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While work from home (WFH) setups have become more rampant due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several businesses previously included such practices. Hence, business owners follow specific guidelines and protocols that effectively ensure smooth operations. Working from home has its fair share of upsides and downsides on both the employer’s and the employee’s end. And to proceed with business as usual, it’s essential both parties meet halfway and/or on the same page. One great way of doing so is a fully consented remote employee monitoring.
Aside from the risk of compromising the productivity of the business and the quality of the products or services offered, there are also the possibilities of being targeted by online predators and falling victim to cybercrimes. Hence, the monitoring of WFH employees is more than just micromanaging them. In fact, it’s more of a safety measure and security protocol. So if you’re running or managing a virtual/remote business, read on to better understand why remote monitoring is important and how to monitor employees working from home.
4 Ways To Monitor Work From Home Employees
In the same way, there’s a myriad of available tools to run and oversee business operations. There are also several ways to monitor the people behind such exquisite and vital processes. Whichever works for you, the company, and employees, be sure to put in place some sort of a monitoring process. We’ll further discuss later why it’s important to implement at least one, but for now, here are four of the most cost-efficient ways to monitor your employees at home.
Tracking Software
Most premium device monitoring apps can make great employee monitoring software. This is because such programs are equipped with advanced and modern features capable of granting remote and real-time access to any compatible device. Just by installing a monitoring app to your employee’s company-issued phone, you can remotely view, access, and monitor all their online and offline activities.
Track GPS locations, record phone call logs, capture messages and emails, access files, filter accessible content, block certain apps or sites – among various other things you can achieve when utilizing a premium monitoring software. And to further help you set on the right foot, one of the best apps for employee monitoring is Highster Mobile. Click here to learn more about this exquisitely programmed and smartly designed employee monitoring tool.
Email Analytics
If you’re utilizing emails at work, then a device or desktop monitoring via email analytics could be a great option. Most email providers offer built-in reporting features, especially paid subscriptions for premium or business accounts.
Depending on the provider and the package you avail of, you can manually generate such reports or automatically extract data in just a few clicks to adjust filters. In most cases, email analytics grant access to the total and/or average work hours, numbers of emails sent and received, average response times, current active interactions, a list of resolved email tickets, and more.
Project Management App
Project management with computer monitoring apps/sites are specifically programmed for business owners or operations managers to efficiently run all need processes to produce desirable outputs. Such management apps come in different forms, but in most cases, these are cloud-based platforms that only require login credentials to access, manage, and organize project tasks.
Aside from ensuring the workload is evenly distributed, this could also be a great tool in tracking which tasks have been accomplished and which are still pending. It works like a huge to-do list board that efficiently guides both the employer and the employee.
Self-Reporting
If there’s a well-established trust and confidence within the workplace, implementing self-reporting could also be an excellent way of remotely monitoring employees working from home. This could be ideal if you’re managing a small team or a big team of experts capable of working with minimal supervision.
You could ask them for a summary report every after end-of-shift, enumerating what has been accomplished, what else needs to be done, challenges encountered, and other information deemed necessary. You might also ask them to send a journal-type or a suggestion-type report to help you better understand their points of view. When supported with actual data or recorded numbers, the information acquired from such reports could help better manage your business and staff.
Why Monitor Your Remote Employees?
Employee monitoring isn’t merely about not having trust in your staff. This is especially if your business operations are on a virtual or remote setup. Several external and/or uncontrollable factors are lurking in the cyber world. More often than not, employee monitoring is the firewall that protects the safety, security, and privacy of your business, employees, clients, and data.
Here are some strong points why you might want to remotely monitor your employees working from home.
To Drive and/or Maintain High Productivity
Employees tend to get distracted when not properly guided or motivated, affecting their overall productivity or how well they perform during their work time. Not to mention the various destructions available on a WFH setup like social media, streaming sites, and gaming platforms.
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can better manage their tasks and ensure the overall workload is properly and evenly distributed. You can better ensure they make the most out of their work time, resulting in reasonably high productivity.
To Guarantee Optimum Results
Employee performance doesn’t only depend on the employee’s level/depth of knowledge about the company’s products/services and business processes. Various other factors might affect the quality of their outputs.
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can better assist them in making sure they follow the right process and/or they always give out their best when performing tasks. Since you have remote and real-time access, it’s easier for you to identify opportunities and address those.
To Maintain Work-Life Balance
Remote working could easily go south when not properly and objectively managed. Most individuals working from home are incapable of maintaining a work-life balance. They are either too lax and leave lots of backlogs, or they are overworked and end up always feeling stressed or burnout.
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can better see how to help them achieve a healthy balance of their lifestyle. You get to proactively figure out if they are under or overworking, hence intervening whenever needed to ensure their morale is kept boosted.
To Identify and Maintain Strengths
Among your employees – especially if you’re managing quite a few teams or one big team – there are always achievers, goal-oriented, procrastinators, or those who do anything to avoid a heavy workload. Regardless, one great way of ensuring they show up for work and continue producing desirable outputs is to identify their strengths and dwell on those.
You can better understand which processes or aspects they’re good at by remotely monitoring your employees. Focus on the things they do best and be sure to make them feel appreciated about those. When employees feel valued, they’re more likely to carry on with their good qualities.
To Identify and Address Opportunities
Of course, employees aren’t perfect. Even your tenured agents can commit basic mistakes from time to time. And when you have to address opportunities, be sure to approach them in a way that they feel understood, not judged.
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can instantly identify and address opportunities to avoid those from happening again. You have to consider that your staff could also commit honest mistakes so that you can easily and quickly bridge gaps through monitoring.
To Ensure the Security of Company-Owned Devices
Employers who issue devices to their employees must be wary of the possible dangers that could compromise the security of all their company-owned devices. Since such devices are used for important business operations and/or hold important data, their security must be a top priority.
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can better oversee vulnerabilities or loopholes on their devices and instantly patch those. You could also remotely control the devices to ensure only safe sites and malware-free content are accessible.
To Keep the Safety of all Managed Data
Data protection is also a great reason for remote employee monitoring. This is especially the case if your business is handling clients’ private data like PII and confidential information (medical conditions, banking details, etc.).
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can better secure the data they handle during and after each business transaction. You also get to ensure they don’t intentionally or unintentionally exploit any data.
To Oversee Business Operations
Overall, as the owner or manager of the business, you’d want to have a clear view of the big picture, including the tiniest details on the least relevant business operation/process. If you’re advertising in social media, for instance, seeing what your employees’ post or how they reply to comments can go a long way in ensuring high-quality results and desirable outputs.
By remotely monitoring your employees, you can better plan ahead and plot your next moves. Intel would be your best ally in ensuring you’re on the right track towards the success you’re aiming for in your business.
You may also like: 5 Practical Ways to Effectively Engage Employees Working from Home
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