The modern workspace breaks all conventional definitions as the 21 century evolves. The modern office culture intertwines remote workspaces, non-cubicle departments, and immense collaboration and communication - something like a digital web, that the old physical workspace simply cannot keep up within the modern-era. However, with increased freedom from employers, employees’ autonomy should not interfere with their productivity or the overall security of a company’s sensitive information. There must be a balance between security and privacy. This is where employee monitoring comes into the picture.
Employee monitoring software is an all-in-one solution designed to bridge many gaps in employee efficiency and ensure organizations have a birds-eye view of all activities undertaken by an employee during work hours and/or on company assets. This blog details all the free and open source employee monitoring software available for implementation by a firm, irrespective of industry, employee working model, or size.
The features, advantages, and analysis of the workplace monitoring software enlisted in this blog seeks to both first-time and repeat buyers in the right direction. So, do not wait any longer! Get down to reading our free and open source employee monitoring software blog and make the right decision today.
What is Employee Monitoring?
Employee monitoring is necessary for organizations - irrespective of size and scale, industry, or even turn over. It is the process by which an employer observes an employee’s work routine and scans for any irregularities in the execution of duties and related factors through online means. The employee monitoring ambit extends to the following:
- Check-ins on status of employee tasks,
- Location-based data of employees,
- Information on the nature of the usage of company resources,
- Work-hours analytics and,
- Proprietary data usage/Sensitive information access reports
Various other factors also receive significant consideration, besides the points mentioned above. Proponents of employee monitoring believe that the procedure addresses several issues. First, it enables a transparent feedback loop between employer and worker. In this fashion, companies enforce protocols on attendance, performance, and administration. It also helps hone in professionalism within the leaders of tomorrow.
Second, it helps companies prevent internal fraud by employees or hired personnel - such as system compromises, as well as data leaks and theft. Third, companies depend on data obtained from employee monitoring systems to bring about company policies - such as leaves and absenteeism, work distribution, etc.
According to recent studies, close to 80 percent of all organizations deploy an employee monitoring system of some kind. Its importance will grow as we delve into the criticality of this exercise.
What Are The Current Trends Seen in Employee Monitoring At The Workplace?
The employee monitoring app industry underwent a technology shake-up, and it is no surprise given the extent to which improvement in employee tracking is possible. First, companies are seeing the light in terms of analytics in the HR department, resulting in people’s thriving nature as a function. Extension of people analytics includes employee monitoring system use cases too. Companies also favor real-time data in place of one-time information. It helps make quick decisions on quality and load of work on employees, their daily productivity periods, and other significant factors. It affects organizational culture, employee loyalty, and productivity. Organizations have multiple data points beyond just productivity at their fingertips - such as location, resources accessed, etc. - which makes fraud detection an ongoing process in the workplace.
With the proliferation of remote work jobs (and freelancers), companies need easily deployable solutions, cost less, and are operationally efficient. These values have mirrored themselves as cloud-based employee tracking tools, many of which are also open source in the digital era. Employee monitoring data storage is also secure and remote, which helps companies lower costs on hardware storage. All an employee needs to do is install the client interface on their system.
Wearable devices are also a growing employee monitoring fad. A recent study indicates that employee health issues (besides benefits) cost employers close to $530 BILLION per year in the United States alone. Besides, illness-resulting productivity impairments led to a cumulative loss of over 525 million workdays. Wearable devices now come under the ambit of employee monitoring solutions. They help companies monitor employee health, reducing health-care costs, and productivity loss. The tools also double up as location trackers, so employers know their workers’ movements exactly.
Automation is also rapidly catching on in the employee time tracking software industry. Thanks to automation, several tasks are streamlined and executed without human intervention.
What is an Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee monitoring software is a system that assures companies an increase in organization-wide productivity by tracking employee activity at work or working hours with company resources with accurate alerting systems. Companies can highlight and reduce unproductive activities of employees - such as personal web surfing, games - and nefarious ones, too - like information theft through a combination of real-time analytics and employee pattern insight, besides other monitoring methodologies. To this extent, employee monitoring technology also pinpoints the exact periods of productivity wherein an employee is most active. Companies may program work quality and type best suited for them.
