Telecommuting used to be a luxury for all of us until a couple of months back. However, this lockdown changed the strategies of workforce management due to the commencement of WFH in all the corporations. The idea seemed bizarre in the beginning, as only a small section of employees were familiar with remote work.
However, there's no other option right now. Coronavirus is spreading like wildfire, and the best way to stay safe is to stay at home. With people literally LOCKED DOWN inside their homes, WFH is the only way left for the corporations to keep their work going. Then why not stop whining about the situation, and find a way out, instead?
So, how to know if the employees are actually working and not wasting their time on some Netflix series? How to track employee productivity along with ensuring your company's data security? Let's discuss some of the most effective measures in brief:
1. Constant Communication
Uninterrupted Communication |
Keeping constant communication is very important in any organization- be it a startup or a large firm. Communication barriers lead to a lot of confusion and disputes among co-workers, which, when combined with the monotony of telecommuting, leads to loss of productivity among them.
Make sure you establish regular and solid communication with your team. Organize regular group calls, deploy a single chatting platform, host online meetings every day. This way, you can keep a check on their activities and discuss the upcoming tasks along with the status of current tasks. Pre-scheduling is very crucial when hosting meetings with your staff or else you will end up wasting your precious time in getting everyone on the line.
2. Regular Updates
Employee Updates |
Keeping a regular tap on your employees' activities will ensure that you stay updated with the progress of their tasks. One way to do it is by asking the employees to send updates three times a day on any platform, for instance, Telegram.
This way, it becomes very feasible to track employee activities without having individual conversations with them every now and then. Create groups for discussing the progress of assigned tasks and, as mentioned already, establish strong communication with them. This way, you can also check for their last task update by simply looking at your chatting platform.
3. Tracking Tools
How To Track Employee Productivity |
One of the ways to track employees activities is by deploying a tool to track and record them in real-time. There are various tools available in the market that assist us in doing so, for instance, EmpMonitor, Time Doctor, ActivTrak, etc.
A lot of organizations prefer storing their official data in the cloud instead of storing it in their devices. It not only saves space but also makes managing information a lot easier. This way, you get data access in your hands and can control the employees who can view or edit the information in the company's database.
Various tools can capture screenshots, record keystrokes, user logs, etc. to assist the users in capturing their activities and storing them in the cloud for future reference. But before you get started with any employee monitoring software, make sure that it is reliable in the first place. NEVER rely on any random tool.
4. Cloud Monitoring
Cloud Monitoring |
A lot of organizations prefer storing their official data in the cloud instead of storing it in their devices. It not only saves space but also makes managing information a lot easier. This way, you get data access in your hands and can control the employees who can view or edit the information in the company's database.
Also, this way, you get to track and monitor the progress of your assigned tasks in real-time and track remote staff employees productivity without any hitch. Regularly checking and maintaining data in the cloud is one of the safest and quickest ways to manage your online workflow. It also diminishes the chances of data leaking or breaching outside the premises.
5. Maintaining Records
Record Management |
One of the reasons why goldbricking is very common in any workplace is that the employees pretend to work more by updating you with the tasks that they might have already completed earlier. You can avoid this by keeping a record of their work updates. You can maintain multiple sheets, keep track of their work by regularly going through their updates, etc.
This process becomes more feasible when working on data in the cloud. If you know how to maintain and monitor the records, you will know how to track employee productivity even when they work remotely, be it a home office or a field-work.
Conclusion
The year 2020 taught us how unpredictable our future could be. Nevertheless, the pandemic doesn't seem to cease any soon, and it seems like we have to continue with our WFH routines for the next few months. So let's polish our telecommuting skills and use a best employee productivity tracking software to ensure the best results out of your workforce.
Also, Watch This Video If You Want To Check Productivity Of Employees According To days:-