Monitoring your employee productivity is a very important issue a manager should be aware of. As we perfectly understand the needs of our customers and we listen to their feedback, we have released a new version of Cyclope Employee Surveillance Solution.

The new version has been especially designed with the aim of helping manager better follow their employee productivity concerning the computer activity. This is why a new report, Productivity Report has been created. Like its name says, this report provides detailed information related to the usage of productive and unproductive applications. The application’s manager can define the productive/unproductive character of the application for all the monitored users, for specific departments or for specific individuals.

Similar to the productive/unproductive applications report, there is another statistic available that contains information related to the forbidden and allowed applications. These applications are also defined by the application’s manager for all the monitored users or by specific departments or individuals. This report informs manager about the extent the employee use forbidden applications. 

Furthermore, the Cyclope mobile client has been developed in order to capture all the computer activity even when the server connection is problematic. Thus, no data will be lost even when employee get out of the monitored network for a period.

Don’t wait any longer! Download and install now Cyclope - Employee Monitoring and take advantage of relevant information about your employee computer usage at work, information that can save your business.

A common question about Cyclope Employee Surveillance is whether this is a monitoring software or a time tracking application. We consider our software as being employee monitoring software which includes time tracking features. 

Our product monitors all computer activities and it is able to generate reports that shows active time spend using applications, documents and web sites. Cyclope also shows the active / passive usage of the monitored machine. These are major features for all employee monitoring applications. 

By the fact that we generate an activity report that shows the application usage per day, week, month or custom period of time we consider that Cyclope is also a time tracker application. In order to provide powerful information to our users we have an overtime report that shows the application usage during overtime.

Your employees are the heart and soul of your business. As much as you’d like to be in control of the business and see it going in the right direction, much of it is in the hands of your employees. As an employer, you try to give those working on your side as much as you can in order to see your business flourish. You give advice and tools for the job, and if you are as modern as your competitors, most of your employees probably have access to a computer. And in fact, if you want to know just how your employees are handling their work, examining their work history through the computer is one of your best options.

Many computer logging software programs are available on the market today. Why are these programs excellent for any employer? It allows you to keep track of statistics, files, keystrokes and other documents that your employees are using on their computer. With multiple computers installing this software, you can keep track, side-by-side, of your employees computer activities.

This is especially benefiting if you are considering giving someone a raise, or if someone, unfortunately, needs to be cut from your workforce. Say you have two employees. By tracking their computer work with computer log software, you can compare their work productivity.

Employee #1 is typing 2000 words per hour, only visits sites that helps his work research, and only stops using the computer during break time. Employee #2, however, is only typing 750 words an hour, visits several non-work related websites, and it looks like he stops using the computer a couple times every hour. Using these tools and employer can know who will get fired and who is ready for that promotion.

As an employer, it is your task to hire only the top that will help your business progress. While a resume and interview can give you insight into an employee’s work ethic, it isn’t always detailed. With computer tracking software, though, you can get in-depth comparisons of who is helping your business and who is hurting it.

You run a successful business, and as the head of that office you work in, you want to keep it as successful as possible. One key requirement to that are the employees you decided to hire. You give them a task, and they ponder at in on their desks as they key away on their work computer. However, does giving your employees access to a computer mean instant success? Not always, as your employees may not always be using their computer access for specific work-related tasks. In the end, this costs your business time and money.

This is where Internet and computer content filtering software can play a crucial part in how just how well your employees will be in participating to make your business better. Internet filtering software can help keep your employees access on only work essential websites. The use of Internet content filters will better help the flow of productivity with the computers your employees use.

We all know people don’t always want to do work, and they’ll dillydally away distracted by something else until their clock tells them it’s time for lunch. With access to work computers, your employees could be costing you lost productivity time by surfing the net, playing games, or using instant messaging software. This can be controlled with certain Internet and computer software filters. By only allowing your employees to use work related Internet materials and software, you can be sure to see a jump in productivity.

With Internet activity dropped from your workers aimlessly searching the web for alternative non-work related activities, you can expect to see a drop in the amount of resources you need to keep your business connected. With less bandwidth usage, Internet and server costs will see a drop. This can enable you to save your company thousands of dollars a month, as well as see an increase in productivity, most likely increasing your company’s worth.

Is it worth installing Internet content filters? If you think it will increase productivity in your office, absolutely. Content filters can be an excellent way to save your business many, many dollars.

