With the increase in remote work and the need to manage teams that work from home or in different locations, the use of employee monitoring software has become increasingly common. However, the use of such software can raise privacy and ethical issues. Therefore, it is important to use this software responsibly and transparently. In this article, you will find tips for using employee monitoring software.

Understanding that implementing employee monitoring software can increase tensions in the workplace, try to follow the recommendations that will help reduce possible negative effects:

• Consider implementing employee monitoring software only as a positive activity, necessary to better organize and manage the workflow of your company, as well as determine ways to achieve superior performance. Do not take this as a chance to punish someone and in no way as a possibility to invade the privacy of your employees.

• Make monitoring as transparent as possible so that your employees understand that employee monitoring software aims to track workflow and not them personally. To this end, you can share aggregated reports provided by the software with your team - this will clearly show useful statistics collected, but these statistics will not refer to named individuals.

• Avoid secret monitoring - this can be illegal and unethical. Although in many jurisdictions you have permission to use software to monitor employee computer activity without their knowledge and consent, it is more ethical to inform your team about surveillance. Additionally, you cannot be sure that no one will ever know about the monitoring. The revelation of this fact will lead to a strong deterioration of your company's morale and may even result in brain drain. On the other hand, by informing your employees that you will monitor their computer and activities, you can gain more understanding and greater motivation to work harder - this is not your main long-term goal?

• Take into account the desires and suggestions of your employees regarding monitoring methods and their implementation. There is a wide variety of employee monitoring software, and different programs have different features - from keylogging and screenshot capture to monitoring activities in various applications. It makes sense to discuss the features and functions of the employee monitoring software you will deploy and then gather feedback from your employees. If you consider their opinion, you can make the implementation more effective and painless.

• Focus on tracking results rather than activities. Is it worth reprimanding your employee just because you analyzed the access history, proving that they read news for 15 minutes, as long as the employee has fully completed the assigned tasks? Perhaps it is better to allow your team to relax a bit when their work is done. The story is quite different when an employee fails to perform their tasks in a timely manner - in this case, it is worth focusing your analyzes on access histories to understand what distracts them from doing their work.

Always follow correction lines when expressing your observations about the results of computer activity monitoring. Your team members will appreciate you speaking politely and constructively rather than shouting and being aggressive with them - even if you have reasons to be angry. The use of software to monitor employees is a delicate matter, so do not make it worse by being too emotional.

When assigning tasks or giving work instructions, draw your personnel's attention to the software resources you can use to monitor their performance and compliance. Let them be aware of the consequences of their actions - this will encourage their responsible attitude towards the specified tasks and instructions. It is always better to use computer activity monitoring possibilities to prevent problems rather than punish the authors of the problems.

Remember that you decide to monitor your personnel's activity for a specific purpose and that surveillance is not an end in itself. If you or your HR manager spend days doing nothing but looking at screens, emails, chats, and browsing history on your team's computers, maybe you misunderstood the purpose of employee monitoring software.

As a follow-up to the point mentioned above, make sure your surveillance activity is regular and selective. When your employees know that their computers are regularly monitored, it will keep them alert. However, you will be overwhelmed with information unless you use some kind of selective approach.

Explain your purpose of using employee monitoring software, making it clear to any team member. Increasing productivity, reducing costs, improving working conditions through a more equitable distribution of tasks and more reasonable compensation - in fact, this type of software helps achieve multiple objectives, useful for both the company owner and the employees.

Note that team self-discipline is the best control option, so encourage it and transfer responsibility to your team.

Do not be too demanding and give your team some time. It is not the end of the world if your employee spends an extra minute on the Internet sharing photos of their children or types reports more slowly than usual. You are also human, right? Draw conclusions and implement measures only if such actions are systematic.

Talk about both positive and negative results of monitoring employee computer activity. It is not the best motivation for your team to only hear about their failures. Praise and encourage the employees who have proven their effectiveness and commitment to your company's work instructions. Let your team understand that you monitor computer and internet activity not only to punish them but also to reward them.

In summary, the use of employee monitoring software can be a useful tool for managing remote teams, but it is important to use it responsibly and transparently. With clear communication and the establishment of appropriate policies, you can ensure that your employees feel comfortable and confident in using the software.

Now that you know some tips for using employee monitoring software, get to know Monitoo and its features.