How Employee Monitoring Tools Affect Productivity?
Employers around the world have been looking for ways to increase efficiency at work in an
attempt to scale their business, and increase profitability. Software manufacturers have
recognized this need and created tools which help employees become more productive. Two
main tools that do this are employee monitoring and time tracking software.
But, why do they affect productivity so much? There are are several explanations, and in order
for you to best understand them, we will divide this article into three sections:
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Causes of Low Productivity
Productivity Statistics
Why Monitoring Software Increases Productivity?
So, let’s dive in!
Causes of Low Productivity
There are more than several reasons why your employees might be unproductive, but I’ll focus
on some of the most common ones.
The first one is definitely improper training. If your employees aren’t well equipped to perform
their daily duties, it’s only natural they’ll start slacking. It’s possible they’re not knowledgeable
enough about the software they should be using, or that they’re not sure how to perform a
certain task.
Next up it’s your own management and supervision, or the lack of. Whether your organizational
structure is vertical, horizontal, matrix or transparent is completely irrelevant here. You should
have effective leaders on your team, which know how to properly delegate as well as motivate
employees.
Task-switching, or multitasking, is another big productivity killer. You might think that you can
get more work done if you’re working on multiple tasks at the same time, yet your brain needs to
adapt to every new task you jump on, so it will take you more time to complete it.
Productivity Statistics
In order for you to understand why productivity matters, and why you should focus on helping
your employees improve, you must understand how much low productivity costs, and what are
some other statistics.
There are reports suggesting that an average worker is only productive for less than 3 hours per
day. Considering most workdays last for 8 days, the calculation is that these low productivity
levels are costing companies $550 billion per year! Given that employees take up to 23 minutes
to go back to the task once they switch, it’s not so surprising they’re only productive for 3 hours
per day.
These statistics aren’t very encouraging, but you can turn the odds simply by using some kind of
employee tracking software. I’ve had the opportunity to dive deep into reports from companies
who are using such software, and I saw some numbers which lead me to believe that employee
monitoring software can actually help:
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Monitored teams take 25% less time to complete their assignments
Active daily work grew by 10%, while productivity grew up to 32%!
Why Monitoring Software Increases Productivity?
When you know these numbers, you can’t help but wonder how it is possible that employee
monitoring software affects productivity in such a way. A part of it comes from the way
employees see the tracking software. They aren’t usually happy the company is using them, but
they still want to look their best, so they’ll work more because they know they’re being tracked.
On the other hand, if your management style is a bit more strict, they might be scared of
consequences if they don’t satisfy your performance requirements.
You definitely shouldn’t rely solely on these reasons if you want the software to help you
increase efficiency, as it won’t last long. Tracking software isn’t a magical solution that will
transform the way your team works. You must do some heavy lifting as well.
You can use the software to tackle the biggest cause of low productivity - lack of knowledge. By
analyzing the data you’re collecting, you can see if anyone on your team is struggling with a
particular type of task or tool. Invite this employee for a meeting, discuss the issue, and create a
training plan so they can get better at what they’re doing.
Tracking software are mostly used to track time on projects, therefore within them, you can
create projects and assign them to your employees. This way, you have a much better overview
of who is doing what on your team, and how busy they are. It’s a perfect way to ensure nobody
is overburdened with work.
The most important thing is that your team uses the software on a daily basis and that you
regularly analyze data on employee or team level. Without analysis, you won't be aware there's
anything to improve, and you'll think that the software wasn't really worth your time and money.
Wrap Up
Tracking software has other benefits besides productivity, and you should definitely look into all
of them. However, if productivity is your main concern, you should definitely turn to this type of
software for help.