Even before all that's been happening in the world, many companies have wondered whether they should introduce employee monitoring. Employee monitoring is a hot topic among both companies working from offices and companies working remotely. 

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While most people think all managers are for and all workers are against employee monitoring, we believe that that is not true. In fact, we believe that if the benefits of employee monitoring are explained to the workers correctly, that most will not be against employee monitoring.

That’s why in this article, we’ll be talking about why and how should you, as a business owner, introduce an online employee tracking system in the company so that both employees and the management can enjoy it.

Before Anything Else, Consider the Privacy of Your Employees

Modern technology has helped employers track their employees in many ways - from cameras to GPS trackers, businesses today can easily monitor the behavior of their employees. It can be hard for employee monitoring to be cost effective, respective of employees' cultures and privacy, as well as their perceptions.

One can argue that the time spent in office is technically the company's time, so the management should be able to monitor how the workers spend it. However, this can be a poor argument if you look at it objectively, as workers are still people, not robots (well, for now at least). It's unreasonable to expect people to be working without distractions and breaks 100% of the time. Monitoring what an employee does on their break, arguably their private time, should not happen. 

Would you be okay if someone invaded your privacy? You probably would not. Your employees will probably say the same which is why you should do employee monitoring properly and respect your employees’ privacy.

Benefits of an Online Employee Tracking System

Proper Evaluation of Employees Performance

An online employee tracking system helps you and your management to properly evaluate the performance of your employees. By knowing how your employees are performing, you are able to potentially reward the top ones. 

In addition to knowing which of your employees you should reward, a computer monitoring software can help you better plan and optimize any future projects by showing you the capability of any employees. 

For instance, if two of your junior developers worked 16 hours on a project that took 10 hours for one senior developer to complete, you might consider assigning a similar project to the senior developer sometime in the future.

It’s Easier to Give and Receive Feedback

Employee monitoring helps managers to better deliver employee feedback much more easily. Many employees, especially those working remotely, say that they lack regular feedback from their management. By tracking employees, managers are able to provide activities-specific feedback instead of general feedback that most workers are accustomed to. This also lets the management provide additional training to those team members that are struggling with certain types of tasks.

Better Resources Allocation

Sometimes, it can be hard to judge how much effort, time, and other resources will be needed to complete a project. With a proper online employee tracking system in place, project managers can see how much time a certain employee spent on each task in the project. 

This data gives project managers a better sense of the client's needs so that they are able to better allocate workers and other resources for that and similar future projects.

Effective Project Timelines

Usually, project managers will outline a timeline for a project before assigning out tasks to employees. However, with an online employee tracking system in place, managers can see how employees are spending their time while working on a project and whether or not this aligns with the timeline they've proposed. 

These insights can help managers determine if they should add more people to a project or even change the projects' timeline completely.

Final Takeaways

Online employee tracking systems and employee monitoring in general have been a debatable topic in businesses for years. Even though most people think that managers are for and employees are against employee monitoring, we believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle and that the benefits of employee monitoring outrun any potential cons. 

We believe that if employee monitoring is used properly, it can be very beneficial for both the company and the employees. If the privacy of employees is handled properly, employee monitoring helps with proper evaluation of their performance, better feedback system, better resources allocation, and more effective project timeliness.