Most employers have implemented some type of employee tracking software in their teams for a multitude of reasons. Some simply want an easier way to track time attendance, others want to have accurate insight into how productive and efficient their employees are. 

However, employee and company safety are often also great motivators for the implementation of employee monitoring software. It’s highly effective at preventing employee time theft and ensuring security compliance. 

In case it’s unclear what employee computer monitoring software means, let’s quickly define it. This software is a type of surveillance app that tracks, monitors, and at times, analyzes how your employee spends their time while on the clock. 

Depending on which solution for tracking employees a company uses, the tool can work as standalone software, or it may have other integrated features such as blocking certain websites, USB blocking, and other security applications. 

Ideal for Onsite, Remote, and Hybrid Work

The point of an employee tracking app isn’t to follow an employee’s every move and to breach their privacy. It’s to ensure that the employee is being productive and that their behavior while on the clock is compliant with the company’s safety and security policies. 

Simply said, nobody wants to be the employer that is constantly breathing down the neck of their employees. Using a company productivity tracker has shown to be successful for onsite, remote, and hybrid work. If you want to learn more about all of the benefits that this type of software brings to your company and workforce, click here. 

Even though employee monitoring software has been around for years before the pandemic even hit, right now, it’s a solution that most companies can’t function without. Especially since research has shown that the lockdowns we endured in the first year of the pandemic permanently changed how people feel about work. Remote and hybrid work is here to stay, as more and more companies are permanently adapting to these working models. 

Eliminating Employee Time Theft and Data Breaches

To understand how important cyber security really is, we’re going to go over some terrifying statistics and data. For example, did you know that in 2021, cybercrime (including employee data breaches, data leaks, and so on) cost U.S. businesses almost $7 billion? 

CybSafe reported in 2019 that 90% of UK cybersecurity breaches in the UK were attributed to human error. It’s also interesting to note that 86% of breaches in 2020 were financially motivated.

Cybersecurity Ventures, one of the world’s leading researchers and publishers, expects the global cybercrime cost to grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years; meaning that it will reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. This is to say that it will become more profitable than the global trade of all illegal substances combined and overthrow the cost of repairs caused by natural disasters. 

In 2020, Arcserve’s Data Attack Surface Report found that 59% of buyers are likely to avoid companies that have suffered from a cyberattack in the past year. The report further shows that 25% of consumers would fully abandon the use of a service or product in favor of a competitor after a single ransomware-related disruption. 

The reasoning behind this is that these previously mentioned events paint a picture that the company or enterprise does not care about cybersecurity or the data safety of their clients or customers.

All of this can be prevented by keeping eye on and analyzing employees’ network behavior, since that way we can put a stop to suspicious behavior and identify possible security threats with ease. 

Productivity Loss & Safety Endangering Behavior

Even though computer monitoring software has revolutionized the workspace, it’s no secret that thousands of companies are losing vast amounts of money due to employee time theft, data breaches, and other security threats. 

The definition of time theft is, essentially, employees getting paid time during which they should have been working – but weren’t getting any actual work done. Time theft differs in severity since it’s not always done with malicious intent. 

Sometimes, it occurs because employees are mismanaging their break times, forgetting to punch in or out, or simply because there is a lack of employee time tracking infrastructure, which causes them to overestimate the time that they spent working.  

Data leaks and breaches slightly differ from each other. A data leakage means that confidential information is exposed to potential unauthorized access. For example, if someone gains unauthorized access to sensitive data accidentally or due to someone’s mistake, that’s considered a data leak. A data breach would occur if a cybercriminal can gain access to sensitive data in an unauthorized, usually illegal manner. 

Monitoring Protect Against Employee Negligence

Your company network should always be a safe and secure space. It should always be free from ransomware, theft of trade secrets, insider data leaks or data breaches, and so on. 

If you are a safety-conscious employer, you know how important it is to stop data breaches, data leaks, and other security-compromising activities from happening, since there are many ways in which an employee can, either accidentally or purposefully, create a potentially unsafe environment for themselves, other workers, and the company in general.

But how does employee tracker software enhance productivity and safety, and stop employee time theft? As you know, employees are not flawless working machines and it’s simply impossible for an employee to be 100% productive all of the time. 

Some productivity loss is bound to happen. However, where you as an employer want to step in is when you see that one or some of your employees are heavily underperforming while on the clock. Installing software to track employees is the easiest way to prevent this. 

Monitoring software for employees doesn’t just track their online behavior while working, it also analyzes and sends out reports to administrators. Some of these advanced tools even give you real-time alerts regarding suspicious or unwanted employee behavior. 

This lets you proactively put a halt to any compliance and safety breaches. Some examples of this behavior include sharing credentials or sensitive information with their coworkers, visiting malicious sites, and downloading unauthorized software, or risky files, potentially filled with viruses and other malware. 

Enhancing Workplace Safety With Employee Tracking Software

By now, you understand that workplace safety and employee monitoring software are practically synonymous with each other. In 2022, one simply can’t happen without the other. When choosing the perfect employee tracker, you need to keep in mind what your security needs are, as a security-conscious employer. 

For example, if you have workers who regularly access sensitive information tied to your company or enterprise, you need employee tracker software that meets your compliance requirements.

Workplace security and company monitoring subject can be tricky ones. Nobody wants to be the employer that implements a Faucaltian “all-seeing eye” that makes employees feel uncomfortable or like they are void of any privacy. 

However, a good, reliable employee tracking tool will keep the privacy of your employees intact, all while keeping your company’s data safe.