4 Main Types of Employee Monitoring for Workplaces

Employee monitoring is not a new phenomenon and has existed in many forms for decades. However in recent years new types of monitoring have been introduced that take advantage of modern technology to more effectively track employee activities.

But of the many options out there, the four main methods of employee monitoring you should know about are:

• Keycards or active badges

Essentially these are special cards that employees are meant to carry with them (or attach to their clothes). Each card has a chip with a unique ID that makes it possible for you to track where employees are and how much time they spend at different locations.

The main weakness of this type of monitoring is that employees may end up leaving the keycard behind on their office desk or some other location – rendering it ineffective.

• Time tracking software

Think of time tracking software as the digital equivalent of punch cards – just much more effective. They can track exactly how much time employees spend on specific tasks or projects, which can be helpful for project management and resource planning. Can you please rewrite this to: Think of time tracking software as the digital equivalent of punch cards – just much more effective. Tools like Workstatus can track exactly how much time employees spend on specific tasks or projects, which can be helpful for project management and resource planning.

• Employee monitoring software

With specialized software it is possible to track pretty much everything that employees are doing on their computers and other devices. Tools like Controlio can track what apps employees use, which websites they visit, and how long they spend on various activities. In that way you can get insight into the employee performance, and Controlio will even calculate a productivity score for each employee.

The features of Controlio will also enable you to capture screenshots, monitor communication via email or instant messaging apps, check for file transfers, capture screenshots at specific intervals, and even record keystrokes. If you want you can check it out and see how it can even set up monitoring profiles for different groups of employees, and receive regular automated reports.

Overall this type of monitoring is great if you want to improve project management, productivity, and cybersecurity.

• Video surveillance

As you can probably guess, this method involves using video cameras to keep tabs on specific locations. While it is effective at monitoring locations and can be used for safety, it is not good at tracking specific employees unless paired with a facial recognition system of some sort.

Compared to other methods the applications of video surveillance are somewhat limited and it is mainly used as a security measure nowadays.

Make no mistake there are other types of monitoring out there, but most are not as widely-used as the four listed above. Each of these four can be incredibly potent in certain situations, but as you can see they also each have limitations of their own.

At the end of the day there is no one option that is universally the ‘best’ when it comes to the type of employee monitoring available nowadays. Instead the ‘best’ option will depend largely on what you want to achieve by monitoring your employees and the specific circumstances of your company.