Is your team’s productivity a mystery?
It’s tough to measure output when you’re stuck with manual timesheets. You can’t see where your team’s valuable time is really going.
Without clear data, you’re just guessing. This leads to unseen productivity drains that quietly hurt your bottom line and ultimately stunt growth.
In fact, a report from ElectroIQ shows that 89% of employees waste at least 30 minutes daily on non-productive tasks. This hidden time loss really adds up fast.
The right system can fix this. It helps you pinpoint exactly where productivity is gained or lost across your entire workforce.
In this article, I’ll guide you through the best employee tracking system options. We’ll focus on platforms that provide actionable, clear insights for better management.
You’ll discover a tool that boosts accountability and streamlines workflows, helping you prove a clear return on your investment to stakeholders.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hubstaff → | Small to large teams | |
| 2 | ActivTrak → | Mid-sized companies & startups | |
| 3 | DeskTime → | Mid-sized companies & startups | |
| 4 | Connecteam → | Growing mid-sized companies | |
| 5 | TimeCamp → | Teams needing clear billing |
1. Hubstaff
Struggling to gain clear workforce insights?
Hubstaff’s time tracking and productivity insights address the pain of manual tracking and productivity loss.
This means you can manage productivity and projects for teams from 1 to 1000, ensuring every hour is accounted for efficiently.
It’s time to streamline your operations.
Hubstaff helps by providing online payroll and payments for faster, more accurate team payments. You can pull 20+ reports to add context to your workforce data, including real-time workforce performance metrics that truly matter. This allows you to remove the guesswork from your payroll process, paying employees automatically through the app on their preferred payroll platform.
Additionally, Hubstaff offers comprehensive attendance and leave management, enabling you to effortlessly manage schedules, shifts, and time off requests. Plus, its project cost management helps you gain full control over project expenses, tailor pay rates, and send customizable invoices directly from your dashboard, maximizing profitability.
Boost your team’s efficiency today.
Key features:
- Multi-device time clock software: Track employee work hours across various devices, converting data into automated timesheets for accurate record-keeping.
- Actionable productivity metrics: Unlock insights into how your team spends time, helping detect unusual activity and balance time spent in meetings.
- Comprehensive attendance & leave management: Effortlessly manage employee schedules, shifts, and PTO policies while staying updated on completed, late, and missed shifts.
Hubstaff features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Hubstaff stands out as a strong contender for the best employee tracking system, trusted by over 112,000 businesses. Its robust features like accurate time tracking, comprehensive reporting (20+ reports), and seamless integrations deliver actionable analytics, helping you achieve measurable productivity gains and up to 25% project savings.
2. ActivTrak
Are you struggling with productivity loss and outdated tracking?
ActivTrak offers powerful workforce analytics and employee monitoring to pinpoint exactly where your team excels or faces challenges. This means you can gain real-time visibility into activity levels.
With ActivTrak, you gain the ability to make data-driven decisions to optimize performance. This comprehensive solution addresses core needs by providing detailed insights.
Improve your team’s overall efficiency.
ActivTrak provides solutions for employee monitoring, productivity management, and workforce planning, helping you understand how your employees spend their time. You can measure and boost productivity, spot burnout and disengagement, and optimize performance through AI-powered coaching. This also allows you to assess capacity and technology usage for cost savings. Additionally, it aids in workload management and detecting burnout. This allows your team to balance workloads and ensure employee well-being, while also optimizing technology usage to cut unnecessary software costs.
The result is increased efficiency and streamlined workflows.
If you’re managing a diverse workforce, you might also be interested in my review of best gig economy platforms for sourcing flexible talent.
Key features:
- Employee Productivity Monitoring: Get real-time visibility into team activity and productivity levels, ensuring you understand where and how work gets done.
- Performance Optimization & Coaching: Leverage AI-powered insights to understand and optimize team performance, helping managers guide employees effectively.
- Capacity & Headcount Planning: Analyze workload capacity to allocate resources efficiently and identify staffing needs for future growth and projects.
