Best employee monitoring software?

[JMorton6]

Our company is experimenting with outsourcing for the first time, and since initially the people won't be at a call centre but in their homes, we wanna install employee monitoring software on their PCs to make sure they're not slacking. What's the best one?

Closed since it was resurrected by spam necromancy
-ViRGE

 

[yinan]

LOL this is funny... If you did this to me I would just tell give you the information for a machine that happens to be a VM, which I could minimize, control better than your monitoring software.

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, I'd say there are better ways to handle this. What kind of job are they doing? You mentioned a call center, so are they answering phones for you? If so, the call center software should have reporting so you can see how many calls they take, how long they're in ready, not ready, talk, and work modes.

 

[JMorton6]

It`s an outbound call centre, and we don`t really have software since it`s just for our company. It`s basically gonna be a few people at home making calls, so I need to make sure they`re making em.

 

[compman25]

Then why not have your company pick up their home phone service and then check the bills each month to see if they are making the calls?

 

[Scouzer]

Then why not have your company pick up their home phone service and then check the bills each month to see if they are making the calls?

Yup. OP is taking the shitty militant boss route.

 

[beginner99]

Then why not have your company pick up their home phone service and then check the bills each month to see if they are making the calls?

AS far as I understood the will be calling with VOIP. Or who else could he monitor it with software?

EDIT:

I wonder what the calls are good for if there is no other means to determine if the were done? Sounds like they are somewhat useless?

 

[SantiClaws]

Don't install anything, just tell them that you did. That should do the trick.

 

[Paperlantern]

Structure their pay by work output.

 

[Crusty]

Give them all VOIP phones + VPN to your data center. If all their calls get routed through your systems you can do whatever you need to track them without being intrusive.

 

[Nothinman]

Structure their pay by work output.

Which is hard to do without proper reporting. If they're telemarketing there may be no record other than CDRs from the call manager software or their word and the latter isn't very reliable which is why I'm sure he's asking about monitoring software.

Crusty's idea is probably the best if you have a VOIP system like CUCM with CDR reporting.

 

[Lotheron]

Are these PCs provided by your company or their own personal PCs? If you don't own the PC, you can't expect to install any monitoring software on them, IMO.

 

[Anteaus]

Are these PCs provided by your company or their own personal PCs? If you don't own the PC, you can't expect to install any monitoring software on them, IMO.

This. You have absolutely no authority to install anything on anyone's private machine without their permission. If you absolutely must monitor them, then I suggest you provide them with a laptop specifically for making calls along with full disclosure. Unfortunately, I'm getting the feeling that the types of people that will be placing this calls are people who won't understand the gravity of installing monitoring software on their private machines when compared against the promise of making money.

I wish you all this success but I think you might need to rethink your strategy. I agree with an earlier suggestion to monitor phone records. They keep records of phone numbers as well as length of call. It would be easy enough to determine if they are spending the necessary time on the phone. You could then simply offer to pay their phone bill.

 

[zokudu]

I know a company I did some telecommuting call center work with for a while did the VoIP + VPN solution listed above. It makes the most sense to me.

 

[Dulanic]

Speaking as someone who's job it is to monitor workforce performance for a fortune 500 company.... even we don't "monitor" what they do. What you need to do is find a way to track performance and be able to verify it. Easiest way is to have the employees track the calls they make and then you verify it via phone logs. As other have said, you should be providing the phone service no? Even VOIP can have call logs pulled.

If you have to do 100% employee monitoring there is other issues here. Wether it is with employees or trust I don't know. But again, let them do their job just verify their tracking. If they say they mad a dozen calls you need to be able to verify those calls. If you can't then your business isn't setup to support this kind of enviroment.

 

[kore]

I don't think monitoring software will be a solution for monitoring outsourcing and i don't think is legal if the computer are not purchased by the company. But if you still think you needed, here is an online demo version of a good employee monitoring software: demo.cyclope-series.com

 

[RusselTorres]

Our company is experimenting with outsourcing for the first time, and since initially the people won't be at a call centre but in their homes, we wanna install employee monitoring software on their PCs to make sure they're not slacking. What's the best one?

For anyone else in this same situation, I recommend the software we are using at the IT firm I am working at. It is called My Team Monitor, and it is very simple, we log on when we start work, and off at the end of our shift. While we have the program switched on, it takes screenshots of our work-platform, and it counts how many keystrokes and mouse clicks we've made during any time-interval. As an employee, I think it is fair to have this much surveillance imposed on us, but it is not too much to feel violated in any way. If I want or need to check my personal emails, I just turn the program off, and check it. I had to download and install the software from myteammonitor dot com. I think my boss only had to register for an account, and he can view his interface on a cloud server.

 

[linal]

[spam necro redacted]

 

[oynaz]

For anyone else in this same situation, I recommend the software we are using at the IT firm I am working at. It is called My Team Monitor, and it is very simple, we log on when we start work, and off at the end of our shift. While we have the program switched on, it takes screenshots of our work-platform, and it counts how many keystrokes and mouse clicks we've made during any time-interval. As an employee, I think it is fair to have this much surveillance imposed on us, but it is not too much to feel violated in any way. If I want or need to check my personal emails, I just turn the program off, and check it. I had to download and install the software from myteammonitor dot com. I think my boss only had to register for an account, and he can view his interface on a cloud server.

In such a case, I would fell honour-bound to fuck with the monitoring software as much as I possibly could.

 

[Nothinman]

In such a case, I would fell honour-bound to fuck with the monitoring software as much as I possibly could.

And I'm sure your services would no longer be needed shortly thereafter.

 

[corkyg]

Pay them by the leads they provide - not by the hours they put in. That way there is incentive not to slack. Better yet, employ all at minimum wage and then add incentive rewards for each lead provided. Pay for performance and slacking becomes unimportant.

And, consider a post call customer survey to ask how the employee did. This is another measure of performance without risking unpleasant privacy violation litigation.

 

[Nothinman]

Pay them by the leads they provide - not by the hours they put in. That way there is incentive not to slack. Better yet, employ all at minimum wage and then add incentive rewards for each lead provided. Pay for performance and slacking becomes unimportant.

And, consider a post call customer survey to ask how the employee did. This is another measure of performance without risking unpleasant privacy violation litigation.

Exactly. Positive, performance based incentives work better than Big Brother-esque punishments using legally dubious software involving employee's personal equipment.