subject: Top three reasons to monitor your employee's computers [print this page] Top three reasons to monitor your employee's computers
To increase productivity
Though everyone hopes their employees are conscientious workers who perform their tasks efficiently without wasting time, experience has shown that this isn't always the case. Without computer activity monitoring, it is tempting for any employee to spend time on instant messaging services, chat rooms or to browse their favourite websites. By installing a computer monitoring tool on every user's computer you can find out who is wasting precious company time and ultimately being inefficient in their job. Desktop monitoring software can also show you whether software for whose licences your company has paid a lot of money is actually being used by your employees or whether they are just a wasted investment. Similarly you can analyse your servers to find out if any are being underutilised.
To protect intellectual property
Companies whose work depends on processes, models or any know how that they have developed have to pay particular attention to installing computer monitoring tools. By analysing the data such software provides, one can find out who is sending confidential material out of the office via various mediums such as emails, instant messenger services etc. and whether employees are in fact following ethical practices laid out in their contracts or codes of conduct.
To reduce corporate risk
By monitoring employee computer activity you can carry out surveillance on a particular employee if you suspect him of misconduct or suspect that someone he interacts with though his computer is trying to sabotage your company. Installing tools such as computer network monitoring software can pre-empt or prevent activities like cyber attacks, as well as generate information that reveals the degree of corporate risk your company is at. Based on data generated, you can accordingly create new or modify existing risk management systems you may have in place.
