Most Common Ways Your Employees can Trick Time Tracking Software(Tips and Tricks)

The rise in the use of time tracking software helps strictly implement rules in remote work. Some employees have come up with ideas to trick on software that tracks time. It is common for people to cheat time trackers.

Knowing why employees cheat on tracking software is essential for time tracking in different organizations. How employees bring ideas to trick software is another question.

Different Information Technology offices build software products to track time and implement employee monitoring software in the lifecycle of a remote employee.

But how exactly does time tracking work? How can employees use ways to trick time tracking software? What makes the software tricky? How is cheating time tracking software possible? Let’s find out!

Need for Time Tracking Software

Employee monitoring software is necessary for the overall productivity increase of the organization by tracing employees’ digital activity.

Some tracking tools have GPS tracking systems. There are many reasons why the office has used time tracking tools for each employee. Some reasons why companies use time tracking software are:

Meeting Deadlines

The main reason for tracking time is to preserve each employee’s time for productive work by the employee monitoring system.

When each employee wastes time, there is less possibility of meeting the deadlines with quality work.

Priority

Time tracking applications allow you to prioritize completing the most important task and divide time for different works according to the priority, saving employees time.

Project managers can easily visualize the business process and time for each process.

Tracking applications help accountability and transparency as every action related to the work is tracked and clear to every group member.

When all tasks are completed on time, the business organization benefits.

Analyze Summary

Time tracking software helps employers and employees track themselves and measure their productivity. Employees can analyze themselves and see their productivity.

Tracking apps also help with data loss prevention and insider threat detection.

List of Productive Sites

Sometimes tracking devices generate a list of productive and unproductive sites, and it’s easier to know the productivity levels of each employee even though they spend full time at work.

The mouse movements are tracked by software checking the activity levels of employees.

Attendance

Time tracking software provides an opportunity to change the manual paper-based attendance system to online clock-in.

The employees begin their work on time and end after completing the total hours with time reports. HR management easily completes the task.

Comparison of Productivity

The productivity levels are calculated in percentage. You can compare the outcome of each employee, make plans and strategies accordingly for improving the overall productivity of task completers and benefit from employee tracking.

Systematic Workflow

Time tracking makes the work processes systematic and easy. Evaluating methods like calculating ROI and other productivity metrics in an organization is easy.

Workflow tracking helps in systematically finishing tasks and developing new organizational strategies.  

Ways to Trick Time Tracking Software

Tracking software is used in different offices with remote workers. In the absence of a corporate environment and colleagues with authority at home, sometimes employees forget their discipline. 

Time tracking tools keep workers alert during work, but some employees are tricked tracking software.

Some ways by which employees trick time tracking software are:

Trick Number 1: Mouse Automation Via Toys 

The first trick is the automation of the mouse by attaching a battery-operated toy to the mouse. This idea is a good way to fool the monitoring application to detect mouse movements.

It is not always possible for the members responsible for tracking to look into each employee’s daily activity.

This trick is handy as the tracking app records the state of movement of the toy as users work.

When HR personnel or other authoritative people neglect your screenshots, they do not find out about your actions.

If your profile is constantly monitored for screenshots and videos during work time, the responsible figures will find out about you not working.

It is easy to fool devices made by man, but make sure you do it to a limit, leaving no suspicions.

Trick Number 2: Opening Small Windows

Another way of tricking time tracking software is by opening your favorite video on the screen.

Open another small window of work-related pages like excel sheets or word files on the same screen. Remember, the page you open in a small window is what the tracker considers productive.

This trick is used for faking productivity and watching other videos and series on the screen. The tracking software will only record the page inside the small window.

But if the tracking app takes screenshots time, then the people guarding the screenshots find out the trick.

Trick Number 3: Predicting Time for Screenshots

With different algorithms used by the tracking software, some employees detect the usual pattern of screenshots.

They figure out the time intervals after which software takes screenshots as it takes screenshots in loops; employees only open work-related pages at the time of the screenshot.

The other time they play games or watch their favorite series on Netflix. The overall productivity will show how engaged they are in their work. 

So it is important for employers to know the features of tracking software and how they function in employee monitoring.

When choosing the software, choose the one that provides time tracking with productivity tracking. 

Trick Number 4: Two Monitors

Office personnel uses two computers for ease of work, and there is an idea for tricking the tracking system. Often, tracking software cannot track both the monitors and only one.

The trick is opening work-related documents on the main computer, and on the other, they open social media sites or any other videos as they wish.

To avoid such actions, highly advanced and sophisticated software is necessary. Such tracking software covers both monitors.

Trick Number 5: Messing Up Software Code

Employees can go to the limit of altering codes of employee monitoring software. With proper skills and tools, employees may customize the code for their benefit.

