How do companies track remote employees?

11 of February, 2021

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has become a widespread and necessary practice and something that managers as well as workers just have to get used to. But with your staff working from the comfort of their own homes, how can you know how productively they are working? Actually, there are a lots of ways you can monitor remote employees. But the question isn’t just: How do I track remote workers? It is also: How closely should I monitor them?

How do companies monitor remote employees?

Companies have many tools at their disposal to monitor remote work from their employees. If the workers are connected to the organisation’s virtual private network, then the employer can track pretty much every aspect of their online activity.

Moreover, most of the software used professionally provide monitoring features. Keystroke monitoring, for instance, allows employers to log and analyse their workers’ keyboard activity. Zoom can report to the meeting’s host on inactive users, that is those who are off the Zoom app for more than 30 seconds. Slack grants companies access to private conversations between employees. And Google Drive provides many analytic tools worker activity and productivity.

How do you manage employees from a remote location?

Managing your remote workers isn’t the same as managing employees that come every day to the office. Indeed, the absence of face-to-face contact can really put a dent on the communication between staff and manager. So how do you about managing employees who are working from home?

Well, a good place to start is to implement a time tracking software. Sesame’s time tracking tool enables you to easily keep track of your employees’ activity. You can check who is working remotely, who is in the office, and who is on holiday. Among its many features, Sesame gives you access to detailed reports and statistics that you can use to optimise your company’s time management.

However, there is more to remote employee management than just tracking them.

How closely should I monitor my employees?

Companies have access to numerous tracking tools that enable them to monitor their employees’ activity. But you should be wary of overusing them. Indeed, as an employer, you have certain rights regarding remote work. One of them is to demand a certain level of productivity from your employees and to hold them accountable. But you shouldn’t focus all your efforts on tracking what your remote workers are doing every second of their workday. After all, no one wants to work for an Orwellian company. All that excessive monitoring will achieve is to create a climate of distrust and frustration.

And anyway, employee tracking will not in itself ensure optimal productivity. Other measures are necessary to maximise your workforce’s performance levels. It starts by creating a healthy work environment and increasing employee engagement, for instance by fostering a teamwork culture. This is not easy to achieve when a significant part of your staff is working remotely, but it is essential to maintaining and increasing your business’s profitability. To help you with that, we have compiled the best tips to increase productivity in the workspace.

The data you gather through a time tracking software like Sesame should serve to analyse your staff’s performance and to understand how you can improve it. In the end, the key is to use, not abuse of the monitoring technologies at your disposal.