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Get Insights into Your Productivity by Using an Employee Monitoring App

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Get Insights into Your Productivity by Using an Employee Monitoring App

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Remote work is not only hailed as the next best thing because it reduces cost and encourages flexibility. Instead, it’s the glaring performance benefits that are pushing it mainstream.

Another good thing about telework is that it’s now easier than ever to track employee productivity, thanks to employee monitoring apps. Companies and employees can maximize their resources and improve performance when they know how working hours are spent.

That is why the Global Online Time Tracking Software Market size is expected to grow to $191.51 million by 2026 from $121.56 million in 2020.

This article will show the productivity insights you’ll get from time monitoring solutions and the best way to introduce these programs.

How Time Tracking Apps work

Time tracking is a method used by businesses to log their employees’ work hours. The recorded work hours are then used to determine payrolls. It’s one of the best ways to calculate billable hours in a remote environment.

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That said, tracked hours are not just used to calculate wages. Managers and supervisors can determine employees’ productivity by checking how long it takes to execute specific tasks. It’s an effective way for teams and companies to assess performance and know which areas to improve.

Time monitoring applications are the go-to solution for time tracking in virtual workplaces. They’re installed on computers and record work hours by tracking keyboard and mouse activity. Over the years, time logging apps have evolved into recording more than just time. They can now create timesheets automatically and monitor how an employee spends their working hours.

Does Time Tracking Improve Productivity?

A study published on the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 2015, long before COVID-19 hit, reported that remote workers are more productive. ConnectSolutions carried out the survey and found that 77% of workers reported better performance when working from home.

These performance improvements are a result of better working conditions and flexible hours. It even gets better when employers and employees use data from time trackers to optimize their work hours.

What Insights Can You Get From An Employee Monitoring App?

A personal time tracking app can show you things about your work life you never knew. These include metrics like websites you visit often and your most productive hours. So, let’s show you how time-tracking helps you monitor and optimize productivity.

Time Tracking Apps Can Help You Identify Distractions

Distractions are the biggest productivity killers. To defeat them, you first have to spot them. Time trackers can help with this. With a time-monitoring program, you and your employees can get detailed reports on how you spend time.

Some apps are designed to show sites and programs you use and how long you spend on them. However, it’s not just apps and websites that distract. It could be unimportant meetings, emergency tasks, interruptions from other team members, and personal affairs.

These data are valuable because they expose things that take you off course. After understanding the distractions, it’s easier to take steps to address them.

Time Trackers Help You Optimize Your Best Hours

Finding the hours where you’re more focused is liking striking gold. You could be a mid-day person or at your best after your morning coffee. With a time-tracker that evaluates productivity, this fact will become clear. You can identify your peak moments by looking at how you execute tasks.

From Passion To Profit

As a manager, time trackers will help you identify hours when each team member does their best work. This way, you can reserve more demanding tasks for these periods. Also, it would help to optimize these hours by clearing out distracting activities. These activities include briefs and unnecessary meetings.

Time Monitoring Software Help You Recognize Time-Wasting Activities

Every workplace has bloated processes that hurt performance and output. Sometimes, scheduled daily meetings for project briefs can be counterproductive, and time tracking could show you how.

According to a Tameday report in 2019, businesses spend $37 billion on unproductive meetings, and executives say 67% of meetings are failures.

Time monitoring apps can help you spot frustrating roadblocks (think specific approval processes) and bloated workflows. What’s more, some repetitive jobs that should be automated will always come up in timesheet reports. This way, you’re able to identify and address them.

Time Trackers Can Reduce Stolen Hours

Time theft is a severe bane on company revenue and productivity. According to Statistics Brain, the cost for US employers alone is $50 billion. Employers have also admitted to stealing from employees, which amounts to billions of dollars.

Time theft involves workers engaging in personal activities during work hours. Some throw away time doing nothing. On the employers’ side, they could deduct time from manual timesheets after employees submit them.

Automated time trackers are now more innovative and can curb time theft. They’re now equipped with advanced features to combat cheating tricks like using dual monitors and automatic mouse movements.

How Do You Implement Time Tracking?

You must start by introducing your team to your preferred time tracker and train them to use it. Of course, that’s if you’re not already using one.

Training is important. For example, time tracking for Windows can be different from monitoring work hours on a Mac. So, make sure you show your workers the ropes to avoid mistakes and inaccurate metrics.

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Even if you’re making it mandatory to use the employee monitoring tool, let them understand why you’re implementing the policy. They should welcome the move since it leads to more accurate billable hours and better productivity assessment.

You should also incentivize using the application correctly to discourage time-stealing practices.

Conclusion

With the insights you get from an employee monitoring tool, you can implement better project management structures, eliminate bloated work activities, and encourage transparency. That said, you must employ best practices when opting for a time-tracking solution and judiciously use the data they produce.

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