Employee monitoring apps are incredibly helpful when employer organizations need to protect sensitive resources from exploitation. Access to core resources can be highlighted on employee monitoring service dashboards and the corresponding action initiated. Location tracking enables a quick assessment of user integrity, and all data access is recorded by employee monitoring software to help companies file a legal action with proof when needed.
An employee monitoring solution is the need of the hour, especially with many roles going remote. Analysts believe upto 40 percent yearly productivity loss for American firms occurs due to employees not dedicating themselves to the tasks thoroughly. It is up to companies to invest in the right employee monitoring software.
Why should Companies Invest in Employee Monitoring Software?
Companies should invest in employee monitoring software for the following reasons -
Remote Work Culture - With Remote Working, or Work From Home (WFH), growing in popularity, organizations must monitor employee performance to ensure completion of all projects on time, with high-quality standards. Remote employee monitoring through remote systems ensures employees stay on guard and are constantly productive. This includes Recording when the employees clock in and out; keeping track of the time they spend on a website or other pages; Taking screenshots at regular intervals; Tracking your location; monitor emails; monitor chats and ability to view your work computer in real-time.
Data Integrity - Preventing theft, modulation, or deletion of sensitive information is pertinent for businesses. A recent study indicates that 58 percent of all Healthcare PHI breaches were insider jobs, shifting the lens on employees. It is justified in having employee monitoring technology highlight who accessed the data, when, and what they did to it.
Productivity Checks - Keystroke Mapping, Screenshots, web usage analytics, content filtering, blocking, etc., are some of the most critical ways employee monitoring solutions keep track of behavior and update employers on productivity gains losses per device.
Lower Costs - Many employee monitoring software today have free versions associated with them, while cloud-based solutions don’t require specific hardware for storing vast amounts of data. Even handling the client interface and accessible functions occur via the cloud. Therefore, the costs associated with running employee monitoring software is lower.
Real-Time Analytics - The lifeline of several companies, analytics helps employee productivity software showcase tidbits of information that would not meet the naked eye. Organizations can focus on real-time data to make quick decisions on productivity and discipline than wait for periods to compile data and execute decisions.
What are the Essential Features of Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee monitoring technology and its digital suite of functions are necessary for organizations to achieve organizational goals. Unsurprisingly, employee monitoring software needs to have a core set of features to distinguish it from mere employee productivity applications. Some of the essential elements of employee monitoring solutions are as follows -
What are the benefits of Employee Monitoring Software?
As discussed earlier, employee tracking software has features that help control employee infractions and improve internal feedback loops. The advantages of using the entire employee tracking system are as follows -
Is there any Free and Open Source Employee Monitoring Software?
There are plenty of options available on the open software market - be it regular employee monitoring tools or remote employee monitoring software. However, free and Open Source employee monitoring software is exemplary owing to their custom set features, and easy availability for organizations operating on a strict budget. Let us take a look at some of the best free and open source employee monitoring software in the next section.
But, before we discuss the free and open source employee monitoring platform, let us have a look at some popular tools - Tmetric and BrightHR.
Tmetric
Launched in 2016 as the internal productivity tool, Tmetric is a notable time tracker that fits well as an efficient employee monitoring tool for all types of businesses. In just a click, employers can get a detailed overview of the time spent by each of the employees on any given task. For precise evaluation of their productivity, the dashboard can display all the apps and sites frequently visited by the employee during any workday, in addition to spotting the idle time sessions. The app can track work time activities even while offline. Managing the team and their projects with the right time tracking reports from Tmetric can help track and improve productivity. The software is available in English, German and Russian languages.
