Your employees may be wasting time at work.
From playing games to surfing social media, it’s easy for employees to waste valuable hours on irrelevant activities.
If employees spend a lot of time on non-related work tasks, your enterprise may become less productive and less profitable. In fact, Salary.com established that 89% of workers waste time at work. So the situation is very dire.Â
However, by leveraging the best employee monitoring software, you can pinpoint the waste and potentially cut out productivity bottlenecks for your enterprise.Â
These tools enable you to monitor your employees’ screens in near real-time. They may even allow you to set alerts for important events such as apps used and websites visited, giving you the information you need to minimize time-wasting at work.Â
In this article, I’ll take you through the best employee monitoring software for enterprises in 2024 that can help you track employee performance and improve productivity.Â
Quick summary:Â
- Wolfeye – Best for Windows PC monitoring.Â
- DeskTime – Best for tracking work hours.
- ActivTrak – Best for workload balancing. Â
- StaffCop – Best for insider threat monitoring. Â
- Controlio – Best for cloud-based staff monitoring.Â
Let’s get started.Â
1. Wolfeye Â
Wolfeye is a remote screen monitoring software for Windows.Â
It supports Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11 so I find that it’s the best employee monitoring software if your enterprise relies on Windows-based workstations. Â
Moreover, you get live screen monitoring with a 5-second delay, which allows you to track employees’ performances on tasks in near real-time.
It also offers a stealth version of its monitoring software, which doesn’t show up in the task manager. Consequently, you can monitor staff working from home secretly, which can help you identify working hours discrepancies.Â
Best features:Â
- Wolfeye allows you to see the live screen of a remote computer as if you were sitting in front of it.
- It’s able to take regular screenshots of a monitored PC and archive this data, which includes visited websites. So you don’t have to manually supervise the monitoring process because it automatically brings key events to your attention.Â
- It also allows you to connect to a host computer so that you can share your screen with employees. This can help your enterprise to improve communication and collaboration while minimizing the need for disruptive in-person meetings.Â
- Wolfeye has a web application that you can leverage to track staff activities on various devices, including Macs, PCs & mobile phones. So you can easily track staff productivity on the go to improve your decision-making at all times.
Pricing:Â
- 3-day free trial.Â
- Starting plan: $97 per year.
Verdict
Wolfeye delivers useful features like stealth mode and activity screenshots as well as live screen monitoring that let you monitor Windows-based workstations more efficiently and effectively. That being said, you will be able to monitor the computer from any device using the browser: your smartphone or a Mac or another windows computer.
2. DeskTime
DeskTIme offers extensive time-tracking features.Â
It helps you to comprehensively track work hours. So it’s a great solution if you’d like a better way to track overtime hours so that you can properly compensate employees to avoid litigation, fines, and workplace disruptions.Â
Additionally, Desktime offers document title tracking so that you can see what files your staff is working on and stay on top of a project’s progress.Â
You also get elaborate performance reports about your top performers and underperformers so that you can pair up teams for shared projects more strategically.
Best features:Â
- It has extensive scheduling and calendar features that enable you to track expected absences so that you can allocate work more optimally. What’s more, you can use this feature to handle off-day requests more efficiently.Â
- DeskTime delivers advanced reports to your employees about how they have spent their day and this can boost accountability. With this information, you can create a self-directed performance improvement process for your enterprise.Â
- You can mark certain URLs and apps as productive and unproductive and even customize team settings to appropriately calculate productivity for each employee. In turn, this can give you a better insight into workplace performances.
Pricing:Â
- 14-day free trial.Â
- Starting plan: $7/user per month.Â
VerdictÂ
DeskTime’s time tracking analytics enable you to track breaks, work hours, and clock in/out times, among other details, and can help your enterprise improve its wage calculation processes. However, I find that its manual time-tracking feature, which requires that you fill in timeline gaps for offline work, can be very cumbersome.Â
3. ActivTrak
ActivTrak delivers holistic employee monitoring.Â
You get advanced analytics that help you determine daily work activity and long-term productivity trends so that you can help your staff to embrace healthier work habits.
What’s more, ActivTrak has workload management features that allow you to balance workloads across your teams to help prevent overworking and burnout.
In fact, you can achieve a 22% productivity increase with employee monitoring, according to an AMA study. This emphasizes the need for ActivTrak’s digital time and work activity tracker, which may help you raise productivity.
Best features:Â
- With ActivTrak’s workload balance module, you can identify underutilized and overutilized employees in your enterprise. Moreover, it gives you alerts about burnout signs in employees so that you can proactively take corrective action.Â
- You also get deep insights into staff activity throughout the day, including how many hours are spent on what tasks, tools, and technologies. Consequently, this helps you to easily identify and reduce productivity drop offs for your enterprise.Â
- ActivTrak’s location insights also allow you to identify trends in working hours by remote and in-office employees. With this information, you can place employees in a suitable work environment that is most likely to get the best out of them.Â
Pricing:Â
- 14-day free trial.Â
- Starting plan: $10/user per month.Â
VerdictÂ
If you’d like to balance your workload better for your enterprise, ActivTrack is one of the best employee monitoring systems to help you distribute tasks more evenly. That being said, I’ve noticed that ActivTrak has deprecated its mobile application, therefore you’ll have to manually customize its web app to be able to use it on mobile devices.Â
4. StaffCopÂ
StaffCop can help you spot security risks for your enterprise.Â
It has advanced user behavior analytics that can help you identify suspicious and negligent staff practices that can increase your cybersecurity risks. Therefore, I find that it’s the best employee monitoring software to help you spot insider threats.Â
You can also use StaffCop to track employees’ incoming and outgoing emails, to help you improve security and enforce compliance with company policies.
