Is Employee Monitoring Software Right for Your Business?

Many business owners and managers in today’s world are faced with a common dilemma: how to make sure their employees aren’t misusing the Internet during working hours. If you have these same concerns, you may have considered one of the many employee Internet monitoring software products available from various software manufacturers. Much of this software is designed to track your employees’ Internet usage – which sites they’re visiting, how much time they’re spending on each site, etc. While there’s no doubt that these products do what they’re advertised to do, the question still remains: is employee monitoring software right for your business? Identifying the Real Problem: Lack of Employee Productivity Suppose that your employees were able to use the Internet for personal business during work hours and still be as productive as they ever were before. Chances are you wouldn’t care if they occasionally logged onto social media sites or did a little personal banking from time to time as long as each worker was able to get his or her job done completely, accurately and on schedule. If you’re considering using employee Internet monitoring software, it’s probably because you’re concerned that your employees have low levels of productivity because of their misuse of the Internet. “Spyware” and How it Impacts Employee Morale The various forms of employee monitoring software products are often referred to as “spyware” and with good reason. After all, what this kind of tool allows you to do is, in effect, spy on your employees. Even if you don’t tell the workers that you’re using spyware to track their Internet usage, they will catch on eventually. Once they do, it will have a devastating impact on their morale. They will most likely feel that you don’t trust them to do their jobs, which will in turn lead to an even greater lack of motivation on their part. That lack of motivation will result in an even lower productivity level. Identifying the Real Solution: Motivate Your Employees to Do a Better Job Imagine that you’ve used employee Internet monitoring software and now know all the sites your workers visit on a regular basis and how often they visit them. Now that you’re armed with that information, what will you do with it? How will this improve your employees’ productivity level? The only real solution to the problem is to find a way to motivate your employees to do a better job. Spying on them won’t help. In fact, it will only make the situation worse. The real, long-term solution to improving workers’ productivity levels lies in a single word: MOTIVATION!