The 2024 Guide to Employee Web Usage Monitoring

Working from home was the last option companies could implement in times of crisis, so employees were perplexed about maintaining work-life balance. However, employees have been experiencing the taste of flexibility in work since the pandemic happened. Organizations want to adopt tools like agent performance monitoring for productivity tracking, web usage monitoring, virtual collaborations, etc.

Due to the swift surge in remote work globally, businesses are not indicating signs of returning to their physical space. To this date, employees have been working virtually without any supervision around. They can slack off, sit idle, or do other chores but still can return to their office tasks in no time. Such things can take a toll on their productivity levels. If they cannot concentrate for a long time or keep getting distracted by things at home, it might reduce their dedication to work.

As a result, they might start spending time on non-work-related things such as continuously scrolling on social media, reading news, watching TV, and so on. With no remote workforce control solution in place, other things can easily divert their focus. While businesses cannot think about manual supervision in today’s critical times, incorporating user-activity monitoring software can be advantageous.

Simply, because it encompasses all the elements that are necessary to stimulate the present hybrid work model. Let’s move forward to a simple guide on how remote workforce monitoring can help in checking employee web usage activity and enhancing work from home productivity.

Why do Employees Need to Spend Time on the Internet?

The Internet has become an inevitable part of today’s business landscape. It plays a significant role in many companies as a part of their work processes. Businesses depend on internet research and online tools to store and transfer data, get an in-depth data analysis, enable real-time chats or meetings, and include many other aspects of regular corporate workflow.  

However, the same internet being a helper can also disrupt the production workflow. Employees, having the convenience of working from home, check out various non-related websites or surf the internet to socialize. At one stage, the internet could be an efficient platform to streamline and simplify things.

On the contrary, supervisors won’t know what their employees or agents do when they are not working on-premises. Therefore, businesses are looking for constructive yet permanent solutions to keep a strict check on remote employees. 

Employee monitoring software is a vital aspect for any company to enable and track their off-site remote employees. Businesses can implement this strategy by connecting activity-tracking software to the corporate network through a secured VPN (Virtual Private Network). This way, managers can monitor the traffic and web usage by the employees individually or disallow access to anyone taking advantage of the work hours.

Sometimes, companies have to face network credibility issues because of slow internet and much consumption. User activity tracking software can help to prevent extra internet consumption and bandwidth by banning unnecessary websites and access to ensure fast connectivity among all users. 

What are the 3 Challenges Employers can Face while Monitoring Web Activities?

There can be many challenges in the way of employers but one of the most important and hardest parts would be to monitor the actual productivity hours of the employees. Identifying employees who barely work and those who continuously work is crucial so that every employee can take absolute accountability for their work.

Employees might feel it is inappropriate to watch or monitor their work. However, companies can move in the right direction with the right strategies. Let’s understand the challenges that stop employers from implementing an employee monitoring system.

1. Employee Resentment

Not all employees will agree with your idea of monitoring, especially when juggling work and home life. Thus, they would or might resist by perceiving that remote workforce monitoring is there to force them to work like robots and to deliver maximum output in a particular period. This pressure to make them perform might lower their job satisfaction- creating a toxic organizational culture.

2. Privacy Concern

Employees or customer support agents need assurance of their work hours and performance. Remote workforce monitoring may lead to some serious issues taking a toll on their mental health as well. Employees might also worry if their company monitors them during non-work hours. In productivity monitoring software, features like keystroke logging or screen recording could capture content like passwords or bank details that might fall into the wrong hands.

3. Morale and Trust Issues

Every employee’s dedication always depends on the appreciation and feedback they get at their workplace. While being at home and away from colleagues and supervisors, employees might feel detached or undervalued. In addition, if they get to know that their company is monitoring them without their consent, it can seriously affect their morale and hamper productivity.

How to Overcome These 3 Challenges for Seamless Remote Workforce Monitoring?

Enable effective employee web usage tracking with user activity tracking software. Let your business see ultimate growth while facing remote work battles and ensure remarkable productivity without threatening data and work hours. Here are a few practical tips for you to implement as the best approaches to remote workforce monitoring.

1. Use an Employee Monitoring Policy

An organization cannot perform employee monitoring without considering legal liabilities. It is critical to ensure that your business follows all national or state policies and laws to deter future legal disputes. Having a policy curated for both employer and employee can help streamline remote workforce management and protect the business. With a signed web usage monitoring policy, employees will understand that the company monitors their work hours, online activities, and networks for better protection.

2. Go for Ethical Web Monitoring

Employee privacy should be of utmost importance. Therefore, the limitations and strategies for employee monitoring should be pre-decided with every stakeholder’s agreement. Encouraging employees by taking their feedback on whether they are comfortable with the web usage policy will make them feel heard. They will know that the company values their opinions. The inclusive policy will establish the foundation of trust between the employees and the employer. 

3. Use a Secure User Activity Monitoring Software

When you have effective policies, it is also important to choose the right tools. There are many aspects that businesses cannot overlook. Employee network monitoring or remote workforce monitoring is incomplete without efficient activity-tracking software. The tool through which your business can keep a check on:

• Every website or application that employees visit during work hours
• In-depth analysis of how much time they spent on those sites
• Notify supervisors of employee’s inactive hours or time wasted on non-work-related things.

3 Benefits of Monitoring Web Usage and Reporting Productive Hours

Regardless of the industries, enterprises and BPOs (call centers) need activity data to scrutinize how in-house and remote teams spend their productive time. Identifying peak productivity and performance peaks for your entire workforce or specific departments is important.

Let’s head towards the benefits of user activity monitoring software, discovering productivity leaks, detecting bandwidth usage, and disallowing unwanted access. Make the most of employee productivity tracking and get assurance in:

1. Increased Productivity

When employees know their organization monitors their work hours, they will be more productive. They will focus more of their time on making their productive hours count and letting their employers know how dedicated they can be to work.

2. Enhanced Accountability

A time-tracking system allows supervisors to track every work-related activity that employees perform. While the employees would know the monitoring policy, they would be accountable for their work and take full responsibility for their tasks. Alternatively, managers can identify employees who are taking too long to complete the tasks.

3. Few Security Risks

Companies can strictly watch the applications and websites that violate security concerns. Therefore, employees will know the potential risks they can face if they access those sites and apps. Moreover, user activity tracking software helps to give insights into someone spending more than the required time on particular websites. 

Summing up

An efficient web usage monitoring software can track all employee web or app usage data across devices and workgroups. User activity monitoring software lets administrators set specific rules to receive proactive notifications when employees violate the company’s safety policies.

The best employee monitoring software will help refrain employees from unproductive web browsing and block certain URLs not mandatory in regular workflows. Activity tracking software is critical for detecting unauthorized programs and discovering disengaged or unproductive employees who play computer games at work, watch series, or kill time by taking frequent breaks.