Using Screenshot Monitoring Software to Streamline Agency Operations

Ruslan Askarov

The US economy is enriched with thousands of new businesses annually. According to Forbes, over half a million new businesses are started yearly. This kind of competition is good, it’s what pushes the business world forward, making companies strive to offer better products or services to customers.

One of the biggest indicators of a company’s potential for achieving growth and success is the level of team productivity. This factor can be greatly improved through a variety of different methods, and the approach a business owner decides to use will depend largely on the nature of the business itself.

When it comes to increasing productivity and reducing costs in businesses which involve a lot of computer-based tasks, using screenshot monitoring software offers the best results at the lowest cost, which is why it has become such a popular solution in recent years.  

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some ways in which you could use screenshot monitoring software to improve various business operations and overall team productivity, without investing too much time and money.

Silent versus Transparent monitoring

Silent monitoring is an unfavorable approach that numerous businesses rely on. Relying on such an invasive solution is a great mistake because it can be seen as an infringement of privacy, which can seriously demoralize the whole workforce, and even raise some legal issues. Even if you decide to go with silent screenshot monitoring, it is necessary to acquire consent from the employees, otherwise, an employee can sue the company.

On the other hand, transparent monitoring is something that should always be used in practice. So, what kind of monitoring is considered transparent?

In the silent monitoring process, there are no limitations to what is monitored. Owing to this fact, your workforce can become greatly demotivated, as they will always have the uneasy feeling that the prying eyes of corporate executives are taking a peek at their private activities. Whereas, with transparent screenshot monitoring, your employees know that they are being monitored and they know precisely what is being monitored and when.

For example, screenshots can be taken with a time tracker such as Monitask. But, during the times when the software is turned off, the project manager or other authority figure is unable to take screenshots. This way, both employers and employees know what to expect and at what times the screenshot monitoring can be conducted.

Access to the screenshots should be enabled not only for the project manager but the employee as well. This ensures that no privacy breaches are going to occur, as all of the information is transparent to both parties.

Before you deploy screenshot monitoring, it is necessary for the employees to be completely aware of it and have access to all the collected data. This sort of transparency creates a healthy working environment, in which employees stay more focused on their business tasks.

Now let’s take a look what processes can be improved with screenshot monitoring.

Project management and screenshot monitoring

Screenshot monitoring is only one of the features of time-tracking programs. It serves to provide a direct insight into the employee’s activities during the time-tracking period.

Collecting this data over a longer period of time provides enough information for future project management details. With this information, project managers can more easily create precise estimations about future project completion times.

Screenshot monitoring plays an important role in the company’s ability to deliver a higher number of projects in a given time frame. The better the project management is, the more work can be done. This is the part in which screenshot monitoring proves extremely helpful, especially in the outsourcing process, where your workers are remotely located. A business owner or a project manager can more easily follow the progress of any employee, no matter where he or she is located.

Time management and screenshot monitoring

One of the greatest benefits of using a screenshot monitoring tool is getting an insight into the activities of your employees while their working time is being tracked. As they collect screenshots,  project managers can see all the things that were found on the person’s desktop.

The image will contain all the necessary information to conclude whether an employee is completely focused on working, or if he or she is actually doing something else that might distract them from completing a task in a shorter time frame.

Through analyzing screenshots, project managers can instruct employees to steer away from social media networks or any other similar distractions that make the employee inefficient. In the long run, screenshot monitoring can significantly improve time management. Not only will projects take less time to complete, but will also increase financial profits of the company.

Employee management and screenshot monitoring

Employee management is crucial for establishing a great workflow within a company. Each professional within a team excels at a particular task. It is up to the manager to organize a project and assign the right task to the right team members.

Through time tracking and screenshot monitoring, a project manager directly acquires important information that can help him with task management in the future. Therefore, once a similar project pops up next time, the project manager can assign the right task to the right employee.

Using this practice can greatly improve the project management process, which will positively affect the productivity levels within a company. Knowing your employees’ capabilities is crucial for creating the correct deadline estimations. With this approach, you can expect a team of people to become much more efficient and productive, as they are going to deal with tasks they excel at.

As you can see, screenshot monitoring is very important for increasing and improving team productivity. This time tracking feature is extremely useful when the projects are outsourced to freelancers, as it enables you to take a look at the progress regularly.

It is important, however, to make the right use of collected information and know your goals. If you analyze the data in the right way, screenshot monitoring will help you better manage your projects, time, and employees, allowing you to skyrocket the productivity of your team.

If you have not yet started using screenshot monitoring, it is the time that you do, it will help you establish a steady business growth strategy, as you are going to have much more control over the performance of your employees.

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