More nonprofits are embracing remote work as it allows them to access a broader pool of talent and connect with skilled employees worldwide. With most nonprofits working on low budgets, remote work helps them save on office costs and improve employee work-life balance, all while keeping them productive. But managing remote teams also comes with challenges like maintaining productivity and ensuring accountability. This is where employee monitoring software emerges as a solution.
This kind of software helps nonprofits optimize their remote teams by streamlining time tracking, boosting accountability, and providing data-driven insights, so they can focus on their mission. We’ll discuss the benefits of monitoring software and its key features in this article.
Benefits of Employee Monitoring Software for Nonprofits
Here are a few ways in which employee monitoring software can help your nonprofit achieve its mission with greater efficiency:
Enhanced Accountability
The key benefit of using monitoring software for nonprofits is that it gives them detailed insight into team activities, such as tasks assigned, work progress, and areas requiring immediate attention, improving transparency and accountability. For example, a nonprofit organizing a fundraising event can see which task is assigned to whom, the time taken by each individual, or any key challenges faced by these employees, so they can meet deadlines on time.
Pro tip: Set measurable goals for employees using monitoring software and keep track of the progress while providing feedback to keep everyone motivated.
Increased Productivity
One major challenge most organizations face when working remotely is ensuring team productivity. The line between one’s personal and professional life can be easily blurred, causing a major dip in productivity. This is where monitoring software can identify areas where productivity lags, so you can take prompt action to address these issues. Identifying these gaps improves team efficiency and ensures the effective allocation of resources to meet organizational goals.
If your nonprofit, for example, runs multiple donor outreach campaigns, use activity tracking to help your team find high-impact tasks.
Budget Efficiency
Most nonprofits struggle with budget challenges; hence, wasting resources on low-impact tasks is something nonprofits can’t afford. But by using employee monitoring software to gather detailed insights into operational efficiencies, like excessive time spent on low-impact tasks, you can dedicate your resources wisely and ensure better use of time and funds.
For example, if your nonprofit is working on community programs, you can use the data to identify areas of improvement and allocate resources effectively. At the same time, keeping your operation costs low can help you achieve your nonprofit mission on time.
Streamlined Reporting
Transparency is important for nonprofits to build trust with donors, investors, and key stakeholders. Providing detailed reports about your impact and project outcomes strengthens your credibility and makes securing funds easier in the future. Generating reports manually can be challenging and time-consuming, but with monitoring software, you can generate automated reports in just a few clicks.
Such software helps nonprofits provide donors with clear project timelines and outcomes, strengthening trust and credibility. When combined with nonprofit CRM, it allows organizations to align team performance data with donor and stakeholder information, offering more detailed insights into project efficiency.
Data-Driven Decisions
Making decisions can be tough, especially when you can’t gauge the impact that remote employees make. However, data provided by employee monitoring software can help you with key insights like project challenges and inefficiencies in resource allocation. Based on these insights, you can take timely action to improve productivity, make strategic decisions, measure impact effectively, and boost accountability. For example, if the software signals that your team is usually idle during a particular time, you may schedule meetings to use that time wisely.
Pro tip: Make sure you monitor these data trends regularly to improve strategies and team performance.
Key Features Nonprofits Should Look For in Employee Monitoring Software
If you’re choosing an employee monitoring software for your nonprofit, here are a few key features that you should pay attention to.
Time Tracking
The time tracking feature will help you understand how your team allocates time to different tasks. The benefit? You’ll know whether your nonprofit resources are being used effectively and identify areas for improvement.
Say, for example, your nonprofit is running multiple fundraising campaigns; the time tracking feature can help you identify time spent on each task, ensuring key tasks are given priority. Automated time tracking makes it easy, with little to zero manual input, while saving time and maintaining accuracy in timesheet management.
