Have you considered using time tracking software with screenshots? Everybody knows it’s good to track time.
However, what if you have people from your team that choose to work remotely? Or what if you have to manage teams from different locations?
How do you check their progress or their involvement in the projects?
Motivation
For example, let’s put it this way: if you would be in their physical location it would be a natural interaction between you and them. You can simply go to somebody in your team and take a peek over their shoulder and see that they working, that they are not stuck and all things go smooth.
This gives you peace of mind over the progress of the work.
Why not replicate this interaction with a tool? Meanwhile, just by using a smart desktop plugin you will have screenshots of their desktop in addition to time reporting. Awesome!
Benefits of time tracking software with screenshots
The benefits of having a time tracking software with screenshots are:
- Ability to check somebody’s time allocation to a task
- Identify idle time by seeing the same screenshot over and over again.
- It can also be used as a proof somebody actually worked (even if the progress is slow) or that somebody didn’t. It’s a double-edged sword.
- Make people more aware that somebody might check on their work.
- Have detailed reports of worked time and screenshots side by side.
- Even more, you have the ability to justify spent time to picky customers.
For more benefits on using a time tracking software in general you might find more information in this article: Benefits of employee time tracking
Warnings and people reactions
On the other hand, having screenshots of your team’s activity raise some concerns or critics from different people or employees.
- First of all, some people will be reluctant in using screenshots. They will say it will violate their privacy. The thing is, if they would be in the same room with you, they could not invoke such reasons. Remember that the time they are paid for is your team’s time.
- Also, those who work remotely on their desktop might say that the screenshot might capture glimpses of their private life. Again, think that if they would be in the office with you their personal live will “spill into” daily work anyway (one of their friends, family member , etc might came for a quick meeting with them).Beside that, their duty is to work and take care of anything related to their job. Therefore, personal matters shouldn’t interfere with their working time.
- Most importantly, transparency should be very important : inform people that their desktop is recorded, as well as the fact that it’s taking screenshots of they desktops. As a result, no one will be able to say they were kept in the dark.
We just added [ May 18, 2020 ] this feature to our time tracking application with screenshots. It is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux.