Due to recent workforce trends and shifts in the business landscape,
teams worldwide are encountering significant challenges. Issues such
as coordinating hybrid and remote work, rising employee quit rates
driven by job dissatisfaction, and uncertainty regarding AI usage all
adversely affect productivity and overall operational efficiency.
Overcoming these hardships on the societal level may be challenging,
if not impossible. However, as an employer, you can take all the
necessary measures to develop a struggle-free and location-independent
environment that maximizes your employees' strengths and helps unleash
their hidden potential.
On the other hand, you have the right to expect employees to meet
their responsibilities and deliver optimal results, which will
directly boost the company’s profits. Especially if you lead a team
that consists of hybrid or remote employees.
It may be pretty surprising, but you can easily align these two goals
with a little help from TimeCamp, a leader among
employee productivity tracking
tools.
Get to know:
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What's the difference between activity and productivity?
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How to make sure employees spend their work time fulfilling
their assignments?
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How can user behavior analytics (UBA) be used to manage
employee performance?
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How to measure productivity of hybrid and remote employees when
our team barely sees each other?
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How can we track if remote teams deliver their work on time and
with the best possible result?
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How to track user activity without resorting to aggressive
methods of surveillance?
Implement employee productivity tracking tools to regain control
over your team's time.
What is productivity tracking?
Productivity tracking means measuring and analyzing employees' work
results using various metrics, such as task completion rate, quality
of input, or time spent fulfilling assignments.
What's the main difference between activity and productivity?
It's a common tendency to think that having so much on one's plate
equals being productive. The truth is, even though the piling
assignments keep a person busy, it doesn't mean they produce
meaningful results, especially if they're engaged in multiple tasks at
once.
The subtle difference is a significant contributor to revenue leakage
and one of the most challenging aspects to detect, primarily because
of the incorrect approach often taken when addressing the issue.
Seeing the staff working as busy bees usually makes us assume they're
greatly dedicated to achieving the team's goals.
Still, if their hard work is not aligned with increasing ROI, their
efforts can hardly be called productive.
Productivity elevates activity to a different level.
Productive teams follow key task management principles, organize tasks
according to priority level, and
delegate tasks
when necessary. They are focused on achieving common goals defined by
a clear list of objectives and measure their performance not only by
the number of hours spent on tasks but also with specific productivity
tracking metrics.
Why do employers decide to introduce employee monitoring software?
What are the major reasons for implementing productivity tracking
software in the team's workflow?
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Data-informed productivity assessments help
identify employees' habits and strengths,
enabling better management decisions regarding promotions and
rewards. Additionally, clear employee productivity data
facilitates constructive feedback that may even result in issuing
dismissal notes for underperformers.
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Employee monitoring tools create a
centralized system to manage company-related data, including
personal details about clients and employees. These tools implement enhanced security measures, such as
differentiated permission levels for data access, to
safeguard against external and insider threats.
Additionally, they ensure compliance with data security
regulations, including GDPR and DCAA.
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Employee monitoring software
plays a crucial role in the remote work environment.
It effectively identifies and addresses negligent and fraudulent
behaviors, such as buddy punching and falsified timesheets,
ensuring the integrity of remote workers' timekeeping practices.
Besides, employee productivity tracking tools provide essential data
for improving employee wellbeing. They help determine who's working
extra hours and make more informed decisions about future hiring
plans.
What are the top workforce analytics metrics for productivity
tracking?
Productivity standards vary by industry, organization, and even
employee position within one company. Hence, it's not easy to find
just one metric to measure and evaluate the staff's productivity.
On the other hand, incorporating different measurement methods
(alongside KPIs) positively affects the comprehensiveness of
productivity insights and provides a broader picture of the short and
long-term performance of the in-office and remote workforce.
Here are some of the most common examples of productivity tracking
metrics:
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Revenue per employee: The total revenue the
company generates is divided by the number of its current
employees.
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Total workforce cost: This metric includes all
labor costs, such as salaries, recruiting, onboarding, HR
expenses, etc.
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Planned-to-done ratio: A total number of tasks
that should be completed within a specific period of time divided
by the number of tasks accomplished (in percentage).
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Overtime hours: A proportion between extra hours
and regular hours. A high percentage of the result communicates
staff shortage, ineffective leadership, or improper job
allocation.
