Keeping Productivity High During Pandemic

Michael owns an online sports goods store. Like many other businesses around the world, he had to go remote with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. After a while, customers began complaining that their orders took too long to process and deliver. The most impatient ones even cancelled their purchases and went to other stores. Managers explained these delays by a large number of orders - with gyms and sports grounds closed, many people were buying equipment to exercise at home.

However, Michael had suspicions that working from home was detrimental to some managers' discipline, so he started researching ways to monitor their productivity remotely. He chose CleverControl for the variety of tracking features and Live Viewing. He especially liked the opportunity to see what the employee was doing in real time.

The results of the first week of monitoring remote employees were disappointing. The statistics showed 6,5 hours of active time at best out of the required 8 a day. The productivity level of some managers was also quite low - only about 60-70%. For example, CleverControl logged that one manager often played a videogame during work hours, and another binged the latest shows on Netflix. Moreover, user activity reports revealed an employee who did not start working until 11 am, although he was supposed to start at 9. Considering these results, no wonder why orders were processed so slowly.

Michael discussed the results of monitoring with his employees during a weekly Zoom meeting. Michael explained that monitoring was not a means of catching them red-handed but a way to help them be concentrated on their work tasks. Most workers admitted that it was indeed hard to stay on track at home but promised to be more focused.

Michael followed the course of monitoring and discussing the results with the staff. "Once or twice, I even had to call the least disciplined employee during the day. I noticed in Live Viewing that the same window is open on his computer for a couple of hours," - he admits. However, monitoring encouraged most managers to self-regulate their work. Knowing about tracking, employees felt less compelled to do something non-work related.

Eventually, productivity began growing. "Some employees even treat monitoring as a game. They ask me about their weekly performance and compare the results with their colleagues. The least productive one owes drinks to their colleagues when the pandemic ends," - says Michael.

Now, CleverControl shows that the team's productivity level is about 95% on average, and the active time is at least 7,5 hours. "I like that I can configure intervals, which the software will not consider idle time. This way, I can let employees take reasonable breaks without worrying about their activity statistics," - Michael adds.

Michael is going to continue monitoring his staff even when they return to the office.

• User activity statistics

  This feature shows the summary of active and idle periods and the average and exact time when the employee starts and finishes work.
• Live Viewing

  A live stream of employees' screens shows what they do at the moment.
• Programs activity

  The software logs when each app starts and quits running on the monitored computer.