Do You Really Know How Many Hours Your Remote Employees Actually “Work”?

In the evolving landscape of remote and hybrid work, many business leaders are asking a critical question: How productive are my employees when working remotely? It’s a valid concern, and yet, most companies don’t have a concrete answer. The shift to remote work has created a double-edged sword—while it offers flexibility and access to a broader talent pool, it has also blurred the lines between “clocking in” and truly productive work.

The Illusion of Productivity: Are Your Metrics Misleading?

For many companies, productivity is measured by traditional metrics: hours logged, tasks completed, or projects delivered. However, these indicators often mask more profound issues. Just because an employee appears active in your project management system or shows online in a communication tool doesn’t mean they are actively working. In reality, many employees may be juggling personal tasks, multitasking across non-work activities, or not as engaged as you think.

This illusion of productivity can be even more deceptive in remote settings. Employees might clock in for an entire workday without direct supervision, but the actual productive work could be significantly less. The discrepancy between time worked and time productively used can cost companies thousands of dollars in lost productivity, especially when compounded across an entire workforce.

The Hidden Cost of Untracked Time

When employees are left to self-report their hours or rely solely on task management tools, important nuances are missed. Untracked time, particularly with remote employees, can lead to:

1. PTO Leakage: Many employees may take unofficial breaks or skip reporting paid time off. This untracked time can lead to financial leakage, costing companies 2-3% of their payroll expenses annually.
2. Unproductive Hours: Without clear visibility, managers may not notice how much time is spent on non-work activities, such as social media browsing or personal tasks. The gap between logged hours and actual productive work widens.
3. Resource Imbalance: Some teams might be overburdened while others are underutilized, leading to burnout in certain areas and inefficiencies in others. The lack of detailed data on how time is spent hampers effective resource planning.
4. Poor Decision-Making: Without comprehensive data, leaders are forced to make gut-based decisions about performance, productivity, and workload distribution. This often leads to missed opportunities for optimization.

The Problem with Relying on Traditional BI Tools

Most Business Intelligence (BI) tools focus on specific data points like project milestones or task completion rates. While these metrics are helpful, they don’t provide the full picture. Traditional BI tools often fail to capture:

• Non-Mortgage-Related Activities: Employees may be active, but their efforts might not be focused on high-value tasks. For example, spending time in a web browser might not be related to core mortgage processing activities.
• Detailed Activity Tracking: Without detailed logs of computer activity—every keystroke and mouse click—it’s impossible to differentiate between active work time and passive idle time.
• Granular Employee Data: Tracking only CRM or Loan Origination System (LOS) activity ignores a significant portion of an employee’s computer usage, missing out on insights that could reveal productivity gaps.

The Consequences of Ignoring the Data

When companies don’t have a clear, data-driven view of employee activity, the consequences can be severe:

• Lost Revenue: Inefficiencies, unreported PTO, and unproductive hours can add up to significant financial losses. For a mortgage company, this could easily mean tens of thousands of dollars per year in hidden costs.
• Employee Burnout and Turnover: Overutilized employees may feel overworked and undervalued, while underutilized employees may become disengaged. Both scenarios contribute to higher turnover rates.
• Missed Opportunities for Improvement: Without visibility into how time is spent, leaders miss the chance to coach employees effectively, redistribute workload, and implement targeted productivity improvements.

Introducing Guardian Insights: Productivity and Engagement

Now that we’ve outlined the problems, let’s discuss the solution. Guardian Insights is part of the Mortgage Business Intelligence suite, designed specifically for the mortgage industry. The Productivity and Engagement module goes beyond traditional BI tools by providing a complete view of your employees’ computer activity, offering actionable insights from company-wide metrics to individual performance.

How Guardian Insights Solves These Challenges

1. Comprehensive Tracking of Computer Activity

   Guardian Insights captures every aspect of computer usage, including application usage, web browsing, keystrokes, and mouse clicks. This level of detail accurately represents employee activity, ensuring that logged hours match actual productive work.

2. High-Level KPIs and Customizable Filters

   The platform aggregates data into easy-to-read KPIs, giving you a snapshot of overall company productivity. Filters allow you to adjust the date range and view daily, weekly, or monthly trends, helping you make informed decisions quickly.

3. Team Drill-Down and Individual Performance Analysis

   Dive deeper into team-level insights, such as the Processing Team’s daily productivity trends. Identify top-performing teams and spot areas for improvement. Drill down further to individual employees like Caleb Ward to see detailed logs of their productive and unproductive hours, categorized into high-value tasks like ‘Mortgage Related.’

4. Employee Productivity Ranking and PTO Review

   Rank employees from least to most productive based on their overall activity. Use this ranking to reallocate work efficiently and ensure no team members are overburdened or underutilized. HR can also use this data to identify potential unreported PTO, preventing costly payroll discrepancies.

5. Actionable Reporting and Insights

   Guardian Insights provides detailed reports that highlight key metrics, task categorization, and application usage. This actionable data allows managers to streamline resource planning, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance employee engagement, driving better business outcomes.

The Financial Impact: Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore This Data

Consider an employee earning $30 per hour who has 3% of their time untracked due to inefficiencies and unreported PTO. This could cost your company nearly $1,900 per year per employee. Multiply this by your entire workforce, and the financial impact is substantial. With Guardian Insights, you can recapture this lost revenue and boost overall productivity, delivering a return on investment that far exceeds the cost of the solution.

Ready to Transform Your Workforce Productivity?

Guardian Insights isn’t just another productivity tool—it’s a game-changing Business Intelligence solution that provides transparency, accountability, and actionable insights. By capturing every detail of computer activity and delivering comprehensive reports, you can make data-driven decisions that enhance team performance, reduce financial losses, and drive sustainable growth.

Learn more about implementing Guardian Insights: Productivity and Engagement in your organization and see the difference it can make for your team.