Monitoring Your Employees Done Right: Helpful Tips And Advice

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August 8, 2021 Career

The employees you have are your most valuable asset. If they don’t perform, then nothing else will. And in order to make sure that employees are performing up to your expectations, it’s important to monitor them and give feedback so that employees know what is expected of them and can improve their performance. Here are some helpful tips on how you can better monitor employees.

What you need to monitor

First of all, you need to know what you have to monitor employees for. This can be anything from how much time they spend on their phones to what projects they are working on and when, or if they’re spending too much time in the bathroom. You need to know which employees you will monitor so that they don’t feel singled out because it is important to make sure everyone feels involved with a company mission.

Here is a list of things you should look into:

How employees are spending their time
Employee productivity and output
Time spent on the phone or social media apps
What projects each employee is working on, when they work them, how much time it takes to complete these projects, etc.

The frequency depends on what type of employees you have and what your goals are for monitoring them but generally, once every shift would suffice as long as there weren’t any red flags popping up like people taking too many breaks or being distracted all day then maybe more than one checkup might be necessary during the week/month depending on the employees.

Install a productivity monitoring app

Productivity monitoring software is a popular way to monitor employees. They can be installed on phones, laptops, and desktops. This software allows employees’ every move in the office or at home to be monitored including opening emails, visiting social media sites, and surfing the web for personal use.

To install a productivity monitoring app on your employee’s devices you must first have their consent which means telling employees they are going to be monitored by installing an application with some sort of warning message such as “monitoring this device provides us peace of mind” or “we want you to feel safe.

This is not just to scare them. These apps can actually improve employees’ productivity if done right and if you are discreet with them. That is why you, as a modern business owner, should consider this option.

Monitoring employee computers and networks

Looking into the work computer and networks of employees is an important step in monitoring employees. This will show you if they are doing anything that is outside the scope of their job, such as gambling or shopping on company time.

You should always be able to see who has been using what computer and when at each location. Always monitor your employees with technology, especially computers because it can provide you a lot more insight than just watching them work day after day.

Monitoring employee phone calls

There are a lot of calls from the office every day. You may want to monitor employees’ phone calls in order to see who is doing what. However, there are some things that you need to keep in mind before monitoring employees’ telephone conversations. Know the laws and company policies regulating electronic surveillance.

Employee emails and internet usage

Every employee uses the internet to communicate with others. It is possible that employees might use this internet usage to send sensitive information, take screenshots of the company’s private data and share it online or other inappropriate behavior such as looking at pornography on their work computer and taking pictures of themselves in a state they would not want anyone else to see them in.

Employee social media accounts

If an employee spends too much time on social media, it could indicate they are not doing their work. You should monitor employees’ time spent on social media, and how often they check their accounts. If an employee spends more than two hours a day browsing the internet or looking at social media sites, this is worth discussing with them as a potential problem that may need to be addressed.

Have them give daily or weekly reports

Having an employee report what they did during a workday or workweek provides a lot of information about their behavior. This includes how much time is spent in meetings, on the phone, or at lunch conferences, for example. Employees might be relieved to not have to put up with an overly detailed report card every day. This can sometimes feel like micromanaging employees by asking them what they did during each minute of the workday as it was happening.

You need to monitor your employees, especially in the current climate. It is important that you track what they do online and on their phone because it might give you a better idea of how they are spending their time. This will help you catch any issues before they become larger problems for both them and yourself. Monitoring employee computers, networks, phone calls, emails, internet usage, and social media accounts can be done easily with an app or service like ours which makes gathering information easy. There are also other ways to collect data from your team such as asking them for daily or weekly reports. Do this and you’ll have a happier office.