Workforce productivity software: 7 questions to ask before you choose one

Workforce productivity software is software that records how working time is spent across applications, projects and tasks, and turns that record into reports a manager can act on. The right workforce productivity software for a team of 10 to 200 people shows where the hours go, tells employees in writing exactly what it collects, and leaves out what it does not need. This guide explains what these tools record, the seven questions that separate one tool from another, and when building your own system with AI is a realistic alternative.

What workforce productivity software is, and what it is not

Workforce productivity software sits between two older kinds of tool. Manual time trackers ask people to type in their hours, which is light on privacy but leaves gaps whenever someone forgets. Security monitoring tools record a great deal in order to detect data leaks and insider risk, which is a different job from understanding where a team's time goes.

Workforce productivity software records time automatically through a desktop app, then groups that time by application, project and task. The goal is visibility into how work is distributed, not evidence about individual keystrokes. If you are still sorting out which category you need, the comparison of workforce analytics tools by category lays out HR planning tools, operational analytics tools and insider risk tools side by side.

What a workforce productivity tool should record, and what it should leave out

The most useful document a vendor can give you is a written list of what its desktop app sends. A tool that cannot produce that list is asking your team to trust something nobody has written down.

As an example of what such a list looks like, the Worktivity desktop app sends one record per minute, and only while a shift is running:

• Status: working, on a break, or idle.
• Activity level: how many seconds of that minute had keyboard or mouse input. Activity level is a count of seconds, never the keys themselves.
• The application in the foreground, by name.
• The site host if the application is a browser, for example github.com, without the rest of the address.
• A screenshot, only if the organization has screenshots switched on.
• The project, task or work note the employee selected.

Worktivity never collects typed text, window titles, full web addresses, clipboard contents, files, the camera or the microphone. Owners can narrow the list further, for example by dropping website hosts or switching screenshots off, but nobody can extend the list. The complete list is in the help article What does Worktivity collect, and what does it not?

Seven questions to ask before you choose workforce productivity software

Feature lists for workforce productivity tools look similar. The seven questions below separate tools that fit a team of 10 to 200 people from tools built for a different job.

1. Is the list of collected data written down and fixed?

Ask the vendor for the exact fields the desktop app sends, and ask which of them can be switched off. A written, fixed list lets you answer an employee's question in one sentence instead of a meeting.

2. Can screenshots be switched off or blurred?

Screenshots are the most sensitive thing a workforce productivity tool can capture. In Worktivity, screenshots are optional: an organization chooses off, blurred or unblurred. A blurred screenshot is blurred on the employee's own computer before upload, so the readable version is never stored. The help article Can I blur screenshots so content is not readable? explains when each setting makes sense.

3. Can employees see their own data?

A tool that shows managers a record employees cannot see invites suspicion. In Worktivity, every employee lands on the My activities screen, which shows that employee's own recorded time and activity.

4. Who decides what counts as productive?

A productivity percentage is only as fair as the rules behind it. In Worktivity, each application is rated productive, neutral or unproductive per team, so a design tool can be productive for designers and neutral for the sales team. Applications nobody has rated stay neutral. Worktivity AI suggests a rating, but reports only use the rating a person sets. The help article How do I decide which apps count as productive? walks through the review screen.

5. How is the productivity figure calculated?

Ask whether the figure is a weighted score or a plain count. The Worktivity productivity split is a count of working minutes in each class divided by all working minutes. Breaks and idle minutes are left out, so a long lunch does not pull the number down, and team figures are rebuilt from minutes rather than averaged across people.

6. Does the tool connect time to projects and cost?

For agencies, software companies and other firms that sell time, a productivity percentage matters less than the answer to a simpler question: which projects make money. Look for a tool that records time against projects and tasks automatically, so the project cost report does not depend on people remembering to fill in timesheets.

7. Who can see which team?

Check how access is limited inside the tool. In Worktivity, owners and co-owners see the whole organization, and a manager only ever sees the manager's own team. Employees do not see the dashboard screens at all.

Should you build your own productivity tracking system with AI instead?

Building a simple time log with AI tools is realistic today. Building workforce productivity software is a larger job, because most of the work sits in the parts nobody sees in a demo.

• A desktop agent for every operating system your team uses. Windows and macOS handle permissions differently, and an operating system update can stop an agent from recording until someone fixes it.
• Recording only during working time. An agent that keeps recording after a shift ends creates a privacy problem, not a feature.
• Filtering before upload. Dropping window titles and full web addresses on the employee's computer, before anything is sent, is what makes a privacy promise checkable.
• Storage, retention and deletion. Screenshots and activity records need a retention period and a way to delete them on schedule.
• Reports people trust. Rating rules per team, a calculation people can follow, and access limited by role all need building and maintaining.

Building your own makes sense when a manual log answers your question, for example when a small team only needs hours per client once a month. When the question is how time is distributed across people, projects and applications every week, the maintenance of a homemade agent usually becomes somebody's second job.

Where Worktivity fits, and where it does not

Worktivity is a work intelligence platform for teams of 10 to 200 people. Worktivity fits two situations well: firms that sell time and need to know which projects are profitable, and remote or hybrid teams whose managers need to see where working time goes without asking for status updates.

Worktivity also has clear limits. Worktivity does not read files, clipboard contents or typed text, so Worktivity is not a tool for detecting data leaks. Worktivity does not collect window titles on any platform, so Worktivity cannot tell you which document someone had open. The Chrome extension records shifts and activity but takes no screenshots and records no applications or addresses, and the mobile app records time only, with no location. If your main question is headcount planning across a large organization, an HR planning tool answers that question better.

How to roll out workforce productivity software in the first week

1. Write down the question you want answered. "Which projects are over budget" and "how is work spread across the team" lead to different settings.
2. Tell the team what is collected before anyone installs anything. Share the written list of collected data. The Worktivity desktop app also shows each employee the organization's settings and waits for acceptance before the first shift starts.
3. Choose the screenshot setting deliberately. Off or blurred is enough for most teams.
4. Rate the applications each team uses. Until applications are rated, most time shows as neutral, and a rating also relabels past minutes.
5. Read the weekly summary before the tables. Worktivity opens five insights screens with a short written summary of the last week, free on every plan, including the trial. For a full written analysis, you can order a Productivity Coach report.

For more on keeping this process fair for remote teams, read how to track employee productivity remotely without micromanaging.

See workforce productivity software working on your own team

The Tech Digit Easy case study shows how an IT services company uses Worktivity to see how developer hours are split across client projects while the work is still in progress. To see the same picture for your own team, start a free trial of Worktivity and follow the guide to getting the most out of your trial.