Top 5 Employee Monitoring Solutions
Technology has given employees a lot of ways to increase their productivity. However, it’s also given them countless ways to waste their time – and their employer’s time.
Especially with the popularity of social networking sites, the Internet has become a potential black hole that sucks up employees’ time while they’re at work. To keep their workforce on track, many businesses have written policies forbidding excessive personal web use – but those are very difficult for managers to enforce.
The trouble extends beyond just productivity – what employees do while using the company’s equipment can get the organization in legal trouble – for example, if an employee is engaging in illegal activities online, using the Internet to harass a co-worker, distributing confidential corporate or customer information, etc.
Also, if employees visit the wrong places on the web, they could inadvertently infect the company’s network with viruses or spyware. Some activities, such as watching videos, can also hog network resources, slowing things down for employees who are actually trying to get work done.
The Benefits of Employee Monitoring
Those are the reasons why many businesses turn to employee monitoring software to help managers regulate what their employees are doing on company time and on company-owned equipment.
Employee monitoring software packages come in several different flavors. Some are focused only on employee Internet use and also include tools to block employees from visiting certain websites. Others can monitor incoming and outgoing email messages, so organizations can block certain information from being sent to people outside the company.
Other programs can monitor everything the employee does on the computer by recording screenshots of their PCs or the keystrokes they enter on the keyboard. Some can also monitor what files the employee accesses, to prevent employees from opening confidential information they aren’t cleared to read.
There are a lot of different employee monitoring software packages available for companies. Here are five that we recommend:
Work Examiner – Work Examiner software incorporates a number of monitoring and filtering features to help companies improve workers’ productivity and protect themselves from legal and security problems. The software’s web time usage analytics record not just what websites employees have visited, but also how much time they’ve spent on each.
For more information, read our Work Examiner Review.
IMonitor EAM – IMonitor’s Employee Activity Monitoring software is a full-service application designed to prevent employees from leaking confidential information, viewing offensive or illegal web content, harassing colleagues, or engaging in other inappropriate activities. IMonitor EAM can track employees’ web browsing history, email activity, document history, file transfers, and installation of removable data storage devices.
For more information, read our IMonitor EAM Review.
Pearl Software Echo Suite – An enterprise-class monitoring, filtering, and control software program, Pearl Echo tracks the web browsing, file transfers, news, chat, IM, company email and web-based email activity of all a company’s employees, including remote and mobile workers. Pearl Echo also allows management to set keywords and phrases to block so companies can prevent the dissemination of confidential information through web posts, blogs, instant messages, and email, including attachments.
For more information, read our Pearl Software Echo Suite Review.
Spector Soft – With a range a products for home use, small businesses, and large enterprises, Spector Soft offers a flexible employee monitoring solutions with enough options to meet the needs of any organization. For small businesses, Spector Soft offers software that can be installed on a single PC, a network-based application for multiple computers, and a remote monitoring solution that allows you to monitor activity from anywhere, using a computer or an Android or BlackBerry smartphone.
For more information, read our Spector Soft Review.
NesterSoft WorkTime – WorkTime is an employee monitoring application that can meet the needs of a business of any size – in fact, the software has been field-tested to work in companies with more than 5,000 computers. In addition to basic web monitoring features, WorkTime provides reporting functionality that can help companies refine their Internet use policies, such as showing what the top-visited sites are across the whole organization.
For more information, read our NesterSoft WorkTime Review.
