Office staff spends more than 90 % of its paid hours performing working responsibilities via computers. Some employees stay computer active during the whole time, whereas others easily get tiresome and leave the computer places for another coffee break or a phone call.
Some employees tend to have excessive coffee time during their paid hours.
That is why, employers are in need to monitor both:
- Idle times of employees, which is the time wasted away from one’s PC/laptop;
- Active times of employees, the time spent on performing PC/laptop activities.
To cut excessive non-computer pauses, the Idle Time report should be utilized!
Employee monitoring software enables managers and business owners to track active and idle times of employees. Monitoring the idle time of employees has a straightforward outcome: the amount of idle hours showed by the report literally means that the staff has not been using computers at all. Instead of that, employees are usually distracted by non-computerized issues: coffee breaks, phone talks, socializing pauses, smoking habits, etc.
When using his/her PC, an employee might browse the net for personal purposes.
It is not so obvious when it comes to analyzing the Active Time report. The hours assessed “active” by the monitoring software stand for the amount of time an employee has spent using his computer. But does that mean performing purely work responsibilities and not browsing the net for personal needs?
Active Time Efficiency Is Ensured Via WorkTime Reports
In WorkTime software, Active/Idle Time report is a part of a wider cluster called Behavioral Analysis. The cluster also includes:
- Software Use Habits,
- Web Surfing per Hour,
- Personal Internet Use per Hour reports, etc.
Active hours report should be complemented by Internet and software use monitoring data, to find out HR productivity!
Software Use report, incorporated into WorkTime, processes any applications’ usage by employee/ employees/ departments in real time, the outcome for the analysis available both in minutes/hours or the percentage. Both Web Surfing an
d Personal Internet Use reports show non-business-related sites visited by the staff. Correspondingly, it is better to apply active/idle time monitoring data being equipped with the awareness of the amount of time spent by employees on non-business related applications or personal Internet usage.
Business Benefits of Active/Idle Time Monitoring
The analysis of the reports on active/idle hours spent by employees could be applied as a background for varied business goals:
1. Timesheets rearrangement
In case the idle or computer-active time tracked is too high for a given company and its field of industry, managers are capable to rarrange schedules / timesheets
2. Corporate policy improvement
Company rules on computerized and non-computerized distractions during paid hours could be developed or improved due to Active / Idle times reports.
3. Procedural and training manuals development
HR managers develop training booklets based on the active/idle hours’ facts.
4. Individual productivity increase
With the active and idle time analtics, HR management is equipped to raise individual employee productivity, regarding personal timetables.
5. Wasted salaries elimination
Employers should not pay for the idle time of the staff any more; correspondent payrolls being approved due to limited idle time by employees.
6. HR engagement boom
Deeper employees’ engagement into the workflow is ensured by introducing gamification hours when it is necessary to provide the staff with a legitimate break.
Practical Situations
Initially required to control the amount of active hours spent by employee(s) on computer-related activities, the data received from the Active/Idle Time report could be used to reach varied business goals.
1.Excessive Idle time solved via rescheduling meetings
For example, if management assesses the after lunch hour to be less productive in terms of most idle time tracked, that could be a sign of HR’s excessive coffee breaks or socializing with co-workers in an office canteen. In this case, a meeting could be scheduled for the office time not to be wasted.
2. Active time monitoring requires analysis
Another situation could be faced when employees spend their working hours actively according to the software results, namely doing computer tasks, but the additional reports on personal web usage show they are being distracted by online shopping or planning the holiday time. The information received could be used to develop the corporate policy on non-business activities performed during the paid hours.
About WorkTime
WorkTime provides managers with comprehensive reports on active and idle time of employees, – which are easily used together with other elements of Behavioral Analysis software cluster, – equipping management with productivity boosting tools.
Read about: Employee Web Surfing Habits Monitoring
WorkTime latest release: Employee Performance Reports
By WorkTime Active/Idle Time Monitoring Software www.worktime.com