How employee monitoring tech facilitated the rise of remote work

People often point to the pandemic as the reason why remote work became so popular – and that’s at least partly true. However it is important to remember that there were other factors at play too, and one of the most important in facilitating the rise of remote work was definitely employee monitoring tech.

What part did employee monitoring have to play exactly? Well, keep reading to find out.

Supervision and productivity monitoring

In most companies, employees work on-site and have managers supervising them. The managers are able to check what they’re doing, make sure they’re working, and ensure they’re being productive.

Needless to say conventional supervision isn’t possible with remote work. That’s why employee monitoring tech is required.

By using Controlio to monitor employees, you can supervise pretty much all their activity. That includes the apps that they use, websites they visit, files they download, emails, IM messages, and a whole lot more.

More to the point, Controlio will let you track how long your employees spend working, whether they’re active or idle, what they’re actually doing, and it’ll even calculate a productivity score for each of them. In short it will give you a way to keep an eye on employees who are working remotely and ensure their productivity remains satisfactory.

Improved security and threat identification

One of the biggest downsides of remote work is that it has the potential to create an unsecured endpoints in the form of each remote employee. Fortunately this is something that software for employee monitoring can help address.

In Controlio it is possible to block malicious websites, prevent file downloads, stop USB access, monitor files, and take other important steps to beef up security. The level of scrutiny it can provide by capturing screenshots and keystrokes can also be used to identify abnormal behavior patterns and check if they’re a threat.

Keep in mind that exact level of security that employee monitoring tech can provide does vary from one software to the next. On top of that it is also important to note that other security measures may be required to help encrypt data, prevent unauthorised access, and so on.

Spot early warning signs of burnout

Another unfortunate side effect of remote work is that employees tend to feel cut off and isolated – which leads to them also feeling disengaged and stressed out. If left unchecked this can cause them to burnout.

While employee monitoring can’t directly prevent burnouts, it can help you to spot early warning signs such as missed deadlines or a general drop in productivity. From Controlio’s reports you can also check whether your employees are working excessively long hours or not taking enough breaks.

All this information will let you identify employees that are at risk of burning out early enough to take action. If you do spot an employee who seems to be struggling, you should approach them and find out how you can provide them with the support they need.

Conclusion

All in all it is safe to say that employee monitoring tech has a vital role to play in facilitating remote work. Without it employers would struggle to supervise their employees and maintain their productivity – and would also have to deal with security issues and an increased risk of burnout to boot.

If you’re going to be starting a remote work program in your company, odds are you’ll need some sort of employee monitoring tech. Just remember that it is important that you carefully plan out how you’re going to use it so that you don’t end up crossing any legal or ethical lines in the process.

The editorial unit