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Billable vs. non-billable hours: Time spent on billable tasks versus
non-billable time (such as meetings, executive operations, etc.).
A higher value on the non-billable hours side of this ratio
indicates severe inefficiencies, e.g., employees assigned to
creative work perform administrative duties due to staff
shortages.
All these proportions can be easily calculated based on employee data
collected by an
employee monitoring software
solutions.
What are the most common types of team productivity tracking?
Employee monitoring tools and their
user activity monitoring
features provide detailed breakdowns that show what in-office and
remote employees do during work hours.
The most common employee productivity monitoring features are:
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Time tracking: Time trackers register the
time employees
spend working on their assignments. Tools with more advanced
features than just basic time tracking offer a comprehensive
analysis of registered work hours, including a billable vs
non-billable time ratio and labor costs.
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Keystroke logging: A feature that tracks keyboard
inputs on a specific device.
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Mouse/touchpad tracking: Detects tools that
imitate human behavior.
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Apps and website monitoring: Collects data about what applications or websites
employees use during work hours.
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Screenshots: Captures employees' screens in
real-time at set intervals. Offered also as screen recordings or
live monitoring.
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User behavior analytics: Provides comprehensive
behavioral data to better understand individuals' strengths and
weaknesses and how they affect the overall team's performance.
Whether time tracking software or user behavior analyses are mostly
considered neutral, invasive methods of employee surveillance, such as
keystroke logging or screen recording, usually imply a lack of trust
from the employer's side and may decrease productivity.
That's why transparency is key to avoiding employee resistance and
high turnover rates. As supervisors are bound to explain and navigate
their staff through the implementation and execution of employee
monitoring software solutions, the team should take accountability for
their actions and prove their contribution to achieving the company's
goals.
Is it legal to track employee activity and productivity?
Is productivity monitoring legal?
Employee monitoring systems can be installed on company-owned
devices—such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones—without legal
restrictions, and employees may be required to use them during work
hours.
Ordering team members to perform similar tasks on their personal
devices, especially during new hires' onboarding, may raise serious
concerns about privacy invasion. This approach could also increase
employee stress levels, highlighting the importance of balancing
security measures with personal boundaries.
How to address the ethical issues of employee monitoring?
Explaining why the company uses employee monitoring software is
essential for dealing with legal and ethical issues surrounding data
gathering. A transparent approach helps receive positive feedback,
builds trust, and encourages employees to cooperate more efficiently.
Such transparency creates a better work environment, fosters healthy
work habits, and softens how employees react to monitoring their
activity.
When it comes to productivity tracking software, employees are
mostly concerned about:
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What kind of employee activity does the employee monitoring
software track, and to what extent?
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What types of data does it track? What about personal data, such
as login credentials?
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Where is the collected data stored? Who has permission to browse
it?
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What does it mean that the monitoring software is meant to boost
employee productivity?
Summarize the productivity tracking Q&A in the employee monitoring
software handbook. This resource should be readily accessible to all
in-office and remote team members. Additionally, keep everyone
informed about any plans to adjust the company’s worker productivity
monitoring policy.
How to use TimeCamp employee monitoring solutions to track and analyze
team productivity?
What's the best employee monitoring software that tracks employee
productivity without invading their privacy?
Among a wide range of TimeCamp's assets, what are the most useful for
monitoring employee productivity?
Automated time tracking
How do employee tracking software features help improve employee
productivity?
TimeCamp adjusts to your team's workflow, offering a variety of time
trackers suitable for monitoring employees from different industries:
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Automatic time tracking: The desktop app (for
Mac, Windows, and Linux) monitors user time and activity to assign
time entries to appropriate projects and tasks.
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Timesheets: Time logs
can be filled out by starting a new timer or by manually entering
hours. They display entries recorded through various time tracking
methods in TimeCamp. Accessible to both employers and employees,
timesheets promote a culture of transparency within the workplace.
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Mobile apps: Apps for iOS and Android facilitate
tracking time from remote locations even when users are offline.
GPS and geofencing features deliver location insights so
supervisors can see if employees access their job sites within
work hours.
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Time Kiosk: Monitor employees' clock-ins and outs
to streamline
attendance management.
