All the Things You Need to Know Before Choosing a Staff Tracking App
With so many different employee tracking systems in the marketplace today it can be difficult to really know which one is best for your business as there is a confusing array of choices. Products range from cheap but very basic options to systems that offer more functionality at a higher price.
It is common for business owners to be drawn in by flashy marketing and promises of a cheap and easy solution to later become frustrated by a system that constantly has problems and doesn’t work as they thought it would.
With the range of employee tracking software offering a variety of features it can be hard to determine which ones are good value for money, and which ones to completely avoid altogether. With this in mind let’s go through what you are likely to find at different price points in the market.
Cheap and Cheerful
In difficult economic times, budgets are tight, so many business managers see the cheapest employee tracking apps on the market as the obvious choice. The problem with this is that cheap doesn’t always mean good value, and you may not even be getting what you think you’re paying for.
Apart from price the other big selling point of software at the lower end of the market is that it’s simple to use with minimal features. As most managers have little time to learn how to use a new software package, and likely can’t really afford their staff to do the same, this can also be attractive.
Unfortunately, minimal features doesn’t always equate to easy to use, as usability is as much a result of good software design as it is the level of complexity in the tracking software. The best way to assess usability is to take the time to examine the software package through a trial or demo. As time consuming as this might seem, in the long run it is better than wasting time and effort with the wrong software.
Trying out the employee tracking software is also a way of assessing whether or not it is really right for your business. It’s easy to assume that you will only need the features found in the most basic applications, but it’s not until you use the tracking software that you will really know. The few features that come with the software package may not be the ones you need or work in the way you want. Even the cheapest tracking app is a waste of money if it doesn’t actually do what you need it to do.
The truth is, the reason a lot of the lower end employee tracking applications are cheaper is because less effort has been put into building a robust and well-functioning system. Additionally, running costs for the software provider are also lower due to less money being spent on secure data handling and storage, software upgrades that meet continual changes in the technological and security landscape, and ongoing service and support to their customers.
All the Bells and Whistles
Generally, more expensive employee management software comes with a greater list of features, some you may not really need. This will make many business managers question whether it is worth paying more, but it’s important to understand what features make higher end software worth the extra money.
One thing to consider are the features that are not obvious at first glance and you may not even realise that you might need such as reliability, cross-platform compatibility and a high level of data security. Having an employee tracking app that will work on a variety of different phones, particularly both Android and iPhone is important to a lot of businesses. This is because the app can then be downloaded directly to the personal phones of their workforce without the need to buy company phones to go with the tracking app. This is a significant cost saving.
These features are more likely to be built into a well-designed software package than a cheaper, quickly produced product. As good software design takes time and cost more money to build, this tracking software naturally comes to the consumer at a higher price.
The other significant difference with more expensive software systems is the better quality, ongoing service and support. Not only do manufactures and sellers of these systems take the time to make sure the systems that their customers have installed work well, but they also continually update and improve the software so that it stays aligned with current technological advances and industry expectations.
Want to look at the full range of employee tracking software, click here to see a demo of UniGuard in action.