ActivTrak features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: ActivTrak stands out as the best employee tracking system for mid-sized companies and tech-forward startups, offering robust features like AI-powered coaching and capacity planning. With 9,500+ global brands trusting it and a reported 122X ROI for some users, ActivTrak delivers actionable analytics that truly streamline workflows and boost accountability.
3. DeskTime
Struggling to gain clear workforce insights?
DeskTime’s automatic time tracking and productivity calculation features offer real-time data to pinpoint exactly where time goes.
This means you can easily overcome the challenge of outdated manual tracking and prevent productivity loss across your team. The result is a comprehensive overview of your team’s work.
Time tracking to boost productivity by 30%.
DeskTime helps you minimize business losses and ensure accountability. Its URL and app tracking, alongside document title tracking, lets you oversee work progress and eliminate distractions.
Additionally, you can plan and manage employee shifts, oversee absences with an absence calendar, and gain insights into work hours through the admin dashboard. This offers a bird’s-eye view for optimizing resources and preventing employee burnout with break reminders and private time. Plus, it integrates with tools like Jira and Asana for seamless project management.
Ultimately, you get accurate analytics for better management.
Key features:
- Automatic Time Tracking: Effortlessly captures start and end times, eliminating manual entry and human error, providing accurate work hour data.
- Productivity Insights: Offers productivity calculations, URL/app tracking, and screenshots, allowing you to identify unproductive activities and boost overall effectiveness.
- Workforce Management: Includes shift scheduling, absence calendars, and attendance management to streamline HR tasks and ensure smooth office operations.
DeskTime features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: DeskTime provides a powerful, intuitive platform that is excellent as a best employee tracking system for mid-sized companies and startups, offering comprehensive features from automatic time tracking to workforce management. It helps gain transparency and can boost productivity by up to 30%, as seen in user experiences.
4. Connecteam
Struggling with scattered team management and productivity dips?
Connecteam offers a powerful all-in-one solution to manage your entire workforce, simplifying daily operations from anywhere. You can easily streamline workflows and gain real-time visibility into your team’s activities.
This means you can say goodbye to juggling multiple apps that scatter work, slow you down, and drain your budget. Connecteam simplifies everyday work and cuts the busywork.
It’s time to gain full oversight.
Connecteam solves these problems by providing smart tools like employee scheduling, which automates planning and prevents mistakes, ensuring the right people are assigned precisely when and where needed.
Additionally, with time tracking features, you can auto-record precise work hours, simplify timesheet approvals, and get payroll right every time with reliable data for accurate compensation. This is crucial for maintaining compliance and avoiding costly errors.
Plus, you can make work flow with digital forms, checklists, and tasks that ensure quality work and give you real-time visibility. Connecteam also centralizes internal communication, enabling instant messaging and company updates, keeping your workforce connected wherever they are, and fostering better engagement and accountability.
The result is increased efficiency and productivity.
Key features:
- Time Clock & Scheduling: Automates precise time tracking and efficient staff scheduling, preventing errors and ensuring accurate payroll with reliable data for streamlined operations.
- Task Management & Forms: Enables real-time task delegation and progress tracking alongside instant field reporting with live results, ensuring quality work and full oversight.
- Internal Communication & HR: Keeps your workforce connected with chat, updates, and a searchable directory, while simplifying HR with training, time off management, and recognition.
Connecteam features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Connecteam proves itself as a best employee tracking system by streamlining operations and improving communication. Its integrated features, from precise time tracking to efficient scheduling and comprehensive HR management, directly address core challenges like productivity loss and fragmented data, making it an ideal choice for growing mid-sized companies aiming for measurable gains.
5. TimeCamp
Struggling with unclear productivity and manual tracking?
TimeCamp offers automated time tracking and robust reporting directly addressing your team’s need for accurate work insights.
This system helps you replace outdated methods, significantly reducing manual errors and providing clear data to boost accountability and efficiency across your projects.
It’s time to gain real clarity.
