Staff monitoring

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Oriphix

523 posts

Ultimate Geek

#161677 15-Jan-2015 22:22

Hi Guys,

I am looking for a staff monitoring software.

I was thinking of: http://www.spectorsoft.com/

Spector 360

Seems to have a good reviews here:

http://employee-monitoring-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

Anyone currently use this software? or have another software that you would recommend?

MileHighKiwi

782 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1215735 15-Jan-2015 23:33

Check out this thread...http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=50&topicid=154507

Not a popular topic on Geekzone.

Oriphix

523 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1215745 16-Jan-2015 00:24

MileHighKiwi: Check out this thread...http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=50&topicid=154507
Not a popular topic on Geekzone.

Hi,

Thanks for that.

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1215769 16-Jan-2015 06:12

MileHighKiwi: Check out this thread...http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=50&topicid=154507

Not a popular topic on Geekzone.

Brilliant site!

Did you know?..

"1/3 of employees waste 2 hours onine (sp) per week!"

Their awesome software is going to "track every movement" of their employees.

So, this should be popular?

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#1215856 16-Jan-2015 09:31

I find stalking the cubicle farms with the cat o' nine tails while screaming "WORK HARDER VERMIN!!!!" gets much better results from the minions.

;-)

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#1215863 16-Jan-2015 09:44

I can understand the need for this in special cases i.e. someone is doing dodgy things on their computer or management have asked for them to be investigated however monitoring well behaved employees would certainly reduce staff morale once they found out.

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1215903 16-Jan-2015 10:21

There are better ways. If the workplace culture is healthy then apart from targeting a specific problem-child this shouldn't be necessary, and is potentially destructive.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

MikeB4

18435 posts

Uber Geek

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#1215915 16-Jan-2015 10:27

be careful that the monitoring does not have a greater impact on productivity than the behaviour you are trying to monitor.

Equinox IT

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Oriphix

523 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1216047 16-Jan-2015 12:15

Hi All,

Thanks for your input.

After sleeping on this idea I have couple concerns

1. With the product taking recordings and images, we could be sued if we take information of there bank accounts etc (so if we decide to go ahead with this product we won't enable this function)
2. With it recording key strokes - there is potential if we get hacked that could expose passwords (need to see if we can keep just the information in a graph etc and wipe the key strokes data)

My aim when I first started researching this was:

1. See when staff are logged into there machine and doing work and when they aren't (having issues with staff not arriving on time, letting the rest of the team down - call center environment)
2. I want to know if someone is spending half there time on youtube when they should be working (currently we don't have any KPI's etc staff have been able to do what they like so we trying to get some structure and give staff that perform well rewards)
3. Able to generate reports which I can use for KPI meetings

I also liked the feature of monitoring certain words. We haven't had the need for this yet however in the future we might as we are growing.

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#1216056 16-Jan-2015 12:48

Oriphix:

1. See when staff are logged into there machine and doing work and when they aren't (having issues with staff not arriving on time, letting the rest of the team down - call center environment)
2. I want to know if someone is spending half there time on youtube when they should be working (currently we don't have any KPI's etc staff have been able to do what they like so we trying to get some structure and give staff that perform well rewards)
3. Able to generate reports which I can use for KPI meetings

I also liked the feature of monitoring certain words. We haven't had the need for this yet however in the future we might as we are growing.

For item 1, your Windows admins can give you a report on login/logout times.
Item 2. Stick an internet proxy in .. something like Squid could do it for "free"
Item 3. Proxy server should do that as well
re: monitoring/filtering words .. proxy server again.

Mark

JimmyC

726 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1216159 16-Jan-2015 15:19

Some proxy products will let you set up allowed times for various sites. At my place of work for example, Facebook is only allowed outside of working hours, and at morning tea and lunch breaks. You can also assign bandwidth quotas for sites like Youtube if you're on a fixed data cap.

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#1216204 16-Jan-2015 17:02

Not a good idea to do especially if you hire anyone under 30 - expect them to use youtube / social sites throughout the day. Measure productivity and output and have a workplace culture to set expectations

MikeB4

18435 posts

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#1216206 16-Jan-2015 17:05

khull: Not a good idea to do especially if you hire anyone under 30 - expect them to use youtube / social sites throughout the day. Measure productivity and output and have a workplace culture to set expectations

I have hired many under 30's I would not expect them to use youtube / social sites throughout the day and my experience has been they don't.

ScuL

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1216380 16-Jan-2015 23:10

If any employer of mine were to restrict my personal freedoms in such a manner I would use my smart phone (potentially even as a 4G/wifi router) to get around the restrictions.

There have been many investigations on this subject in the UK and the consensus is currently that employees are happier and more productive if you allow them the occasional 5 minutes of Facebook (or other private sites) in between work
Now if someone is slacking hours and hours per day that is something else and I reckon you should address it directly with the person rather than making the entire staff suffer

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.

matisyahu

1623 posts

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Trusted

#1216382 16-Jan-2015 23:20

ScuL: If any employer of mine were to restrict my personal freedoms in such a manner I would use my smart phone (potentially even as a 4G/wifi router) to get around the restrictions.

There have been many investigations on this subject in the UK and the consensus is currently that employees are happier and more productive if you allow them the occasional 5 minutes of Facebook (or other private sites) in between work
Now if someone is slacking hours and hours per day that is something else and I reckon you should address it directly with the person rather than making the entire staff suffer

Unfortunately far too many employers focus too much on 'hours clocked' rather than deliverables that come out the other end. There are some jobs where you need to be there in the office at x time because it is a call centre or you work in a hospitality with a rigid schedule but far too often I see self appointed hitler-come-office managers trying to justify their title by ensuring they're always surrounded by people and appearing to be busy but in reality they're doing very little in the way of anything useful to the company itself - I sometimes wonder whether some businesses lose focus of why they exist in the first place given that so often there are many people employed to do 'stuff' and given the appearance of work - imagine a clip out of 'Yes Minister' to know what I mean.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

ScuL

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1216396 17-Jan-2015 00:18

Yes, as above.. I am not (yet) familiar with NZ working culture but in the UK the trend is increasingly switching to "deliver your work and you will be rewarded" rather than sticking to stringent time schedules.
In my last 2 roles I have been allowed to work from home a lot and it doesn't matter whether I come in at 10am or 9am as long as I fill the approximate 8 hours and deliver the work, whether that means leaving at 6pm or working through a lunch break makes no difference.

Abundant internet (ab)use is generally sign of boredom which means the person doing the role does not enjoy what he is doing and you need to find out whether there are ways to stimulate him or make it clear that he sound seek alternative employment..

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.