Insightful Review - Employee Tracking for Remote and Hybrid Work to Improve Productivity and ROI

Post Covid-19, there has been a drastic shift in the work culture. Employees have started to opt for as well as negotiate (during job interviews) a WFH (Work from home) or hybrid work model. 

In fact, a 2023 survey by Deloitte revealed that about 56% of their employee were working from home in one way or the other. Out of these 56%, 22% worked fully from home while 34% chose a hybrid model.

It is important to trust your employees but a shift to these working models has forced organizations to micro-manage at some pretense. There have been employees who’ve worked diligently to sustain this working model while others simply took advantage and reduced their productivity. So to keep an eye out so that productivity won’t take a dip, platforms like “Insightful” have been created.

Understanding these issues, MobileAppDaily thought of providing an Insightful review, a dependable platform in the employee productivity tracking domain. A platform that can help companies that want a dependable solution to track employee productivity. So, without wasting any time, let’s begin:

What is Insightful?

We founded Insightful because the way the world works was changing – and leaders weren’t equipped with the tools needed to keep up. Fast forward to today, Insightful continues to build market-leading solutions for modern work. Remote, hybrid, or in the office, Insightful helps make great work happen everywhere.

 

- Ivan Petrovic

Insightful.io was founded in the year 2016 by Ivan Petrovic. The workforce analytics software is at the forefront of how businesses can track productivity and performance, especially in remote and hybrid work environments. 

Currently, the product runs its 7.1.60 version. And, it is designed for easy installation and use. It provides real-time insights into how employees are utilizing various apps and software. Based on this, the manager of the tools can also optimize the type of software license required both from the perspective of saving costs and enhancing efficiency.

It is one of the best productivity apps that is primarily targeted at C-suite managers and HR departments. It addresses the business-critical need of measuring and understanding employee productivity in today’s flexible work settings.

The platform is known to deliver numerous benefits that include productivity management across remote, hybrid, and office settings. Furthermore, you get the capability to automate time and attendance management.

Features of Insightful
 

Insightful.io provides a suite of features designed to benefit administrators and employees. So, let’s uncover the different features in this Insightful review:

1. Time Tracking

Being an employee time tracking software is its core functionality. This feature allows administrators to use automatic start and stop timers or manual entries. 

Basically, it allows you to monitor employee working hours in depth. This data can be further translated into reports. Reports that can help analyze time spent on projects, identify trends, and derive accurate payroll calculations.

2. Activity Monitoring

Using this feature, Administrators can track application and website usage. It can help determine different tools that employees are using during work hours.

However, it goes beyond just identifying used programs. For instance, Insightful categorizes these applications and websites into three categories:

• Productive
• Neutral
• Distracting

Categorization of this level helps with understanding workflow patterns and potential areas for improvement.

3. Granular Tracking

This can only be performed using a variety of optional features available with one of the best time management apps. For example:

• Idle time tracking
• Alerts for excessive inactivity
• Screenshot capture
• Timely screenshots at specific intervals

4. Monitoring Modes

With Insightful software, transparency is key within an organization. The administrator of Insightful can choose between visible and invisible monitoring modes. This provides a perfect balance between employees' informed and potential privacy concerns.

5. Reporting and Analytics

Aggregating data and utilizing them for insights are two different things. This is the reason Insightful delivers reporting and analytics. 

Using this tool, administrators can generate reports on work hours, application usage, and idle time. These reports can also be used to analyze team productivity trends and pinpoint the areas to fix.

Based on the chosen plan, administrators can even gather insight about each individual employee. It can give an idea about their performance and identify potential fallbacks catering to productivity management.

6. Team Management

Another crucial feature of Insightful software is its capability to streamline processes to monitor a larger workforce. Admins can even invite team members, assign them projects with granular tracking and reporting, and even set work schedules.

Pros and Cons of Insightful

The purpose of this Insightful review is to provide you with a data-driven comparison. So, catering to the thought, here are the pros and cons of Insightful:

Tech Specifications of Insightful

Insightful is a cloud-based solution. It means that you don’t need to install any software on your system. However, some technical requirements can be considered for Insightful employee monitoring software:

Plans and Pricing of Insightful (SIC)

Another purpose of this Insightful review is to provide balanced insights in terms of the budget required for the task at hand. Currently, Insightful is offered to its users in four tiers. Let’s explore them:

1. Productivity Management:

2. Time Tracking:

3. Process Improvement:

4. Enterprise Solution:

MAD Ratings

Features: 4.7
Pricing: 4.8
Security: 4.7
Navigation: 4.5

In the domain of employee tracking software, Insightful presents itself as a robust contender. It delivers a set of tools that help with managing time and provide project insights.

The strength of the platform lies in its detailed tracking capabilities. Insightful goes beyond the act of logging hours. It does it by monitoring active work time, website, and application usage, and even capturing screenshots. This helps in painting a much more nuanced picture of how employees work during the day.

