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Client Case 19. The Mystery of the Wristwatch

The Mystery of the Wristwatch

The picture above shows yet another trick employees came up with to cheat monitoring software. But what can we say, Kickidler isn’t that easy to trick!

Keep reading to find out more about the trick and the ways employers can spot this kind of fraud.

Recently, a client of ours sent us a puzzling photo of an optical mouse placed on a wristwatch and inquired about the idea behind such construction. Naturally, given the nature of our line of work, we instantly realized that it was a new way to trick monitoring software.

Seeing how the second hand is in constant motion and the CMOS sensor detects this activity, most employee monitoring software (even our) register these types of motion as productive activity.

Such trick is especially convenient for remote employees, seeing how the supervisor isn’t able to check their actual presence at the workplace.

And Kickidler is the only employee monitoring software that has the tools you’ll need to detect employees who are trying to cheat the system with this watch trick or with any other schemes. Here are the two mechanisms that help you stay vigilant.

How to identify an employee who’s trying to cheat monitoring software?

Option 1. Autokick

Kickidler’s Autokick feature provides an option for both an employee and a manager to be notified when the software detects any form of unauthorized or fraudulent activity. Even non-stop activity at the PC over a set period of time could be defined as potential abnormality. 

In a recent article we described how Kickidler measures employees’ productivity.

And even those two seconds when an employee doesn’t touch the computer mouse or type something on the keyboard get registered as inactivity.

So, for example, if there’s ceaseless activity on an employee's computer for, let’s say, 5 minutes, there’s a high probability that either that employee is playing an online game, they’ve created a script that simulates activity on their PC or they’ve come up with another cunning trick to cheat employee monitoring software (just like the one we described earlier).

This is how ceaseless activity will look on the activity bar.

 If there’s some abnormal activity, a corresponding notification is sent either directly to the employee (if the settings are adjusted accordingly) or to their superior, who can check up on that employee right there and then by utilizing Online Monitoring.

This means that if your remote employee resorts to a wristwatch trick to imitate PC activity, you’ll be able to catch them in action with the help of Kickidler’s Autokick. And that’s not the only course of action you can follow.

Option 2. Online Monitoring and Screen Video Recording

Employee monitoring software Kickidler’s functionality enables you to view the screens of your employees, both live and through the recordings. For example, if your employee is using that very wristwatch trick, you’ll notice that simply by checking their screen. It will be apparent that while that employee’s presumed productivity is being recorded, there's no actual activity at their PC.

Rarely does a supervisor have enough free time to observe their employees’ screens round the clock or go through all their recorded activity. Luckily, Kickidler provides the option to browse videos that are linked to certain events, such as any displays of abnormal activity. You receive a notification on the deviant activity, and then you simply download the history of employee's actions during the time period when the abnormality occurred and check to determine whether that employee is cheating the monitoring system.

Author photo.
Alicia Rubens

As a tech enthusiast and senior writer at Kickidler, I specialize in creating insightful content that helps businesses optimize their workforce management.

Kickidler Employee Monitoring Software

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