A Balanced Approach
We all want each team member to contribute to increased productivity and drive the business forward. However, this isn’t always the case. Remote employees may lack the guidance or direction they need to succeed without solid Key Performance Indicators, expectations, and accountability.
Productivity is a crucial aspect, but it’s not the only reason to implement employee productivity monitoring in your law firm. Data breaches and concerns related to the security of sensitive data also exist, and it’s important for companies to realize that most cybersecurity risks are associated with team members’ use and misuse. This is not usually intentional. Establishing protocols to log and control employee access to sensitive data helps you track problems and defend against threats.
Should You Invest in Employee Monitoring Tools?
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all question, especially in the context of long-term remote working scenarios. Some companies do well with different types of employee monitoring tools. Larger businesses can benefit greatly from a data environment that lets your team give employees the authority or access they need for specific data. It quietly logs every access and change to documents, giving the needed information to identify who is responsible.
For smaller companies, various types of software are developed specifically to monitor employee use. Some of these options, such as email monitoring or even GPS tracking, may seem intrusive and impact employee engagement.
Employers should discuss these monitoring choices with staff to understand their feelings. You don’t want to increase employee turnover rates in your quest to improve productivity. A team that’s engaged often works much harder and is more productive, so there is a delicate balance in this decision-making process.
Despite the caution, numerous employee monitoring tools effectively boost productivity, secure personal data, and promote a positive company culture without being intrusive.
Types of Employee Monitoring
Many of the software programs and tools you currently use allow some level of oversight. If your team member is a remote worker, in your company’s database, you should be able to log who they are and what they’re accessing. Various employee monitoring tools serve different purposes.
- Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is an excellent organizational tool. Though not originally designed for monitoring, you can use its features to track activity. Microsoft usage reports and Teams reports can give you a clear picture of productivity and usage in the Teams environment.
- Monitoring Software: various types of monitoring software, like Teramind, are widely used. It’s not only employers who use these tools, but also schools and universities during the pandemic. They make it mandatory for students to use monitoring applications, which record information on devices. This includes details like open tabs, viewed pages, keystrokes, and camera usage for both video and still-frame images. Some options even allow you to retrieve screenshots.
- Phone Monitoring: This can be an excellent addition because it allows you to collect and use data that would otherwise be lost if the remote worker didn’t note it anywhere in the customer’s files. Many VoIP systems have extensive reporting options to help you collect data through this communication method.
- Microsoft 365 Reporting: There are many reports that could be helpful for the employee and employer, including email activity, contacts activity, calendar log events, and many others.
Conclusion
While there is specific software that can show you exactly how productive a user is being, there are also many options within the tools you’re currently using. Identifying the number of calls, hours of productive work, and scorecards are all easy and included components of tools you’re already using!
Implementing a more comprehensive employee monitoring system is also a possibility, especially for long-term remote working situations. However, it would be best to identify the potential impact on company culture before doing so.
Our recommendation is to focus on expectations, accountability, and creating a positive work environment versus implementing such software. As an IT Provider, we want to let you know about this and emphasize the importance of having a skilled technical team manage it.
If you have any questions on using your IT systems to assist with remote worker productivity monitoring or employee engagement, please let us know. Resolved IT is here to help!
