Making the right financial decisions can make or break your business.
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Yet it isn’t always easy to know what makes the most financial sense without a body of data to back up your hunches.
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With the right approach to workforce analytics and workplace monitoring policy, you can take the guesswork out of important financial decisions and take calculated risks. Read on to find out 4 ways you can minimize financial risk with remote employee desktop monitoring software.

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1. Manage Costly Subscriptions

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One of the most useful features of keep track of work hours apps is the ability to track employee app usage and monitor productivity work from home.

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While it may seem relatively trivial, the apps that your employees spend time using throughout the workday can have a hugely significant impact on the financial health of your company. Most companies are virtually tethered to a number of software subscriptions, that on their own seem like a minimal expense, but when combined can eat into your monthly income.

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Consider every type of software you might rely on in your company, such as:

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•  Communication tools
•  Project management solutions
•  Email automation
•  Task automation
•  Portfolio management
•  Accounting platforms

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And the list could go on and on.

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Depending on the size of your business and the plan you invest in, you could be spending upwards of $1,000 a month on software subscriptions alone.

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The irony here is that the best way to manage your many software subscriptions and keep costs down is - you guessed it - a software solution. With employee monitoring tools, you can bring all of your app subscriptions into sharp focus.

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Part of the problem with app subscriptions - both in the personal and professional realms - is that other than a monthly direct debit from your bank account, you’re unaware of their expense. An employee monitoring tool brings transparency by showing you what apps your employees rely on for day-to-day operations, and which apps are largely redundant.

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Even in the case that employees use all of the apps in equal measure, it could be that the ROI is minimal. For example, if you have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription but your teams mostly use Google Docs for writing up reports, you could well be wasting money you could spend elsewhere.

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With app usage time data, you can get granular and make judgment calls on which apps could be costing you money, and which have the highest ROI. In some cases, there could even be free alternative options that provide all the features your employees need.

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2. Identify Opportunities to Upskill

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When you consider that the average cost per hire is $4,700, it makes sense to consider alternative options where possible.

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For example, if you were to look within your company, there’s a good chance that you could identify opportunities to upskill existing employees and train them to fill upcoming vacancies.

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That way, you could save money on recruitment and foster a strong company culture that values its employees and offers a clear path to career progress. This can increase your appeal to top talent and increase employee engagement.

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With remote workers' time tracking solutions, you can see a detailed breakdown of performance data with real-time employee productivity dashboards and productivity reports. With these productivity management services, you can identify opportunities for upskilling, based on individual employee skill sets and aptitudes.

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When it comes to creating an agile work environment and one that’s adaptable to changing circumstances and economic conditions, upskilling and retraining your workforce can prove invaluable.

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Instead of always hiring new employees and facing significant onboarding costs and training time, you can pour resources into your internal training programs and your HR department can use time data for effective succession planning.

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3. Invest in the Right Projects

Project management software in tandem with an employee monitoring software work from home strategy is useful as it allows you to streamline work operations, visualize individual tasks and projects, and manage everything with oversight.

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Yet how do you know that you’re investing time and money into the right projects and clients?

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When you allow employers watching employees working from home across teams and departments, you can build a clear picture of project ROI in the short and long term. You can interpret the time data in a variety of ways, such as:

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• Which projects take the most - and least - time
• Which projects are the most expensive
• How many different apps and resources each project requires

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With this time data analysis, you can carry out an 80/20 audit. 

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What are the 20% of projects that lead to 80% of positive results?

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Say you offer writing, editing, and proofreading services across a number of industries and niches. Editing and proofreading projects come in thick and fast, but you find that for the time and financial investment in terms of employee labor and subscriptions, they account for roughly 20% of your revenue.

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When you examine writing projects, you realize that although you have far fewer projects, they tend to have much larger budgets and take fewer resources to complete overall and so account for roughly 80% of your revenue.

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In this instance, you can use the time data to make a strategic business decision to favor writing projects over editing and proofreading projects. Doubling down on what is evidently working best for you could help you streamline your business and maximize your earnings potential.

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4. Eliminate Idle Time

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One of the biggest sources of financial risk in any business arguably comes from within.

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It’s not necessarily what you’re spending money on, but how much productivity comes from each individual employee.

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Idle time or time theft is a common phenomenon and is especially prevalent in remote work environments where anonymity makes it easier to procrastinate important work tasks.

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Employee monitoring solutions can all but eliminate idle time, as you can see exactly what each individual employee is working on at any moment. Using real-time dashboards and performance reports, you can visualize progress and see which apps and websites employees visit most frequently.

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If you notice concerning trends such as excessive social media usage or lengthy periods of absence from the computer, you can raise this issue with the employee in question. Even the mere implementation of employee monitoring is enough to boost workforce accountability, as everyone becomes acutely aware of their work contributions.

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