falls outside their normal range of digital activity. For example, say a certain employee never prints anything from their device. But one day, this employee begins printing hundreds of pages of documents that contain sensitive data. This behavior falls outside of the employee’s “normal” digital activity, so you would be immediately notified.

Being able to quickly investigate suspicious activity gives you a chance to step in and stop an insider threat before it becomes a major problem for your company. 

Controls Access to Sensitive Data

Employers have the option of using surveillance software to set and enforce certain rules regarding the company’s sensitive data.

For example, employers can choose to block certain employees from engaging in “data-in-motion” activities. This means these employees would not be allowed to send sensitive data via email or download files with sensitive data onto USB devices.

Employers can also set time-based controls. For instance, employers can adjust their settings to ensure that employees cannot access files with sensitive data outside of normal business hours. Putting these controls in place can keep your data secure at all times.

Identifies Time Wasters

Employee surveillance software can protect your company’s bottom line, too. This software records every digital move your employees make on their devices. This means you will see how much time they spend using different applications and programs, what websites they visit, how long they spend on each site, and more.

This information can help managers identify processes and clients that are wasting too much of their employees’ time.

For example, the information gathered by the software may reveal that employees spend far too much time performing work for a certain client. After analyzing the data, managers may discover that this certain client is actually not profitable for the company. This recommendation can be sent to senior leadership, who can decide whether or not to fire the client or make other changes to ensure that the business relationship is profitable.

To put it simply, the data collected by this software can help managers make smarter business decisions that will protect your company by protecting your profits.

Take the First Step Toward Protecting Your Business Today

Every business—regardless of its size or industry—can benefit from using employee surveillance software. Don’t wait any longer to protect your business—install InterGuard employee surveillance software on your employees’ devices today. Start your free trial or take an online test drive of this software now so you can learn more about how it works and how it can keep your business safe.