How Companies Are Leveraging Productivity Software to Drive Efficiency

Productivity is the buzz word of modern workplaces. How to increase it is top of mind for most managers. To achieve this, an increasing number are turning to productivity management software. This software comes in many forms, but typically monitors employee activity and translates this into productivity metrics.

In recent years, demand for employee productivity monitoring software has grown 54%, according to research from Top10VPN. Gartner also reports that around 60% of workplaces now implement productivity tracking tools.

But despite its growing adoption, not everyone is convinced. So, as a manager, how do you determine if productivity tracking tools are right for you? We’ll discuss just that in this article.

Why So Many Managers Are Turning to Monitoring Solutions

Employers have monitored employee activity in one way or another for a long time. However, in recent times, with the rise of technology, this monitoring has become far more sophisticated and detailed. 

The employee time tracking tools managers use today are capable of measuring employee productivity, efficiency, workloads, and even detect if they are overworked. These apps really took off during the pandemic, as employers began working remotely and managers sought ways to continue to manage effectively.

Insightful.io, an employee time clock app, says it has seen a 45% increase in customers in the past year. And the company is expecting growth of 70% in 2025. This rapid growth is consistent across the industry, as employers seek to keep employees accountable.

Adopting Monitoring Software is a Hot Issue

There are significant tailwinds behind the growth of productivity management software. Mark Zuckerberg labelled 2024 as Meta’s “year of efficiency”. In short, companies are looking to do more, with less – an objective that technology like productivity monitoring tools can help deliver.

For managers eager to improve employee accountability and productivity, there are key considerations to make when it comes to adopting productivity software. Failing to do so, may compromise employee morale, and have the opposite effect on employee performance.

Be Clear with Your Goals

Not all productivity software is created equal. Some are designed for remote work. Others the office. Then there are some that drill right down into workloads and workflows, while others focus more on tracking high-level actions like keyboard and mouse activity. Before choosing a solution for your organization, first map out your exact use case, and the features you need to best address it.

Ease-of-Use

Introducing a whole new software across your entire team can be highly disruptive. All software has some level of learning curve involved, but you want to select a tool that takes minimal training to get up to speed. This way, it allows managers and employees to integrate the tool into their existing workflows with little, or no, interruption to daily work.

Privacy-First

Justifiably, when employees hear of productivity monitoring software, their first concern is often what it means for their privacy. To allay these concerns, make sure you choose an employee tracking app that has customizable privacy settings that avoid capturing personal information or activity outside work hours.

Flexibility

No two workplaces are alike. So it’s important that the staff management software you choose is highly customizable. It should enable you to set your own parameters around what defines productivity, let you select which activity is and isn’t used, and provide custom reporting that shows the details your managers need most.

The Choice is Yours

Choosing whether to adopt productivity tracking software is highly dependent on your organization’s goals and structure. There’s no right answer. Yet, with the surge in adoption in recent years, it’s clear that the majority of workplaces now view these tools as indispensable to modern work.