Monitoring Remote Workers to Improve Productivity in 2021

No matter how productive your team already is, there are always ways to improve productivity even further.  Many managers rely on team building exercises or office perks to keep their employees motivated. But implementing these tactics is nearly impossible when managing a remote team.

The good news is that there are other effective strategies for increasing a remote team’s productivity. Monitoring remote workers, for example, is one of the best ways to increase their efficiency.

How Can You Monitor Remote Workers?

You won’t be able to walk by an employee’s desk or check in with them face-to-face if they are working remotely. But it is still possible to monitor what remote workers are doing during work hours with the use of computer monitoring software.

This software can be installed on every company-owned device used by your remote employees. Once it is installed, it will begin to track and record each employee’s digital activity. You will be able to access this data to learn more about how your employees spend their time at work.

What Digital Activities Can You Monitor?

Monitoring software will record a wide range of digital activities, including:

• Emails: Who are your employees emailing? What are they saying? What attachments are included in these emails?
• Social media usage: Are your employees using social media during work hours? What platforms are they using? How much time are they spending on these sites?
• Instant messages: Are employees sending instant messages to one another? What are they talking about?
• Program/application usage: What programs and applications are your remote workers using? How long are they using each program or application?
• File tracking: What files are your remote employees uploading and downloading? What files are being transferred to USB devices?
• Website history: What websites are your remote workers visiting? How long are they spending on each site?

This software is also designed with a keylogger feature, which will record every key entered on your employees’ company-owned devices. Furthermore, the software takes screenshots of your employees’ computers so you can see exactly what they are seeing.

How Does Monitoring Remote Workers Affect Productivity?

Many companies use monitoring software to detect insider threats, verify that employees are complying with federal laws, and protect sensitive data. But the use of this software can also lead to an increase in productivity, especially among remote workers.

There are a number of reasons why monitoring remote workers can increase their productivity, including:

• Helps Identify Strongest and Weakest Team Members
• Reveals Training Opportunities
• Easier to Make Smart Business Decisions
• Raises Employees’ Awareness of Productivity

Helps Identify Strongest and Weakest Team Members

Every manager needs to know the strongest and weakest members on their team. It can be hard to accurately rank employees when they are working remotely since you won’t be able to see what they are doing on a daily basis. But monitoring remote workers can provide you with the information you need to determine who is working hard and who is hardly working.

Knowing who the strongest and weakest members on your team are can help you improve productivity. How? You can use this information to ensure that the strongest members on your team are recognized and rewarded for their efforts.

Studies show that the simple act of recognizing an employee’s hard work can increase their job satisfaction and productivity. This means by thanking the strongest team members for their contribution, you can improve the entire team’s productivity.

You can also use this data to help the weakest members on your team improve their performance. Analyze the data to determine why these employees are falling behind. Some employees may need additional coaching or support, whereas others simply may not be the right fit for the job.

Either way, the data will help you determine what action to take to address these issues and increase productivity.

Reveals Training Opportunities

Analyzing the data collected by this software may reveal crucial training opportunities that need to be addressed.

For example, managers should analyze how much time each employee spends using various programs and applications during the workweek. This data may reveal that one employee on your team takes three times as long as other employees to use a specific program to complete a certain task.

Because everyone else is able to complete this task much faster, this could indicate that the employee needs additional training in this area. Providing this training to the employee could help them catch up to their peers, which will drastically increase the entire team’s productivity. 

Identifying issues like this is always difficult, but it’s especially challenging when employees work remotely. However, this software makes it easier than ever before to determine when your team needs additional training to become more productive.

Easier to Make Smart Business Decisions

As a manager, every decision you make could impact your team’s productivity. This is why it’s so important to use monitoring software to collect data that can be used to make smarter business decisions.

For example, analyzing the data could help you determine each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. If the data reveals that one employee is more efficient than others when it comes to performing a certain task, keep this information in mind when deciding how to delegate work. Delegating the right tasks to the right employees can lead to a significant increase in your team’s productivity.

Analyzing the data may also help you identify specific business processes that are negatively affecting your team’s productivity. If your team is wasting a lot of time on a certain business process, you should consider brainstorming ways to make this process more efficient. Increasing the efficiency of business processes can greatly improve your team’s overall productivity.

These are just some of the ways that monitoring remote workers can help you increase productivity by making smarter business decisions.

Raises Employees’ Awareness of Productivity 

This software can be installed without your employees’ knowledge, but for the sake of transparency, it’s best to tell them that they are being monitored. Not only will this establish trust, it could also motivate them to work harder.

Employees that know they are being monitored are more likely to stay focused and avoid engaging in non-work-related activities. They may not give in as easily to distractions in their remote work environment.

This is because they know their manager will be able to see if they aren’t actually working, and more importantly, they know there will be consequences if their manager sees they aren’t working. They won’t be able to make excuses or lie about why they missed a deadline—their manager will be able to see exactly what caused the delay.

Because of this, simply telling employees that they are being monitored may be enough to improve their productivity.

What is the Best Software to Monitor Remote Workers?

All remote monitoring software is not created equal. If you want to keep track of your remote workers’ digital activity, InterGuard is the best software to use. This software will record every digital move your remote workers make on their company-owned devices, so you have the information you need to improve your team’s productivity.

Reach new levels of success in 2021 with the help of InterGuard software. Take an online test drive or start a free trial to learn more about this innovative software today.