Before the computer was introduced to the workplace the employer had to keep a steady eye on his employees to make sure there was no horseplay going on. However, with the 21st century upon us, the computer has become an essential tool for the office. It is used to create, edit, read, and transfer documents that could someday make a company billions of dollars. However, to the employee not focused on doing his work, it has become a tool to escape the boredom and tediousness of “work.”

Why does an employer need to be aware that this will happen if he has employees on work computers? They should be aware because it is costing businesses, worldwide, billions upon billions of dollars. This isn’t happening on an employee’s personal computer while they are off the clock either. An employee may be using one-fourth of his hours during the work week chatting with instant messaging programs, surfing inappropriate content, or downloading files that can harm not only the company’s computer, but their whole system, as well.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of solutions to the problem the computer has brought to the workplace. Special software, like internet filtering software, can help deter an employee from visiting websites considered to be inappropriate for the type of work they are doing. Internet filtering software can constantly be modified to pick up new keywords that will block websites that shouldn’t be viewed in that office. Another type of software can log anything that happens on a computer, or block specific software applications that shouldn’t be downloaded or opened. Business assets can be protected by not allowing the use of personal email, and any emails sent with through the businesses email can be tracked and read. Key-logging software can keep track of every, single keystroke that happens on an employee’s keyboard.

All these types of software are essential for an employer in his office, because it could save a business millions of dollars a year on lost worker efficiency.  

When it comes to employers’ and employees’ rights in the office, both are on fair levels. A boss cannot harass his employees, and the same applies vice-versa. They are both allowed to maintain some sort of personal privacy, as well. However, once an employee enters the digital world in their computer, does this change? It most certainly does.

An employee is at a slight disadvantage when using their workplace’s computer. While visual and listening devices placed amongst an employee’s workplace must be installed according to laws and regulations, anything that goes down within a computer at the office is fair game to an employer. There are virtually no laws regulating the way an employer can monitor their employees’ computer activity.

In a national survey, nearly 80 percent of employers admitted that they use some sort of tactics to monitor their employees use on the computer. There are some states where legislation asks an employer inform his employees that he can access what has been happening on an employee’s computer, though.

There are several things that can be monitored through a computer system. Most use specially configured software that will track specific stats logged through the computer, which can then be accessed remotely by the employer themselves. This type of software might be key-logging software. Key-logging software can not only track what is being typed, but how fast an employee is typing, as well. This can be a tool to measure an employee’s efficiency for the employer; however the use of this type of software promotes carpal tunnel syndrome and stress-related disabilities.

Another type of computer monitoring software can track internet usages, and block programs, services and website deemed inappropriate for the workplace. These types of software are useful for the employee as they, once again, can be used to manage employee efficiency, as well as tracking exactly what their work computer is being used for.

While heavily unregulated, there are some terms that employers must follow. Unions set rules against computer monitoring in some instances. Approximately three-fourths of all employers monitoring their employees let them know beforehand, which is not only beneficial for the employee, but it is also a show of justness.

A manager’s list of concerns. Once you have your own business and company, problems keep appearing.  A manager’s concerns refer to a proper development of the business, employees respecting company policy, minimizing the costs while increasing benefits and productivity.
Nowadays, solutions for keeping business going around and further more, for improving the business process, have been found and managers are implementing these results within their company.

Should I monitor my employee’s activity or should I restrict their internet access?  Internet usage within a company is a necessity and this question is the consequence of this fact. Employee monitoring software is a complex tool for recording employee activity starting with websites visited, application run, downloaded files etc. The manager’s responsibility is to warn the employee about this, otherwise he will confront the law.  Using a monitoring solution, managers can analyze reports regarding employee activity, breaking rules attempts, overtime and even idle or active time. Based on these reports he will easily decide how to face the problem or how to reward those who deserve.  

On the other side, using an internet filtering software, a manager will restrict the access to internet, and this, comparative to employee monitoring is legally in all countries around the world. It’s an advantage that must be taking in view. Internet filtering solutions offers a security feeling, because by restricting the access you know that employees will not visit inappropriate web sites, will not download files that might harm or corrupt your information.  The disadvantages of using an internet filtering software are that you limit the imagination of the person in cause and on the other side you don’t know how much of time is working or how much is wasted.

Internet filtering vs. Monitoring solution? The answer to this question, like you already figure it out, depends on each manager in part and on his company profile. Solutions presented above are developed to accomplish all managers’ needs regarding different aspects of company security and increasing productivity. What you have to keep in mind is that if you decide to use a monitoring software solution, fist, contact your jurist to be completely sure that is officially permitted in your country. There isn't an agreement that is morally right for everybody.