TimeCamp solves your challenges by giving you detailed time and attendance management, simplifying payroll and overtime. This means you can track work hours, activities, and manage leave with ease, all within one intuitive platform.
You can also monitor project time efficiency to optimize productivity and profits. TimeCamp’s precise billing feature ensures every billable hour is accurately captured, turning your team’s work into transparent invoices, which is excellent for client relations. Additionally, features like geofencing for mobile teams and a Kiosk for simple clock-in/out enhance convenience. Its Planner platform also streamlines team collaboration and project management, boosting overall operational efficiency.
The result is streamlined workflows and measurable productivity gains.
Speaking of project efficiency, my guide on best GST billing software simplifies your tax invoicing and saves time.
Key features:
- Automated Time Tracking: Effortlessly captures work hours and activity, eliminating manual errors and providing precise data for payroll and project budgeting, saving you significant time.
- Comprehensive Reporting & Analytics: Offers detailed insights into team productivity, project profitability, and attendance, empowering you to make informed decisions and pinpoint workflow bottlenecks.
- Seamless Integrations & Mobile Access: Connects with over 100 popular business tools like Trello and Jira, and offers mobile and desktop apps for continuous, flexible tracking across all devices.
TimeCamp features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If you’re seeking the best employee tracking system to streamline operations and gain actionable workforce insights, TimeCamp is a powerful solution. Its automated time tracking and comprehensive reporting, combined with features like geofencing and integrations, directly address needs for efficiency, proven by a 15.8% average productivity increase among users.
6. Veriato
Struggling to gain clear workforce insights?
Veriato’s User Activity Monitoring (UAM) and Veriato Cerebral (IRM) offer unparalleled visibility. This means you can track productivity and spot compliance issues for on-site, remote, and hybrid employees.
You can identify malicious or risky employee activity, spot productivity concerns, and even detect fraud and data loss across your team.
Here’s how you get comprehensive workforce intelligence.
Veriato addresses your need for actionable analytics. It empowers your organization to drive productivity, enhance security, and ensure compliance.
You can track employee activity across devices and applications, leveraging AI-driven analytics to assess risk and detect anomalies. This helps you secure your organization and make informed decisions, especially vital for workplace investigations and hybrid teams. Additionally, the system provides detailed reporting for audits and compliance, ensuring your operations remain transparent and efficient.
Plus, you get meaningful alerts when there’s risk with user behavior analytics. The result is a streamlined workflow that boosts accountability.
While we’re discussing optimizing your workforce, you might also find my guide on best employee scheduling software helpful for efficient management.
Key features:
- Complete visibility into employee activities across on-site, remote, and hybrid setups, helping you track productivity and identify compliance issues.
- AI-driven analytics to assess risk and detect anomalies, protecting your organization from insider threats and enabling informed decisions.
- Comprehensive reporting for audits and compliance, along with capabilities for thorough workplace investigations and fraud detection.
Veriato features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If you are seeking to replace outdated manual tracking and gain measurable productivity gains, Veriato is the best employee tracking system. Its advanced UAM and IRM capabilities provide the deep insights needed to optimize your workforce and ensure compliance.
Conclusion
Ready to boost team productivity?
Choosing the right system is tough. Many platforms look the same, making it hard to find a tool that truly fits your small business.
An ElectroIQ report shows larger companies face estimated annual losses of $5.1 million from unproductive time. This highlights the critical need to stop guessing and start measuring effectively.
So, what’s the best choice?
After my review, Hubstaff stands out. Its powerful time tracking and productivity insights give you the clarity needed to manage your workforce effectively.
Trusted by over 112,000 businesses, it delivers comprehensive reports and real-time data. The best employee tracking system like Hubstaff helps achieve measurable productivity gains and project savings.
Beyond employee productivity, optimizing your supply chain is crucial. My comprehensive guide on best vendors management software can help.
I recommend you start a free trial of Hubstaff to see how its features can streamline your specific workflows.
You’ll gain back control and clarity.
