Although the work from home routine isn’t new, it has tripped among companies after the outbreak of Coronavirus. Most of the businesses have already asked their employees to work remotely and others are joining the league. However, work from home may seem like a suitable solution for the safety of the masses currently and it does have generated some red flags for companies’ management.
Monitoring employees’ daily tasks and keeping tabs on their overall productivity has become a huge concern. Therefore, the need for monitoring apps is surging. Companies are welcoming better applications and aids that could keep tabs on the productivity of each employee working remotely.
The question is: Would these apps act as planned or would these bring other issues in the future for companies’ management? Well! The answer isn’t that simple. Some businesses, with the proper execution of the remote monitoring framework, could do wonders. And, others may even fail to take the first step towards successful execution, failing to win employees’ trust.
How Monitoring Apps Could Help Businesses?
In the midst of all these discussions, there are certain businesses that have already been singing praises for the monitoring apps. These applications have helped many companies and managers to keep an eye on the work routine of their employees when working from home.
For instance, Axos Financial Inc., a bank holding company based out of San Diego is doing the needful for ensuring that the employees aren’t taking advantage of the new work culture. According to the online bank’s CEO, Gregory Garrabrants, the companies have been watching employees taking unfair benefits of the flexible arrangement offered by remote working. One can take vacations without notifying the company when working online. These incidents are becoming common with the rise of work from home culture.
When talking about remote monitoring, the companies are able to at least keep tabs on the work hours of their employees. These applications have been assisting managers to find out the time solely invested in their daily jobs. Using spying software, companies can capture keystrokes, check the website browsing history, take screenshots (with an interval of 10 minutes) and much more.
These features can help understand the way employees are using their flexible work hours. The purpose does not end here. Using spying apps could enable managers to spot employees engaging in inappropriate behaviors, such as printing the list of clients along with updating their resume.
Talking about the bright side of the aspect, employees will get enough opportunity to prove themselves when having a transparent monitoring system installed for all the colleagues. No more blindfolds and misjudgments due to lack of proper proofs. Plus, managers would also be able to analyze the department at work that are overstaffed as well as areas that may need hands.
In short, these spying apps would be a great aid for not only monitoring employees but a handful of other challenges companies face day today.
Is It Legal?
Now the question comes: If it is legal to have such intensive screening of companies’ employees while they are at work? Well! To be straightforward, it is completely normal, if the companies are upfront about their monitoring activities with the employees.
Yes, companies can monitor the work laptops, phones and other devices. However, they must intimate the employees of the same before starting to do so. Also, digital surveillance has been a part of a company’s security measures for a long time. In spite of this fact, a lot of employees do feel it a breach of their privacy when working from home.
Does that really make a difference? Once again, the answer isn’t that simple. Employees do believe that the monitoring could breach security causing expensive losses. While this may seem like a genuine excuse, it still does not imply to the overall audience. For some, it is just a hideout to being able to continue ignoring work for pleasure when not monitored.
Instances such as midday nap or leaving the work desk for other household chores when at home aren’t too surprising. People have been doing it which is the reason why companies are looking forward to monitoring apps.
What the Monitoring App Companies Have to Say?
There are many companies that are offering such apps. For example, InterGuard, Time Doctor, VeriClock, Teramind, ActivTrak and others. These solutions offer screen monitoring along with features assessing productivity metrics. Helping managers to keep a check on the overall work performance of their employees.
After the coronavirus attack, the work from home wasn’t just limited to a few companies’ cultures and it is widespread. Therefore, the need for monitoring apps has risen simultaneously. As per Rita Selvaggi, the CEO of ActivTrak, their inbound requests have been increasing exponentially after the COVID 19 pandemic.
Similarly, other companies have seen a rise in requests for their services. Above all, these companies believe that the monitoring software is not just a spying app, it is much more than that. And, those planning to install it because of trust issues, may have to deal with other major issues later.
According to Eli Sutton, the vice president for Teramind global operations, the apps do not intend to just spy on employees every move. This would rather be a greater problem to deal with in the future if seeking monitoring apps for such purposes. Instead, these apps help analyze productivity metrics, look for areas being overstaffed, departments needing extra helping hands and much more. Because, if a company does not trust certain employees, there is no need for those employees in the company, anyway.
More Recommendations
If your company needs a monitoring app too, here are a few recommendations to start with. These are easy to install and competitively priced.
Cocospy: A very powerful yet safe app for those wanting to monitor devices without jailbreaking or rooting the target device. In three simple steps, you can get started.
Mspy: If you wish to monitor windows and MAC devices along with android and iPhones, this is the best suit. Affordable and feature stacked. You can read this full guide if you want to monitor employees using Mspy.
The Conclusion
Monitoring devices at offices isn’t something new. And, with an increase in work from home culture, the need has only surged. People have started using work time to accommodate for their household chores. In addition, managers find it difficult to measure quality and productivity with remote operation. And, monitoring apps are just the right answer for the same.