No matter how you track employee productivity, the top-notch
synchronization between the apps guarantees accurate time records and
timesheets that comply with your country's employee management laws.
Read more: Ways of tracking time in TimeCamp
Computer monitoring software
Why is time tracking software an essential tool for user activity
monitoring?
The desktop app is equipped with an employee activity tracking feature
that provides website and application monitoring, along with the exact
time employees spend working on them.
A desktop app works in the background to help users fill out their
timesheets without any distractions. Its usage should be clearly
communicated to the users to maintain the highest level of
transparency between employers and employees.
Tracking employee activity is crucial for effective remote monitoring,
even if only a few employees work from home. This capability ensures
seamless oversight and helps maintain productivity across the team.
Read more: Computer Activities in TimeCamp
Screenshots
How can I see what my employees are working on?
This is an optional feature of a desktop app. The system automatically
takes screenshots every 10 minutes and saves them for further review.
Only administrators and supervisors can access the screenshots; they
have 60 days to review the records.
Moreover, this feature works only when the desktop app is active. It
does not collect personal data.
Read more: Screenshots in TimeCamp
Detailed reports
How can I use my team's own data to analyze their productivity?
Employers and supervisors can generate performance overviews that
provide actionable insights into how employees typically spend their
time at work. Such clear breakdowns can help explain the reasons
behind dropping employee engagement rates or, alternatively, help them
recognize and reward highly contributing team members.
Productivity reports
What my employees can use for personal productivity assessment?
Thanks to the real-time activity dashboards, each user can access
their performance data anytime they want. The dashboard shows the most
often visited websites and apps and daily/weekly breakdowns of
tracked hours, grouped by activity category, projects, or tasks.
These reports will help you identify your team's productivity
trends:
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Dashboard: A summary of a time and activity
tracked for a specific employee within a specific period.
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Efficiency: A comparison between time spent on
top productive and unproductive activities.
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Goals: Create goals and track the progress toward
achieving them based on activity tracking data.
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Sites and Apps: See the list of browsed websites
and applications used divided by the activity categories (labeled
as productive, neutral, or distractive).
Enabling this feature allows employers to encourage their employees to
perform regular performance self-checks. This way, they can better
understand how they spend their time and take ownership of their time
and task management.
Read more: Computer activities and productivity tracking stats
Time and attendance tracking
How to eliminate unproductive activities such as tardiness or
absenteeism?
Another important part of TimeCamp's employee monitoring system is the
ability to track
employee attendance.
An attendance report displays a breakdown of each employee's
workweek, including data such as:
The hours of clock-ins and outs.
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The number of hours in between (compared to a default workday
length for this company).
Overtime value.
Private time value.
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An overview of leave balance for the year in progress, including
sick time and remote work days.
By reviewing employees' attendance data, organizations can quickly
determine if staff members are meeting required working hours and how
often they are tardy. This analysis also evaluates whether overtime
translates into enhanced performance and improved results.
Read more: Attendance reports in TimeCamp
Idle time tracking
How much time do my employees spend away from their computers?
An essential addition to TimeCamp's productivity tracking
capabilities.
A desktop app registers when the computer is actively used. If the app
doesn't record any mouse/touchpad or keyboard activity within the
previously specified time, the system automatically registers time
away from the computer and pops up a window that asks the user to
define the reason behind this break (e.g., meeting or personal time).
Read more: Idle time in TimeCamp
Employee monitoring software safety
How does time tracking prevent data breaches and insider threats?
Does TimeCamp support ethical time tracking?
Absolutely. We do our best to help you establish a robust employee
tracking system, but we also truly value employees' privacy.
TimeCamp does not offer intrusive employee monitoring methods like
keystroke logging or constant live recording. Instead, it offers
features that help employers encourage employees to be accountable for
their work.
Moreover, TimeCamp ensures full compliance with GDPR and other data
protection laws, so none of its apps register sensitive data.
What kind of data does TimeCamp collect?
Employee time data, computer activity to detect keywords in the names
of apps and websites (can be turned off), and computer screenshots
(only if the feature is enabled).
How much does employee monitoring software cost?
TimeCamp is forever, for an unlimited number of users, with unlimited
projects included. Paid plans start at $2.99 per user per month,
billed annually.
Improve productivity tracking and boost your team's performance with
TimeCamp, the best employee monitoring software.