It may include tracking only a few things in a day. As fun and easy as it sounds, this method is not easy in action.

When the encryption is strong enough, changing the code is not easy.

Cracking applications requires hacking experts and other tools. If employers find employees in such an act, they should immediately inform the support group of the software to fix errors.

Trick Number 6: Remote Access

Some users use two computers and install the software on the official computer from where they conduct work. They set up a remote access client and connect to another personal computer.

They watch videos, chat online, or do anything with this trick, but the tracking app considers it productive.

Sometimes trackers consider remote access work-related and show any activity in remote access as productive.

For employers who detect employees using remote access without work-related permission, you can ask them for a reason for using remote access again and again. 

Why Employees Trick Time Tracking Software?

Time tracking tools track time every second. It demands full concentration from employees for work. Some employees lack honesty and look for ways to work insincerely.

Tracking software demands full-time work, and some employees are not ready for it. Some reasons why employees try to trick the time tracking software are mentioned below:

Laziness

One of the major reasons employees cheat on time tracking software is presenteeism. When employees lose focus and concentration on work due to sickness or other reasons, they stray away from actual work, seeking ways to increase the time off work just for show.

Lazy employees hunt for ways to increase work time without actually working.

Employees may seek ideas to trick time tracking software in remote work due to laziness and lack of interest. When employees are not engaged, then they seek ways to skip work. 

Need for Frequent Breaks

Time tracking software is strict, and the tracking is real. Unlike on-site offices where you get to hang out with your buddies during lunch breaks, remote work with time tracking is daunting with very few hours as a break.

For people who need frequent and short breaks and still need to manage work, ideas to trick time tracking software help.

Employees seek new methods to fool the software and take breaks to remain fresh during office hours.

Privacy Concerns

Some tracking software takes screenshots of every action and tracks every move during work.

Some employees are not comfortable with it even after receiving explanations from offices regarding the confidentiality of daily data.

They have doubts, are insecure about a device tracking them, and feel obnoxious about constantly tracking work. This situation may leave them with an option to cheat on tracking devices.

The employees need to understand the remote working rules before the onboarding phase in recruitment.

Time tracking software is mandatory in remote working, and if the employees are not comfortable with the idea, they should find an on-site office.

Wish to Outwit Software

Some employees are curious about the working of algorithms in time tracking devices, while others have a desire to outwit devices. They want to try different ways to outstand the devices and cheat tools.

Random curiosity may compel them to trick the software. Some employees have an experimental mindset and try different cheating ways on-time tracking devices.

If one way doesn’t work, they seek another way to stay away from work.

Obsession with tracking software is not good, and if you trick the software, it may impact the planning and deadlines with wasted time.

Humans make tools and software, but sometimes it is okay to let go and work with the software.

Trust Issues

Some hard-working employees who are extremely engaged and give their hundred percent may feel that the remote workers are not trusted enough.

Employees may feel spied upon, and trick time tracking software demands full attention for office work.

The only way to stop feeling so is by accepting tracking software as a standard rule and way of working remotely.

Trust and employee monitoring software have no relation, and it is easier to take the software as a part of the office system. 

Work-Life Imbalance in Remote Work

 

For employees who work from home and balance work-life from a distance, it is sometimes difficult to give time for work due to personal life obligations. For handling their personal life, they end up neglecting their work life.

The poor handling of work-life balance compels them to seek ideas to trick time tracking software and finish off home duties by changing the logging time.

They figure out ways to pretend to work with their minds on other personal tasks. 

How Time Tracking Software Work? ( Amid Tricks)

The work of employee monitoring software begins with starting a project. The daily work begins after attendance by clocking into the device.

With clear goals and objectives, each employee starts the task assigned. When employees are lazy, they try to automate the mouse without working.

With the help of monitor software, employees can know how much time is left to complete the project.

The moment workers clock into the time clock, the tracker starts tracking time and recording each employee’s hours.

If the employees know the interval between screenshots, they may trick software by showing work-related pages only at the time of the screenshot.

The desktop application takes screenshots time and again and detects the resources used by employees in a day.

It is impossible to trick employers with screenshots when the software gives reports of overall productivity.

When employees use excess remote access, you can ask them why. Also, if employers try to mess up the code, remember to contact the customer care and support department of the software used for the company.

When employees use two windows, the screenshots help identify the tricks for fooling software. 

Conclusion

Some software that tracks time allows users to start a free trial. The use of time tracking software is easy with video playback.

These tools monitor suspicious employees with the total time spent on employees’ computers.

Employers use tools for tracking employees’ time, and on spending too much time on unnecessary resources, the tools detect abnormalities.

Employees are constantly looking for ways to trick monitoring software and cheat the system.