Real-Time Activity Monitoring
When working remotely, it’s likely that some tasks get overlooked or neglected. But what if you could monitor these tasks in real time? Real-time monitoring helps managers monitor ongoing work, spot bottlenecks and unproductive behaviors. Using the app’s tracking feature provides transparency and ensures everyone works on their tasks while staying productive. This can be beneficial for nonprofits organizing virtual events to keep an eye on everyone’s activity and make sure tasks are done on time.
Detailed Reporting
Detailed and customizable reports are important to analyze your team’s performance over time. However, these reports should be simple yet comprehensive, offering insights into time spent on specific tasks, project outcomes, and productivity trends. Whether it’s a report for your board members or a detailed analysis of your team’s performance, these reports make your impact heard loud and clear. Check if the tool allows customizing these reports based on team goals and KPIs.
Integration With Payroll and Billing Systems
This feature is important for nonprofits working with remote teams, volunteers, and freelancers. Simplifying the payment process and calculating the pay based on working hours ensures everyone is paid fairly for their work. Also, this integration makes invoicing clients and donors a breeze.
Security and Privacy
As a nonprofit, you have access to a lot of sensitive data, including donor information, financial records, and beneficiary details. Therefore, security and privacy features should be your top priority when looking for monitoring software. Depending on your region and data, the tool should comply with relevant data protection regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.
Security and privacy become more important when your nonprofit employees are working remotely. Look for features like encrypted data storage, secure login passwords, and customized privacy settings that let you control who has access to which information. By doing so, you can ensure only authorized people have access to sensitive information, enhancing trustworthiness and credibility.
Best Practices for Implementing Employee Monitoring Software for Your Nonprofit
Below are a few ways to maximize the potential of employee monitoring software for your nonprofit:
Set Clear Expectations With Your Team
Let your team know about the monitoring software and how it will benefit them and the organization. Communicate the intent behind introducing the software. i.e., to boost productivity so that employees don’t feel micromanaged, reducing potential resistance.
Prioritize Transparency
Make your team a core part of the data and insights collected from the software. Discuss ways in which your team can use the tool effectively. The idea is to help employees understand how the tool contributes to your nonprofit’s goals.
Train Your Team Members
To make the most of your monitoring software, your employees should know it inside and out, since they will be the ones using it. Therefore, offer them comprehensive training. You can organize workshops or training programs to demonstrate the software’s key features and their functionality.
Regularly Review Reports
Use the data collected from the software to identify trends and make changes. Say the software report shows consistent delays in a particular project – find its root cause and implement changes. Reviewing data regularly will help your nonprofit stay on track, identify potential bottlenecks, and take action before the problem escalates.
Why is Traqq a One-Stop Solution for Your Nonprofit?
Traqq is a leading employee monitoring and time tracking software for remote and onsite teams—here’s what sets it apart:
- Wide user base: Traqq is used in 139 countries and has received over 1,000 five-star reviews, reflecting its reliability and value.
- User-friendly interface: Traqq is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for those with minimal technical experience.
- Detailed reporting: As previously mentioned, reports are important for your nonprofit. Traqq generates detailed reports on time usage and productivity, helping teams optimize performance.
- Data handling and security: Traqq protects your data with multi-layer security. All data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS, SSL, and TLS and at rest using AES-256 encryption, ensuring secure storage and access.
- Cost-effective plans: Traqq offers a free Premium Starter plan with all premium features for accounts with up to 3 users.
Closing Thoughts
If you want to optimize your remote teams, boost productivity, and manage resources efficiently, now is the time to invest in employee monitoring software. This will help you achieve your nonprofit goals while overcoming challenges.
FAQs on Employee Monitoring Software for Nonprofits
What is the importance of employee monitoring software for nonprofits?
While improving productivity and staying on top of tasks, monitoring software helps nonprofits make data-driven decisions and allocate resources wisely.
How does employee monitoring software ensure data security and privacy?
Employee monitoring software typically offers limited access control, encryption of sensitive data, and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Is employee monitoring software cost-effective for nonprofits?
Yes, most of these tools come with affordable plans, and some platforms like Traqq even offer a free plan with premium features for teams with up to 3 seats.