(Source: Tmetric)
Features of Tmetric Employee monitoring software:
- Offline mode time tracking
- Idle time detection
- Activity summary reports
- Facility to add/edit time manually
- Screen activity tracking
- Task Management
- Multiple browser extension
- Desktop and mobile version
- Time-sync with other apps
BrightHR
BrightHR is a top-rated HR tool offering various core, flexible, and premium features of the applicant tracking system. The company has developed this ATS and HR solution to cater to the needs of small business enterprises, explicitly intending to streamline and simplify their daily HR operations. With 24/7 support, the software vendor offers other vital and handy tools, such as BrightSafe, BrightAdvice, BrightWellBeing, People Navigator, and more.
Source: BrightHR
Features:
- Manage and view employee holidays efficiently
- View who’s sick and who’s late in one view
- Records the additional working hours of the employees with ease
- Schedule the best team for each shift using a rota planner
- Stores all your important HR documents in the digital cloud-based document management system
- Offers instant expert legal advice for your small business
- Provides a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace for employees
- Provides a free and up-to-date mobile app for clocking
Let us now move to free and open source employee tracking tools.
The Best 7 Free and Open Source Employee Monitoring Software
#1 eHour.nl
eHour is a free and open source employee monitoring software, helps companies track employee productivity through an on-site, web-hosted solution. The company prides itself on an easy to use interface. Once a company has installed the employee tracking software, they need to create an administrative account. Post this, they can add users into departments using unique employee codes. The process of creating projects is equally simple. Reminders and dedicated task sheets are also accessible to the administrator. Administrators can track employee performance based on the allotted date range and the nature of roles assigned - Project Manager, Manager, or Administrator. The latest version of the software is eHour 2, a cloud-deployed solution with added features, such as approval and claims processes.
Source - eHour
Some of the critical features of eHour are as follows:
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Screen Activity
- Task Management
- Time Sheet
#2 Kimai
Primarily a time tracker, Kimai also doubles up as a free and open source employee monitoring software. Kimai allows a company to create timesheets and invoices within a browser. Installing the employee tracking tool happens on a PHP-enabled web server. The employee monitoring system’s signature highlight is its time tracker, and the employee productivity tracking software is platform-independent. The latest version of the open source employee monitoring software is Kimai 2. The added advantage for users is the extensions that Kimai supports. Founded in 2006, the employee monitoring tool allows you to add any number of users/projects to the tracking system. The employee monitoring solution supports multiple languages and standard translation Xliff.
Source - Kimai
The essential features of Kimai are as follows:
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Task Management
- Time Sheet
#3 StaffCounter
StaffCounter is a free employee monitoring solution, uses real-time analytics, combined with GDPR-adhering technology and task tracking tools to ensure employees stay productive, have quality work assigned to them, and investigate all incidents concerning workforce or resources. StaffCounter is available on multiple platforms - including android - and is free for a basic version. The employer monitoring software secures all audit records and tracks all sensitive data accessed. StaffCounter employee tracking tool has remote workforce management protocols, with deployment models ranging from on-site to cloud-hosted.
Source - StaffCounter
The features of StaffCounter are as follows -
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Screen Activity
- Task Management
- Time Sheet
- Keystroke Recording
- Location Tracking
- Real-Time Audit Reports
#4 Net Orbit
Net Orbit is a free employee monitoring software that allows employers to track employee activities on employer-owned resources. It enabled the tracking of resources and content filtering to ensure employees stay productive and avoid harmful actions. The software offers free services for up to three users in its base version. The client application is available for download on the three most important operating system platforms, and the employer can track activities through an online cloud-based portal.
Source - Net Orbit
The key features of Net Orbit are as follows -
- Screenshot Control
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Screen Activity
- Task Management
- Time Sheet
- Location Tracking
- Clipboard, Document Tracking
#5 LumOffice
LumOffice is a free employee monitoring software that consistently tracks a user’s activity through screenshots, Application and URL visits, and other real-time data. The employee monitoring system adheres to strict data protection standards and offers immensely granular data analytics, including an employee activity level and timesheets, to ensure they stay productive. The employer monitoring tool’s dashboard also enables easy sharing of data with employees for feedback and behavioral improvement planning.
Source - LumOffice
The important features of LumOffice are as follows -
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Screen Activity
- Keystroke Recording
- Timesheet
- Location Tracking
- Real-Time Analytics Dashboard
#6 WorkTime
WorkTime is a free employee monitoring software. The employee tracking system is HIPAA compliant and promises not to record and monitor keystrokes, chats, or documents. It instead narrows in on employee idle time, logins and logouts, and internet usage to help employers engage employees and make them better productive. WorkTime is an employee productivity tracking software that ensures it is easy on company system hardware and allows remote tracking. Privacy is vital for the company, and they advocate their ability to store all data with the latest encryption standards, either in the cloud or on-site.
Source - WorkTime
The main features of WorkTime are as follows -
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Screen Activity
- Task Management
- Time Sheet
- Keystroke Recording
- Location Tracking
#7 EP Metrics
One of the best solutions in the market, EP Metrics is a free workplace monitoring software that records attendance, takes screenshots of user activities, applies adequate content filtering and blocking mechanisms, and checks the productivity of employees while using company resources. The employee time tracking service claims to improve workforce efficiency by 24 percent and optimize real-time reports to collate data on employee behavior, such as ‘top documents opened, and top sites visited.’ Whatsmore, EP Metrics is an employee monitoring technology that tracks the activities of field agents too. It is a cloud software solution with a free version for essential use.
Source - EP Metrics
The features of EP Metrics are:
- Alerts
- Employee Activity
- Idle Time
- Productivity Enhancements
- Screen Activity
- Task Management
- Time Sheet
- Location Tracking
- Real-Time Analytics
Employee tracking system systems such as WebWork Time Tracker, BlurSPY, and Time Doctor all efficiently execute employee monitoring projects. However, the rise of Workpuls as the popular employee monitoring service opens up another option for employers to delve into and explore. Let’s take a look at what makes Workpuls one of the best employee tracking systems.
Workpuls
An employer monitoring software by design, Workpuls assimilates raw data on employee behavior and helps companies detect and analyze productivity drop-offs, illicit behavior, and other non-productive activities, which lead to overall company inefficiency. The software can operate on personal and company-owned devices equally well, offering deployers a chance to organize teams and work better, and limit access to critical resources. The software comes replete with behavioral analytics modules and tracks documents, applications, and even websites open, all of which can be labeled and filtered by managers. Workpuls contributions are easy to see - a 23 percent increase in payroll disbursements and a 25 percent decrease in project time.
Source - Workpuls
Some of the major features of Workpuls are:
- Alerts
- Idle Time
- Keystroke Recording
- Location Tracking
- Productivity Evaluation
- Screen Activity
- Stealth Mode
- Task Management
- Timesheet Management
Conclusion
The employee monitoring software industry will grow at 22.6 percent to become a $3.84 billion market in the five year period beginning 2019 to 2024. However, another study indicated that 55 percent of employers did not consider using employee tracking software for remote working employees. It gives the industry sufficient headroom to grow, especially when Work From Home (WFH) is a culture that is taking hold in the workforce, irrespective of industry. Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are set to play a crucial role in employee monitoring. According to the vice president of the research firm Gartner, over 50% of employers with a turnover of over $750 million use employee monitoring.
This figure will only grow as more employees choose to work remotely. Also, it is critical to remember that AI tools have been enabled to detect stress in employee tones, as well as their frequency of bathroom breaks through wearable devices.
Industry solutions such as DeskTime, Desklog, and FairTrak are exceptional employee monitoring software, besides those mentioned in this article. If you are looking to purchase an employee monitoring software, be sure to read our Buyer’s Guide, which will help you make the perfect decision on the features, cost, and other factors of employee monitoring tools.
Let us know what you thought of this article in the comments section. Help us with your feedback if you used any of the above-discussed employee monitoring tools, previously.
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