Best Employee Monitoring Software

Overview

Employee monitoring software has multiple advantages. Businesses can experience huge financial losses when workers play online games, access social networking sites or even view online pornography.

Innovations in technology make it possible for an employer to monitor all of their staff's computer and online activities. Today, managers can remotely monitor employees in real time as they perform job-related tasks. PC Monitoring also makes it possible to catch and document those workers who abuse company resources by leaking confidential company information via email or using instant messaging applications to threaten and harass others.

Designed to keep management informed, employee surveillance applications can also increase worker productivity while decreasing incidences of inappropriate employee behaviors. Cleary, surveillance apps and their logging and documentation capabilities can serve as a vital forensics tool when allegations of employee sexual harassment, coworker hostilities and other problems surface.

In the review, you will find objective side-by-side comparisons and reviews of the top employee monitoring software solutions available. We will provide details about what components to look for when selecting software.

What to Look For

Below are the criteria that we used to evaluate employee monitoring software solutions.

Online Monitoring

Monitoring an employee's online activities is of vital importance to employers who are concerned about employee productivity and seek to provide their workers with an environment that is free of objectionable materials and threatening behaviors.

Elements to consider in this area include the logging of accessed websites and online searches. The app should have the ability to detect when a staff member accesses a social networking website like MySpace, Twitter or Facebook or even views online pornography.

Some PC monitoring apps can record usernames and passwords, log blog posts and identify those employees who waste time by shopping or playing games online. Recording chat and instant messaging transcripts is another sought-after element.

PC Tracking & Management

Computer tracking features to look for include the recording of launched applications as well as the duration and frequency of use. These features are useful to track how much time an employee wastes watching videos, playing games or engaging in other nonproductive activities.

Other elements to evaluate include display screenshots of the employee's desktop, document tracking, remote computer administration and scheduled PC access.

Filtering & Blocking

Make sure the software you select has some type of filtering and blocking features if you desire to prevent your employees from executing specific applications or accessing websites that contain objectionable content.

Some PC monitoring apps can filter content by keywords, phrases and categories. The blocking of chat and instant message software by name, application type or even username could be another desired component.

Additional elements could include the filtering or blocking of online games, dating, social networking and social media websites.

Reporting Methods

Employee monitoring software can record enormous amounts of data. A poorly designed report console can render even the most robust applications useless. The reporting interface should be intuitive to navigate. It is common to have easy-to-use built-in reports as well as the ability to perform searches by date, time, launched applications, internet activity and other parameters.

SurveilStar Employee Monitoring Software

SurveilStar is strong and comprehensive PC monitoring software that can prevent users from viewing pornography or engaging in online gambling.

Online Monitoring  

The monitoring software's website recording component logs all of a user's website activities. The PC monitoring software creates a list of visited URLs, the frequency, hour and duration of each visit. These features are useful in preventing a user from accessing online pornography, gambling, fetish, social networking and gaming websites.

The monitoring software's Alert system can assist employers in protecting their network security. Upon designation of a concerning word or phrase, SurveilStar actively scans all monitored communications seeking the specified word or phrase. Examples of keywords and phrases can include terms such as pornography, gambling, dating, sex and more.

SurveilStar's Screen Snapshot function takes screenshots and stores all captured screenshots in sequential order. Computer owners can choose to isolate the images and view them one-by-one or implement a video-type playback of the recorded screenshots.

The email monitoring component of SurveilStar records the contents of all email correspondences. Supported email applications are Outlook and Outlook Express. SurveilStar can also record communications sent through web-based email providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and others. Moreover, the software logs the transcripts of conversations that occur via chat and instant messaging software.

PC Tracking & Management  

After purchase, the buyer will receive an email that contains software download instructions. The installation of this application may take some time. Once complete, it runs in stealth mode and is invisible to all users of the monitored computer. The PC monitoring software does not display itself in the Windows Task Manager, System Tray, Add/Remove Programs or the Process List in monitored computers. The monitoring software secretly operates with virtually no depletion of other critical system resources or bandwidth.

Removing the monitoring software requires correctly entering the administrative password. The feature prevents the monitored users from meddling with the PC monitoring software's secret settings.

If concerns regarding the viewing of pornography exist, the monitoring software can log the frequency of user-launched applications. Examples of these types of computer programs include video player software such as QuickTime, Real Player, Media Player and others. Additional information provided by the PC monitoring software includes the most frequently launched computer application as well as the duration of use.

Filtering & Blocking  

SurveilStar has strong blocking and filtering capabilities. Computer owners can block websites by URL or page content. The online monitoring feature of the software can filter content on the fly. It actively scans online searches and website content for inappropriate or objectionable material.

The computer owner can prevent users from executing certain types of applications. Category-based blocking allows for the blocking of applications by group such as web browsers, instant messaging software, and email clients. Blocking by the software's given name is also possible.

Reporting Methods  

SurveilStar has useful reporting capabilities. The gathered information is viewable from any console-installed PC. The manufacturer's reporting interface is intuitive. Beginning computer users will have no trouble locating the saved data. The reports are easy to read and interpret. The reporting system sorts the information by application type and in chronological order.