When left unsupervised, many employees who have desktop access to the internet spend hours each day surfing the web. They waste countless hours that could be devoted to working do everything but work. Because of this, your business may be loosing considerable amounts of profits due to lost productivity. But there is an effective way to get that productivity back up, and that is through a desktop remote monitoring service.
If your employees require access to the internet, you probably have already tried some different tools and methods to decrease the personal usage of the internet by employees. Unfortunately, many filtering programs are ineffective or are just a waste of money. Even if a filtering program works, oftentimes it not only blocks bad websites, but blocks websites that your employees need access to as well. And cutting internet services altogether is probably not an option either.
Your next choice may be a desktop remote monitoring service. With this type of service, professionals are able to monitor how much time your employees are devoting to being productive and how much time they are spending doing non-work related activities on the internet. Additionally, these services also monitor when your employees access websites that can be harmful to your network or if they are potentially leaking confidential data.
There are many different types of remote monitoring tools on the market. You will have to take some time to figure out how much you will spend on the software, what you need to monitor, and the method of monitoring. Additionally, monitoring requires computer specialists and quite a bit of time, you may also need to consider hiring employers or outsourcing to online monitoring services.
Remote monitoring software prices have dropped considerable over the years as technology has become more affordable. Some basic software can be found online for free, while other advanced programs can be quite expensive. Outsourcing to an online service gives you freedom from worrying about purchasing the programs, software licenses, or upgrades.
You will also have to consider how in depth you want the monitoring to be. Basic monitoring programs keep lists of what websites your employees viewed without much additional data. More advanced programs can capture detailed information about their internet activities, such as how much time was spent on each website or what was downloaded or uploaded to and from the website. Other programs even log employee keystrokes, capture emails, and can even record voice.
Desktop remote monitoring services work in two different ways. The more secure, costly method is to have the monitoring serviced connected directly to your network. This requires that you have specialists employed for the task, but it keeps all of the data on your local network where it cannot access the internet. Outsourcing to an online remote monitoring service, on the other hand, is much cheaper. However, there is a risk that the data could be intercepted by competitors to your business.
No matter what software package of service that you ultimately choose, you have a legal obligation to inform your employees that you are monitoring their activities. Otherwise, you could be breaking the law and be punished with lawsuits, fines, or imprisonment. The most effective way to make them aware of the monitoring is to have your employees sign documentation that they acknowledge and consent to the monitoring.
Desktop remote monitoring services are an excellent way to increase productivity and ultimately profitability. Keeping track of employee productiveness is already difficult, but remote monitoring makes it a little easier. And the increased profits may even pay for the monitoring services.
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