Furthermore, it provides valuable project visibility. By tracking the time spent on specific tasks and applications, you can find valuable insights into the project's progress. It can also instrumentalized for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing workflows within the team.

But, there are some considerations to keep in mind. While Insightful is a great tool occasionally it can provide inaccuracies just like other tools. Also, extensive monitoring of the employees can be a double-edged sword for the work culture. 

So, keeping all these things in mind, Insightful emerges as a productivity booster that provides project visibility. However, its successful implementation completely depends on how you execute the communication with the employees regarding the tools and their monitoring. And, how you use that data!

How to use Insightful?

Insightful productivity software delivers a plethora of functionalities for its users. So, providing steps for each of this workforce app’s functionality will be impossible. So, we have provided the installation process and basic features so that you don’t get confused. So, here they are:

For Employees:

• Installation: You will receive an invitation from the company administrator. He will deliver the insights required to install. However, the actual process only involves downloading and installing a browser extension.
• Running the Software: Once installed, it will run quietly in the background and monitor the activity on your computer. 

For Administrators:

• Account Setup: After you are done creating the Insightful account, you will be guided through a setup process:
  - Invite your team members via the email.
  - Choose a monitoring mode for the employees. It can be both visible and invisible.
  - Configure settings as per requirements. For instance, working hours, idle time thresholds, etc.
   
• Monitoring & Reporting:
  - Insightful dashboard can provide an overview of the team’s activity:
  - Track work hours and identify the trends.
  - Check out the applications and websites that employees are using while working.
  - View screenshots if they are enabled.
  - Generate reports after analyzing your team's productivity and identify areas for improvement.

Additional Notes:

• Insightful employee monitoring software provides a variety of features. For example setting alerts for excessive idle time or unauthorized website access.
• Some of the specific functionalities and interfaces can vary depending on the version you are using. Therefore, it is recommended that you check the Insightful’s official documentation.

Comparison with the Contenders

Comparing the employee tracking software at hand with the top contenders can help make a data-driven decision. So to compare Insightful productivity monitoring software with some of its competitors, we have created the table:

Conclusion

Employee tracking has become a collateral necessity in these changing work dynamics. Micro-managing employees is one way to look at platforms like Insightful. However, with this Insightful review, our intent was also to tell you about the capability of the tool and the type of productivity enhancements, it can bring. 

It can identify areas like the usability of the tools used within an organization or the amount of work that employees are putting in for a task. Each of these things could be monitored and improved based on data provided by tools like Insightful. By saying this, we hope that the review may have helped you decide whether to acquire Insightful for your company or not.

Also, if you are an owner of a similar digital product or owner of any digital product that can help people? Get your product reviewed. Our team of experts will thoroughly use your product and provide a balanced review based on its merits and demerits. This can potentially help you with more adopters, increased credibility, and the trust of the MAD (MobileAppDaily) badging.

• How can I monitor employee activity on my computer?

  The best way to monitor employee activity is to use an employee activity tracking tool like Insightful. However, there are built-in monitoring tools, plain and simple communication, and more to do so.

  Adding to it, there are some additional considerations too. For example:

  • Local Laws: Employee monitoring can vary based on region so ensure that you are not violating any law.
  • Company Culture: Consider the culture of the company. Monitoring can create fights while open communication can build trust.
  • Alternatives: There are other options like setting performance goals or maintaining standards to avoid it.
• What are the different purposes that the best time-tracking apps can fulfill?

  The purpose of time-tracking apps can vary depending on employers and employers. Here’s a breakdown:

  For Employers:

  • Track time spent on tasks and projects to identify areas of improvement.
  • Ensure accurate billing and payroll calculations.
  • Gain insights into the project's progress and identify potential bottlenecks.
  • Monitor patterns in workflow and identify areas for training and development.
  • Track billable hours for client projects to ensure accurate invoicing.
  • Allocate resources based on the project requirements and employee skillsets.

  For Employees:

  • Gain awareness of the time spent at work for better time management and focus.
  • Eliminate the hassle of tracking hours and timesheets manually & accurately.
  • Estimate the timeline of the project based on similar tasks.
  • Figure out areas of improvement for smart work.
  • Create a clear record of work to facilitate clear communication with managers.
  • Spend time on client projects for accurate invoices and budget management.
• What is the example of software that is used for employee monitoring?

  In the domain of employee monitoring software, Insightful stands as a worthy example. It is because it fulfills all the essential needs and more like:

  • Time Tracking
  • Activity Monitoring
  • Optional Features (idle time tracking, alerts for inactivity, etc.)
• Are there any employee monitoring software that are open-source?

  While there is no real dominance of monitoring software in the open-source space. However, there are a few options:

  • eHour.nl: It is a free and open-source solution that focuses on time tracking and basic project management requirements.
  • Kimai: It is also free and open source and deliver capabilities like time tracking, project management, and task sheets.