1. Is it possible to know what my office employees are doing?

Completely. Just utilize special software to monitor internet and PC activity, getting detailed reports and analysis. This is completely legal as well as totally effective, because such surveillance does not only show you the most frequent activities, but also suggests solutions for the possible problems.

2. Is there specialized office software to monitor internet activity?

Of course – there are a lot of professional programs that give you total control over the office network. According to the latest survey, the best one for 2013 is Work Examiner, with a ton of features and incredible versatility. It solves two of the most frequent problems of an IT oriented office – Security and Productivity issues.

3. How would an Internet activity monitor help the productivity?

What you get is information – an answer to the question “What are my employees doing in the internet?” and the ways to make them spend more time actually working. Most internet activity monitoring programs are capable of filtering unwanted resources as well as reminding the employees that it’s probably time to work.

4. Is online surveillance demotivating for the employees?

Not really. There are no security cameras, so no one is actually watching them. If you monitor internet activity, it doesn’t mean you will restrict something. On finding out that one or more of your employees tend to spend too much time browsing the internet, you can do something about it. Turn on an automatic warning or a timer that would start filtering process after some time.

5. What are the usual features of such programs?

Activity logging, report systems, filtering engines, live screen capture, work time recording, etc. Work Examiner, for example, will literally give the steering wheel to you. You’ll be able to dictate the policy for the whole office network and set up automated reports so that all you’ll have to do is come to work and check your email.