Technology has invaded every sector of our life. Whether it’s home or work, you are bound to use electronic devices and the internet. If you’re at home, you would need internet services to carry on with your daily activities. You can order groceries, shop for your favourite items, pay utility bills, transfer and receive payments, and get information about almost everything.
The same goes for the workplace. You cannot expect to run a company without internet services. All your staff workers are given electronic devices including laptops and smartphones so they can complete their tasks by using the internet.
However, the problem only arises when employees begin to use the internet at work for non-work related reasons. With sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Amazon, and access to instant messaging apps and email services attracting employees at every turn, it can be extremely challenging for employees to resist using the internet for personal reasons at work.
Not all staff workers may have access to the internet but the majority of them do. If you suspect your employees using the internet services for personal reasons while being at work, you can install a free Android spy app or any other monitoring tool to keep an eye on their activities.
The thing is, no matter for what reasons and what tasks employees are using the internet at work, no employer is pleased when they find their employees spending time on the internet for non-work related tasks. By allowing employees to use the internet at work, employers can never exactly know whether the internet is being used to carry on work-related activities or for personal reasons.
To combat this confusion, employers have turned to employee monitoring solutions and surveillance technology to keep a check on their employees’ internet usage at the workplace. Let us understand more about employee monitoring and surveillance technology being used by employers at work.
It is a no-brainer that employers can monitor the internet usage of their employees by using employee monitoring solutions in the workplace. Monitoring and surveillance technology is being used by almost all companies across the world.
Whether a company is big or small, managing in-house or remote employees, all of them are using employee monitoring solutions to keep eyes on employees during working hours. With employee monitoring and surveillance tools, employers can monitor the internet usage of their staff workers even down to the keystrokes.
Though to what extent an employer wishes to keep eyes on their employees’ internet usage is up to the specific employer, they are only a few important ways to set up monitoring tools and surveillance technology in the workplace.
Essentially, there are two primary types of employee monitoring; internet monitoring and desktop monitoring. Internet monitoring is all about monitoring the internet usage of the employees. Several types of internet monitoring tools are available in the market. Employers can get their hands on monitoring software that can help them monitor the employee internet usage.
This monitoring software needs to be installed on the employee’s device either directly or remotely. Once installed, the monitoring software tracks down all the internet activities of the employees and all the actions taken by them while they are browsing the internet during office hours.
On the other hand, employers can also try using a network analyzer which is commonly known as a packet sniffer. A packet sniffer helps employers with internet monitoring. Though packet sniffers are mostly used by computer network administrators for diagnosing and troubleshooting network problems, they can also be used as spying software to view and record all the data passing over the internet connections.
By installing an effective and reliable employee monitoring software, employers can keep a check on their staff workers’ internet usage at the workplace, including the websites they visit, apps they use, emails, texts, and phone calls that they make, files they download, and all the information that they receive and send to others using the company’s devices and internet connections.
Mobistealth is the best monitoring software that an employer can use to monitor employee internet usage at work. This type of monitoring software enables employers to find out how much time a specific employee is spending on the internet as well as whether they are performing tasks or watching content that is highly inappropriate at work.
Let’s talk about desktop monitoring which is the other primary type of employee monitoring. Desktop monitoring is also known as computer monitoring as it involves the physical monitoring of a particular computer or laptop including every action taken by the person who’s using it.
With the help of desktop monitoring, the employer’s device can intercept signals emitted by the employee’s device by installing employee monitoring software directly on the employer’s device. The employee monitoring software can be installed either directly or remotely on the employee’s device.
Similar to internet monitoring, desktop monitoring allows employers to monitor employee emails and keep eyes on all the files or programs installed on the employees’ computers. However, desktop monitoring tools also help employers monitor the employees’ computers usage even when they are offline.
Monitoring employee internet usage is essential for every company, irrespective of its size and nature. Many employers do not hesitate before investing in employee surveillance tools because they know such tools can prevent their companies from major financial losses occuring due to employee fraud and negligence. Such companies are relatively raised on bigger capitals and can make huge investments.
On the other hand, some employers do not find it important to use employee surveillance technology and instead choose to cut back on their technology costs. This does not mean they do not keep a check on their employees’ internet usage. They rather make use of monitoring tools that are already available to them.
Regardless of the type of employee monitoring solutions an employer decides to choose for keeping a check on their employees’ internet usage at the workplace, you need to know that privacy rights do not necessarily apply to workplace monitoring especially when employers notify about monitoring to employees and do not go about it behind their back.
It is the responsibility of every employer to inform their staff workers about the employee monitoring policy beforehand. They can mention the employee monitoring policy in the employee handbook or employment contract so the employees know that their devices will be monitored during working hours.
Employers that do not notify employees about monitoring their devices and internet usage are committing an illegal and unethical activity. Monitoring is not justified in that case. Employees are likely to feel that their privacy is being invaded.
If you do not want your employees to feel that way, you must inform them about employee monitoring before installing employee monitoring software on their devices directly or remotely. There’s no use in installing the best free hidden spy apps for Android or iPhone on your employees’ devices if you haven’t informed your employees about employee monitoring.
While keeping employee privacy in mind, you must consider employee monitoring tools in the workplace to keep a check on your employee internet usage. Employee monitoring can prevent companies from facing major financial losses and data breaches.