Moreover, you get a live employee desktop feature that records desktop sessions and sends you notifications and policy violations so that you don’t have to manually monitor your employees’ devices.Â
Best features:Â
- StaffCop has a robust e-mail monitoring module that allows you to create rules that block certain emails from being sent or alerts you about them. This feature can help your enterprise safeguard trade secrets and improve email security.Â
- You can monitor all web activity, including file uploads, and internet usage patterns across departments. Besides helping you to improve accountability, this can also help you spot harmful websites that your workers may be visiting.
- StaffCop also enables you to block certain URLs and applications such as social media websites to help you minimize workplace distractions for your enterprise. This way, you can reduce time-wasting activities and increase your productivity.Â
Pricing:Â
- 30-day free trial.
- Starting plan: $350 per year
VerdictÂ
Overall, I find that StaffCop has important insider threat analytics that can help you safeguard sensitive enterprise information from malicious and negligent employees. Nevertheless, you have to undergo a resource-intensive setup process which has multiple manual steps for setting up host devices and an on-premise server.Â
5. ControlioÂ
Controlio is a cloud-based employee monitoring software.
It allows you to monitor employee activities from anywhere to give your enterprise a highly scalable solution that grows with your changing needs.Â
Furthermore, Controlio provides keystroke logging that helps you track employees’ typing activities so that you can gauge their speed on various tasks.
You can also set up behavior rules that alert you the moment an employee violates workplace policies such as using a prohibited application during work hours. Additionally, you can even customize these rules to fit particular staff profiles.Â
Best features:Â
- Controlio offers advanced file usage tracking that keeps you informed of when employees delete, move, create, or rename files. This document activity tracking can help you create clear audit trails and help you detect hidden changes to files.Â
- It syncs keylogging with live video recordings so that you can accurately identify what employees are working on. This feature can help you unearth and curtail distracting activities for your staff to squeeze more value out of work weeks.
- Controlio also has cloud-based printing tracking features, which allow your enterprise to monitor printing tasks in real time. Besides helping you preserve confidential information, this can also help you identify wasteful printing habits.
Pricing:Â
- 14-day free trial.Â
- Starting plan: $7.99/user per month.Â
VerdictÂ
Controlio delivers advanced cloud features that help you integrate the platform with your enterprise’s apps and services so you can extensively track employee activities. However, the cloud tier is supported exclusively by Amazon Web Services, so it may be unideal for your enterprise if you prefer to use a different cloud computing provider.
FAQ SectionÂ
What is an enterprise employee monitoring software?Â
It refers to technologies that allow your enterprise to analyze and monitor employee tasks so that you can ensure that they are performing optimally.
With advanced behavioral insights, an employee monitoring software enables you to centrally track employees’s activities on work computers to help elevate work output.
What are the key features of an employee monitoring software for enterprises?Â
A great solution should have live screen capturing so that you can monitor what your employees are doing on their work computers in real time.Â
Additionally, it should provide detailed analytics like productivity trends and work hour metrics, which can help you to quickly identify and correct productivity drop-offs.
How do I choose an employee monitoring software for my enterprise?Â
When choosing a staff monitoring solution, I recommend one that has near real-time monitoring so that you can address productivity issues promptly.
Moreover, the best employee monitoring software should have customization options that enable you to tailor tracking parameters to address your enterprise’s unique goals.
What are the benefits of an enterprise employee monitoring software?Â
It can enable you to centrally manage tasks and performances, which can help your employees stay focused and organized so that you can complete projects faster.
Moreover, your employee monitoring software may also have security features that help ensure that your employees observe industry regulations and company policies.Â
How much does an employee monitoring software cost?Â
You may be able to get one of two payment options, the first being monthly plans starting at only $7/user per month, which can help you avoid high capital investments.Â
Alternatively, the software may also provide the ability for you to purchase a perpetual license, which helps you to completely eliminate recurring subscription costs.Â
ConclusionÂ
You may be losing millions to employee fraud.Â
With fraud often entailing complex schemes and numerous transactions, you may find it hard to detect it on time if you rely on manual staff monitoring processes.Â
When fraudulent practices go unresolved or are detected late, your enterprise can experience very grave revenue repercussions.Â
Unfortunately, ACFE discovered that 5% of enterprise revenue is lost to employee fraud annually. This is a loss that can adversely affect your operations.
By leveraging the best employee monitoring software for enterprises in 2024, you can nip fraudulent activities in the bud. You’ll get advanced analytics that can help you spot suspicious employee activities that hint at embezzlement and other forms of theft.
Overall, I recommend Wolefye for enterprises that run on Windows and DeskTime for tracking work hours. Â
In addition to helping you mitigate fraud, a great employee monitoring solution can help you improve time and resource allocation to boost productivity.