Since you’re here, you’ve likely made a very important decision - to invest in software for tracking employee computer activity and ensure your employees are more productive working from home. But before you actually go ahead and do it, there are some things you should take into consideration.

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There are some obvious factors that you’ve probably already considered, such as the price, features, data storage and so on. This article, however, will try to cover some of the smaller and more subtle things that are worthy of your attention when it comes to choosing the best PC monitoring software for your company.

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These seven factors are not as obvious as some of the big ones but they might be just as important for making the right choice of what software to use for tracking employees.

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1. Number of Employees in Your Company

Picking the best PC monitoring software should start with answering the question of how many workers you’ll be tracking. The answer could have an influence on several different factors, including the implementation, possibilities for data aggregation and, not least of all, price.

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If you’re a small business, tracking employees’ time could even be done with a free computer monitoring program if you don’t need a lot of features and functionalities. What’s more, even the more complicated installation isn’t a big problem since you only need to do it on a couple of computers and you can sacrifice report aggregation for the price as well.

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However, if you have more than 50 employees, that’s when things can get messy if you simply go with the cheapest solution. Large and even medium businesses need systems that are much more scalable and that offer more features and greater degree of customization. Even if the price is a bit higher, it’s definitely a worthy investment. Plus, the good news for big enterprises is that many employee monitoring solutions offer discounts if you have a lot of employees.

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And finally, if you have a remote workforce, that’s another thing you should think about. Look for features that make tracking remote employees painless and non-intruding, such as setting the office hours during which you’ll be able to monitor employee activity.

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2. User Interface and Dashboards

One of the reasons why you may have decided to implement employee monitoring in the first place might be to save time on things like attendance tracking, payroll calculations, project overview and process supervision. So, ending up with monitoring software that you don’t know how to use can be extremely frustrating.

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Optimally, you should spend less than an hour trying to figure out where each functionality is within the dashboard and what each report represents. Anything more than that is a waste of time. So always look for an intuitive interface that’s easy to understand and that you’re able to use right away without calling your IT guy or tech support.

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And, of course, if it also looks good, that’s just a cherry on top.

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3. Ease of Installation

How easy or difficult it is to implement a monitoring system can be a good indication of what your experience with using it is going to look like. This process too should be smooth and easy and you shouldn’t need any extensive technological knowledge in order to implement it successfully. This especially goes for cloud-based solutions.

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Some types of employee monitoring software like Insightful even allow you to install the program on all computers simultaneously by using an active directory. This is super easy and will save you a lot of time.

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4. Login Options

Another easily overlooked factor in choosing the best monitoring software is the array of different login and access options. Ideally, you should have a lot of different ones to choose from.

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The magic number is three. First, having a manager login is kind of a given - every monitoring software gives you the possibility to access the totality of data collected by the software so that you can oversee the progress and make adjustments to business processes.

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Secondly, client login is an awesome possibility to give you clients gated access to the monitoring data pertaining to their own project. And the third option that the best PC monitoring software should have is employee login which will help you promote transparency and prompt employees to try and improve their performance.

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5. Customer Support

Finally, customer support is something that’s often forgotten when considering which employee tracking software to choose. But this can in fact be a crucial factor in user experience.

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If you have a problem, it’s essential for you to be able to get expert help right away. So always look for computer monitor companies that at least have a help center section on their website. This in itself can often save you a lot of trouble because you can quickly find a solution to many problems by doing a simple search.

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On top of this, your employee monitoring software provider should have an email that they respond to quickly as well as either a phone number you can call or a live chat with actual people behind it.

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6. Performance Comparisons

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While not every PC monitoring software offers performance comparisons, it’s a highly valuable feature for encouraging employees to be more productive working from home or at the office.

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Insightful’s new ‘remote v office’ feature offers just that: a simple way to compare and contrast performance levels in the office versus remote-based working. With accurate location-based tracking, you can build or support the ideal work structure for you and your team.

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That way, you can not only identify the peak productivity hours and conditions for your team members, but also determine where they do their best work.

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If you’re already operating in a hybrid work model with a split workforce, this feature is a must-have as you can make productivity-boosting changes based on time data to increase team-wide performance levels.

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7. Data Privacy and Compliance

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When pitching the implementation of PC monitoring software to those who’ll be under the microscope, it can be a tough sell.

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Many employees will have concerns about the use and safety of their data, and understandably so. Even on your end there are compliance laws you have to keep in mind before introducing the software, so you need to be comfortable that everyone’s concerns will be alleviated when choosing a tool.

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With Insightful, you can rest assured that everyone’s data will be protected with robust security measures, and usage will be fully compliant with GDPR laws (General Data Protection Regulation). 

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Forbes recognized Insightful at the end of 2022 as the ‘best remote work tracking software for privacy and promoting transparency.’ As such, it shouldn’t be hard to convince your workforce that the implementation of Insightful is the right move for everyone involved.

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Making an Informed Decision

Choosing the right monitoring solution is not an easy task. 

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But in order to be successful in finding the best PC monitoring software, you have to consider more than just a couple of features and a price. This article probably didn’t give you all the answers, but being left with more questions is sometimes even better.

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