Using an Activity Monitor to Track Employee Productivity

The Internet has changed our lives in so many ways, particularly when it comes to businesses. Many mundane tasks—like arranging for packages to be shipped or looking up information—have been streamlined. Nevertheless, the Internet has also had, in some cases, a negative impact on business. Because it’s so convenient and easily accessible, some employees may spend too much of their business day using the Internet for personal reasons or just as a distraction from their job duties. Because of this, many business owners and managers are faced with the problem of employees being nonproductive during their workday.
It’s easy to understand how employers might be tempted to utilize software designed to track Internet usage through an employee’s computer monitor. Using this type of software—often referred to as “spyware”—will often have a very negative effect on employee morale. Many employees will view it as an invasion of their privacy, and that will create a certain amount of distrust between the employee and the business owner or manager. Not only that, but this type of software really doesn’t directly address the issue of a lack of employee productivity. After all, any employee who looks for distractions at work will find them, regardless of how his Internet activity is tracked.
This is especially true since the advent of smart phone technology. Nowadays, with more and more employees bringing their smart phones to the office, it’s virtually impossible to control their access to the Internet. Social media sites, shopping sites, celebrity gossip sites and others only serve to increase the level of temptation on the part of employees to waste time during the work day. If they can’t access the Internet through a workplace computer monitor, they can still access it through their smart phones.
The real key to addressing the problem of unproductive employees is to find ways to encourage the employees to work harder. Rather than punishing the bad behavior, why not encourage the desired positive behavior? One effective means of doing this is to find a software package that will track employees’ productivity. By using software that acts as an activity monitor, the business manager can not only track what percentage of the employee’s time is spent in productive tasks, but also set goals for each employee to meet.
Many times setting goals for employees will not only discourage them from wasting time at work, but it will also motivate them to do a better and better job over time. Monitoring productive activity in the office place, rather than tracking nonproductive time, will benefit not just the business manager, but the employee as well.