Best Employee Monitoring Software Of 2024 (2024)

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• Hubstaff: Best overall
• Teramind: Best for time tracking
• ActivTrak: Best for robust free plan
• DeskTime: Best for task management
• StaffCop Enterprise: Best value for money for large companies
• Controlio: Best for monitoring a distributed workforce
• We360.ai: Best for customer support
• Insightful: Best for promoting transparency
• Traqq: Best for team management
• InterGuard: Best for a mobile workforce

Employee monitoring software is a software platform businesses use to track and oversee employees’ activities during their work hours. This technology can offer insights into behavior such as productivity, attendance and online habits to help companies make decisions about how to use their resources most effectively.

A simple application of the software is tracking an employee’s hours by monitoring when they log in and out. More advanced systems may track keystrokes, capture screenshots or record screen activity, providing a detailed view of an employee’s work behavior. Reports commonly include usage of software applications, websites visited, documents accessed and specific keystrokes made. Some software companies include features for tracking employee location, which is particularly useful for businesses with remote or mobile workers.

This software isn’t solely about internet surveillance. It also serves as a valuable tool for productivity analysis by providing managers with detailed reports about how work time is spent. With this data, managers can better understand work processes, optimize workflow and aid employees in improving their performance. Moreover, employee monitoring software plays a critical role in maintaining cybersecurity. It can help prevent data breaches by detecting suspicious activity or behavior. For instance, an unusual data transfer can trigger alerts that enable quick preventive actions to be taken.

While research shows that employee monitoring improves worker productivity, it can also be destructive when it comes to morale and company culture. No one wants to feel like they are being watched or are not trusted. Benefits of employee monitoring could include increased productivity, increased security and cost savings—downfalls can include employee frustration, increased turnover, ethical issues and potential legal issues.

With remote work becoming the norm rather than the exception, many companies want to ensure their employees are as productive working remotely as they are in the office. A few nontechnical ways to do that is to schedule weekly review meetings, create a healthy workforce culture with consistent open communication, focus on employees’ growth, incorporate positive feedback and create transparent feedback rituals.

To keep employee trust, companies that do elect to use employee monitoring software should be transparent with their employees about when, where, how and why they are being monitored. Companies should clearly state work expectations, have specific policies in place around employee monitoring, ensure employees are aware of these policies, only use their software in visible mode and be open to honest conversations with employees about any concerns that may arise.

The market is flooded with numerous employee monitoring software solutions, each offering their own diverse range of features and pricing. With so many options, how do you know where to start when it comes to finding the perfect solution for your team?

First, start with clarifying your business goals when choosing an employee monitoring software. What do you want the software to achieve? This could range from enhancing productivity to managing remote workers to ensuring data security. Why do you need it? Perhaps you’re seeking more visibility into work processes or maybe you’re addressing specific challenges such as time management or potential data breaches.

Understanding the nature of your workforce is equally crucial. For a largely remote team, you may need features such as location tracking or screen recording, whereas an office-based team might require less stringent monitoring.

The degree of invasiveness is another significant factor. Yes, detailed monitoring can provide comprehensive insights, but it’s vital to strike a balance between gathering useful data and respecting employee privacy. Overly invasive software can harm morale and trust, which can negatively affect the very productivity you aim to improve.

Once you figure all this out, you can then move on to evaluating which employee monitoring software has the right features, ease of use and price for your business.

Businesses need to understand their specific objectives for using the employee monitoring software. If the primary goal is to boost productivity, then features such as time tracking, activity logs, and website and application usage might be key. Some software platforms, such as DeskTime, even offer task management features including an absence calendar, document tracking, project tracking and detailed project reports.

For those prioritizing data security, features that alert systems for unusual activity or access to sensitive information may be critical, while companies managing remote teams might look for location tracking and screen recording features. If you are managing your teams remotely, Hubstaff has a geofence feature that allows employers to create a job site on a map. Once that is done, employees will automatically be clocked in and out when they enter the geofence area. This is ideal for workers whose job site regularly changes, such as landscapers or construction workers.

It’s also worthwhile to consider how detailed the monitoring needs to be while respecting privacy norms. Each business is unique and the “right” software is the one that best supports its operational needs, promotes employee productivity and maintains a comfortable work environment. It’s about finding the balance that enhances business efficiency without compromising trust within the team.

Choosing the right employee monitoring software also heavily depends on a company’s budget and pricing considerations. Employee monitoring software varies significantly in cost. Most of the companies we reviewed have a monthly per-user rate that can be reduced if you prepay for the entire year rather than pay monthly. StaffCop Enterprise is the only software platform we reviewed that sells a perpetual license to be used throughout the lifetime of the company or the software, whichever comes first.

The price range of the companies we reviewed spanned from $4.99 per user per month with We360.ai to $14.90 per user per month with InterGuard. Each software has its own regulations on the minimum number of users, which could be detrimental to smaller companies.

It’s crucial to weigh the cost against the return on investment. A more expensive solution might be justified if it significantly enhances productivity or prevents costly data breaches. Free trials and demo versions are useful to assess whether a more expensive option justifies the investment. For small teams, some of the software companies such as ActivTrak offer a free plan. While free plans can be limited, ActivTrak’s free plan is available for up to three users and includes reports on website, user, productivity and applications as well as activity alarms, email notifications and 24/7 access to online onboarding resources.

Ease of use is a significant factor when selecting an employee monitoring software. A system with a user-friendly interface is not just a convenience—it’s a necessity. For the software to be truly effective, both administrators who analyze the data and employees who are being monitored should find it straightforward enough to navigate with ease. A software that’s difficult to navigate can lead to wasted time and potential misinterpretations, which could hinder the very thing it’s meant to enhance—productivity.

An overly complex system could also cause frustration among employees. Therefore, when choosing a monitoring software, companies should prioritize simplicity and user-friendliness alongside the essential features and pricing. After all, a tool is only as good as its usability.

To determine the best employee monitoring software, Forbes Advisor analyzed the leading employee monitor software systems across 26 different metrics, including ease of use, cost, customer support, features and functionality. We also considered each company’s reputation and real user reviews.

Pricing – 10%

We looked into the monthly cost of the software plan, whether it had a free plan or free trial and what the minimum number of users was for each plan. We also examined the starting tier price and what was included in that tier as well as the pricing and features of each additional tier.

Features – 50%

We considered the range of features each software platform provided as well as how easy they were to operate. We looked at whether the software platforms had general features such as stealth monitoring, file tracking and the ability for users to take screenshots. We also looked for more advanced features such as keystroke recording, geofencing, location tracking and user privacy settings.

Ratings and Reviews – 10%

We examined what type of customer support was included with the software, which plans came with what type of customer support and if the support was free or at an additional cost. We examined how many reviews each platform had on review sites such as Trustpilot, G2 and Capterra as well as how many high reviews each platform had on these sites.

Expert Score – 30%

In evaluating the best employee monitoring software, we leveraged our direct knowledge and experience with these providers to determine the top contenders for our comparison. The most effective employee monitoring software combines affordability with a rich set of features and a user-friendly design. This combination facilitates smooth adoption of the new software and ensures your team accurately tracks, manages and reports employees’ activities. The expert score contributed 35% to the final ranking.

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