With billions of dollars being lost every year due to this, work productivity in the office and work place is not a minor issue. Instead of undertaking word processing, research, and business tasks with their work computer, employees are using the computer for other, more personal uses.  These “tasks” can range from internet instant messaging, sending personal emails, playing internet games, browsing inappropriate material, and many other non-work related tasks. So how does an employer get their employees off their computer and back on work?

Offering incentives for achieving work goals ahead of schedule is a simple way to provide a means of getting your employees on track. This can range to a small paycheck bonus, an office party, or if it will provide the company with millions of dollars, you can even arrange a small getaway vacation for your employees. However, all of this means money out of your businesses pocket, and that can add up over many incentive giveaways.

Setting up surveillance cameras is a good way to let your employees know you will always have your eye on them.  However, with hardware based security and surveillance systems, you run into many problems. They are not cheap by any means, and can take days or weeks to install depending on their complexity. They can only see what is happening on the other side of the lens, and their resolution and capture speed isn’t high enough to actually view what is happening on an employee’s computer. You may also run into problems with the law.

The best way to increase productivity is to limit what an employee can do with their computer. Installing internet filtering and surveillance software on your computers and servers is an easy way to stop your employees accessing inappropriate content on their computers. It can also be used to view what is happening on their computer. What are they typing and what programs are being opened? It is nearly essential in the business and computer world to have software that lets you control what your employees can do on the internet, as it could save your company millions of dollars in lost productivity.

Filtering the internet can be done two different ways. You can physically block access to specific websites and internet applications using special internet content filter software. This is extremely efficient while doing what it is supposed to do: blocking inappropriate websites to users that shouldn’t be viewing that content. Furthermore it can always be configured to different levels of access. However, is it too much? Does it constrain an individual’s intellectual freedom? Should we instead rely on individual responsibility and what parents teach their children to what is appropriate to view on the web?

Some researchers say installing internet content filters are dimming our intellectual freedom, blocking important data that should be free and accessible to all. However, many reasons this type of software is installed is to increase productivity in areas like offices and businesses. Libraries and schools use internet filtering software to keep kids safe from viewing inappropriate materials such as pornography, illegal substances, and other content that could be considered harmful to children.

While many will say it should be down to how we teach our children what is appropriate to access on the internet and what is not, many children aren’t privileged enough to discover the internet with their parents. More and more parents work full time hours, sometimes leaving their children unsupervised at home, able to surf the internet several hours without proper guidance. Some parents may not know anything about the internet, and are unaware of the dangers it can pose to children. This can be an excellent reason that internet filtering software should be used.

It should be a parent’s responsibility to teach kids what to access, but sometimes even with that extra knowledge, kids can become misguided. With the extra backup of an internet filter, they are provided with more protection. All this information can be transpose to the business environment. As employees become the employer’s responsibility, it is very difficult to teach all of them that inappropriate browsing at work can damage the company. Thus, businesses also benefit from gained productivity with the use of access and content filtering.

When examining the options you have to observe the activities of your employees of your organization in the workplace, you are left with two reasonable options. You could settle by installing a hardware based system, setting up cameras to watch your employees. An alternate route would be to install software on your server and employees work computers to view exactly what they are using their workstation for. There are benefits and disadvantages to both types of surveillance choices.

Using hardware, like cameras, set up around your employees’ workspaces, is a sign to all employees that they are being watch. It is an effective way to remind them that any physical actions they take can be monitored, as well as increase productivity.

However, this can create a stressful atmosphere (nobody likes to be fully monitored). Also, only so much can be picked up by video recording systems. Things out of range, or outside the cameras viewing angle will be left unknown to those needing to view them. Anything on a computer screen will not be legible, and you will not be able to identify just exactly what they are using their computer workstation for. On top of this, hardware systems can be pricey. On top of the cameras, you will need to set a budget aside for a recording system, wires and extra electricity consumption, and installation.

A software system is beneficial as it allows you to see directly what your employees are doing on your server and computers. Software surveillance allows you to know what programs where opened, who emailed who, and what files were sent where. It is an excellent way to catch trade secrets of your business getting into others hands.

Another benefit is that software systems aren’t fully regulated by the government. Recording your employees with video can get you into deep legal fixes if something is installed improperly, but software systems can be installed without letting your employees know. A software-based security system can’t see the other tasks being performed outside of the computer, so that is where a video-recording system can come in handy.

Security in the office is becoming more and more beneficial, not only to an employee’s safety, but to the business as a whole. One’s business practices and news needs to stay on the inside and one of the best ways to keep it on the inside is to know what your employees are doing, especially on their computers.