Less intrusive productivity tracking for hybrid teams?
Posted by ShadowSpion1@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 31 comments
Our leadership is looking into options for employee monitoring software as we continue to support a hybrid work model. A lot of people have ruled out any solutions involving webcam snapshots, as the legal and privacy concerns around reasonable expectation of privacy are clearly a non-starter. We're now aiming for tools that focus on actionable insights rather than pure surveillance.
We're exploring Monitask among other tools that offer features like app and website tracking, screenshot monitoring (with privacy controls), and general activity monitoring software to help understand remote work performance. We want to support managers in identifying trends and ensuring project time tracking aligns with deliverables. So I'm curious to know what experiences have you guys had with tools that strike this balance, especially concerning remote employee monitoring without causing widespread discomfort?
Significant_Capita@reddit
We use Monitask for our remote contractors. We found it useful for basic activity tracking and session times but critically, we keep the more invasive features like active screenshots turned off.
It provides enough visibility for project time tracking without crossing a line, which helps improve employee accountability.
thortgot@reddit
Surprise, a 100% fresh account advocating for the product you suggested.
Automatic_Beat_1446@reddit
hidden profile too
Hotshot55@reddit
Employee monitoring isn't going to boost productivity.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
No argument there. This isn't about boosting productivity. It's about getting accurate project costing and figuring out where our workflows are breaking down. Leadership just calls it monitoring.
Hotshot55@reddit
Employee monitoring won't give you any insight to this either. You need project management.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
We have project management. It tells us a task is late. It doesn't tell us why. Is it scope creep, or is the dev spending 10 hours fighting a broken build environment? That's the data I'm trying to surface.
TechIncarnate4@reddit
Then TALK TO PEOPLE. USE YOUR WORDS. Do you honestly think a tool will be able to dell if a dev is actually writing good code? They could type gibberish all day into the IDE and the "data" will show that they spent all day coding, but no outcome.
Hotshot55@reddit
Then your project management process is trash.
At the most basic level, decent project management would provide the data of "engineer 1 is blocked on task X due to reason Y, new ETA is Z".
Again, employee monitoring is not going to give you any of this data.
VA_Network_Nerd@reddit
No it isn't.
If it were about those things your scrummasters and project managers would be focusing harder on generating more accurate burn-down reports for various tasks.
These monitoring tools are much more invasive than is necessary to achieve the goals you speak of.
You can use spin-control with the uninformed, but that won't work here.
Again, I recognize you've been given marching orders, so it's not personal.
Big-Boss wants this agent deployed across all user systems, so go for it.
But it's not going to actually deliver the desired results.
Ihaveasmallwang@reddit
The only monitoring you need is managers ensuring the people they manage complete their projects on time. You can do that without spyware, but it does require managers…managing. You know, doing their job.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
For sure. But good managers use data.
In an office, you can see a team member is stuck.
Remotely, you can't. I'm looking for the tool that flags the systemic issue, not just the inactivity.
TechIncarnate4@reddit
How exactly can a manager see someone is stuck if they are in the office? Are they hovering over them micro-managing?
Ihaveasmallwang@reddit
Good managers can get data without Spyware.
Remotely, you can check how your employees are doing by talking to them and seeing if they submit their projects by the due dates. Can use kanban style boards to track project progress.
Any number of solutions that aren't Spyware.
RabidTaquito@reddit
Oh yes you can, but not if you're a poor manager. Which is sounding more and more like the case here. You look at things like how much work she's been assigned* or how many deadlines are missed or nearly at time. And if she IS stuck, she should feel comfortable to reach out to let you know or ask for assistance, and not feel like she's risking losing her job.
*Pro tip: Don't assign someone 40 or more hours of work just because they're scheduled for 40 hours of work.
VA_Network_Nerd@reddit
Kanban boards and daily stand-up meetings are pretty cheap.
These productivity monitoring tools provide overwhelming amounts of data that make it easy to make bad assumptions and focus on the wrong things.
I recognize that you have a job to do. So, good luck to you in executing on it.
But this is the wrong approach.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
We already do boards and stand-ups. They're good for status, but they don't explain why a simple task burns 20 unexpected hours.
You're right that bad data is dangerous, but making business decisions with no data is worse. I'm trying to find a middle ground.
TechIncarnate4@reddit
Managers need to manage and ensure the team is meeting their commitments and milestones. This is not a technology issue. This is a people not wanting to manage issue. This is coming from a manager.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
You're 100% right, it's not about catching someone on their phone. It's about when a 40-hour task takes 80. We need to know if that's because of bad scoping, tech hurdles, or something else. That's the data we're blind to right now.
TechIncarnate4@reddit
That is a conversation to be had with the individual, as well as knowledge from the team leader who should have some base understanding of how long things should take. Technology is not the fix here no matter how much you want to shoehorn it in. You will only make people not trust you and leave your organization.
ethereal_g@reddit
The surveillance will continue until morale improves.
DevinSysAdmin@reddit
What’s up with all these posts? I’m almost certain this exact post came up and was shot down by many comments, so I’m not going to provide much input past “Learn what KPIs are”
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
We have KPIs. The problem is measuring them remotely without just tracking mouse wiggles. That's the blind spot I'm trying to get data on.
thortgot@reddit
Mouse wiggles arent a KPI. Is this a tool advertisement?
RabidTaquito@reddit
Ok it's absolutely clear here that you don't have a functional grasp of what KPIs are.
DevinSysAdmin@reddit
You don’t have KPIs/you don’t understand what KPIs are.
SysAdminDennyBob@reddit
Just get a manager and have that person manage the employees.
"I see you only produced 4 widgets today at home, when you normally produce 10 widgets. What's up with that?"
"How come you still have 20 incidents and 8 Tasks in Service Now, same as 2 weeks ago."
If I just quit doing shit it would be glaringly obvious.
Want to know who the person is at work that is the least productive with the mouse and keyboard? It's the CEO, that guy is not moving pixels at the proper rate. Go boost his productivity first and see how that goes.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
You've perfectly described the exact scenario I'm trying to prevent.
If I don't find a tool that gives actionable project data, management will default to exactly this kind of widget-counting nonsense. I'm trying to steer the ship away from that iceberg.
SysAdminDennyBob@reddit
Dude, we all sit in staff meetings twice and week and walk through all of our projects/task/deliverables as a team every week with progress noted in the tool. It's wonderfully effective. I'm not going to sit there in that meeting and repeat "I have done nothing on that item" over and over in front of my peers and boss. It's should really obvious if a just sat on my ass and did not actually install patches on 3000 servers two weekends in a row.
Keyboard button counts and mouse movement tracking is not going to get you a better data set.
Heavy_Dirt_3453@reddit
This isn't a technology problem.
ShadowSpion1@reddit (OP)
It's a management problem, but they're asking for a tech solution. My job is to find the tool that causes the least amount of damage.