Do you know what your employees are doing on corporative computers? At a minimum, they're probably goofing off watching YouTube videos. At worst, they could be steering your company towards financial ruin.
The days when PC monitoring was just an optional thing are long gone. Today more than three-quarters of U.S. companies monitor employee computers. If your business is in the remaining quarter that doesn't do so, you're probably overdue for a policy change.
Why should you monitor employee computers?
Everything that employees do on company time and company resources – matters. If you don`t monitor computer usage, you might be endangering your business and creating a space for a massive time clock fraud.
Here are five clear reasons why you should consider monitoring employee computers:
- You don`t want your employees to share confidential information.
- You don`t want them looking at inappropriate content while at work.
- You want to eliminate time clock cheating.
- You want to increase the overall productivity.
- You want to make sure that employees are not breaking the law by downloading illegal music or share inappropriate content on the Internet.
How can time tracking software help monitor employee computers?
Time tracking software is specially developed to track the work at a computer. It greatly simplifies and accelerates the process of human resource management.
It captures a time when employees stop and begin work, so you will never have problems with calculating the payrolls again.
Using only one program, you can easily control Internet usage and thus prevent illegal downloading and distribution of inappropriate content among employees.
After all, time tracking software is a powerful tool that helps to increase the overall productivity of the company.
Three best practices on how to monitor employee computers
It should go without saying that computer monitoring ought to be just one small component in a comprehensive strategy to maintain productivity. Once you've made the choice to monitor, you should follow these general guidelines to ensure your success.
Be honest: nobody likes being spied on. That's why it`s best to be frank with employees. Send out a simple e-mail where you explain that everything they do on company computers is being monitored and why you decided to monitor employee computers. Letting employees know that their behavior is being monitored can serve as a powerful deterrent against unwanted online activity. Plus, when employees know that they're being monitored, there's less possibility that they're going to object the monitoring.
Filter proactively: most good endpoint security tools include web and e-mail content filters that can block inappropriate websites and prevent users from sending or receiving files that can endanger your business. Use them. By limiting the ways your employees can get into trouble, you can prevent problems up front.
Check reports regularly: set up a schedule when you're going to look trough the reports. This will help to identify potential problems early and take timely actions to solve them. Whatever you discover – whether it's a time-wasting website that everyone is watching this week or a single person who is addicted to solitaire – you can often fix problems with a simple e-mail that tells your team you know what's up.
