Employee monitoring software (sometimes called an employee tracking app) is a type of tool that helps businesses track employee activity, understand how time is spent, and support productivity—especially in remote or hybrid teams. The best employee monitoring software strikes a balance between giving managers visibility and respecting employee privacy, offering a fair and transparent way to support performance and wellbeing.

Breathe lets you create working locations for your office or offices, plus an option for remote workers. You can then ask employees to update their working location each day or week so you can better understand how much employee time is spent working from home versus in the office—and even which offices are most popular.

If you need a clearer picture of when and where your people are working, Breathe’s Rota, Time & Attendance add-on has you covered. You can build rotas, manage shifts, and let employees clock in and out digitally. It’s an easy way to track employees, keep accurate work hours, and cut down on manual timesheets—all while supporting flexibility and fairness.

Yes, it's legal—but it comes with responsibilities. UK businesses can use employee monitoring software to track activity, as long as it's done transparently, fairly, and for legitimate reasons. This includes monitoring employee computers, tracking work hours, or using computer monitoring software to spot potential risks. The key is being upfront with your team and protecting employee privacy every step of the way.

If your organisation uses or wants to introduce tools like GPS tracking, employee pc monitoring software and automated time tracking, you'll need to ensure you're doing this in an ethical way that complies with UK law and respects employee privacy.

Surprisingly, yes—more than 90% of surveyed employees are open to data collection if it helps improve their performance and well-being. At Breathe, we believe that visibility should never come at the cost of trust. That’s why our approach to employee monitoring focuses on support, not surveillance. Tools like time tracking, burnout monitoring, and 1-1s help you spot patterns, plan better, and create a workplace where people can do their best work—wherever they’re based.

For small businesses especially, employee productivity matters. Employee tracking software can help you measure productivity in different working locations and reduce time theft. It’s not about micromanagement, but about giving business owners helpful insights that make it easier to run a modern workplace where many employees now work remotely.

Employee monitoring software—when used with care—can be a real asset for remote teams. Rather than focusing on surveillance, it’s about helping business owners and staff members understand how time is spent, spot support needs, and ensure no one’s overworking or burning out. When used properly, it can even help improve performance by highlighting areas where people might be stretched or need help.

The key is communication: how employees react depends on how transparent and fair your approach is. Done right, monitoring can support a healthier work-life balance for everyone, especially in flexible or remote work environments.

Absolutely. Good employee monitoring tools are designed with remote workers and remote teams in mind. With Breathe, you can see where your people are working without compromising employee satisfaction or trust.

Great question. Time tracking tools help you understand how long employees work on tasks or projects—often through features like automated time tracking or clocking in/out. Employee monitoring software, on the other hand, goes further by showing what apps and websites are used, offering visibility into overall employee activity, work habits, and even computer activity across the day.

Breathe’s employee monitoring software also includes dashboards and real-time reports that help you make smarter decisions. Whether you're reviewing employee performance, spotting productivity trends or managing risk, you’ll have the data you need, when you need it.

At Breathe, we believe in supporting your people, not watching over their shoulders. That’s why our software focuses on transparency—not employee surveillance. You’ll get useful visibility into how your employees work, without compromising employee privacy or trust.

Yes, when it’s used in the right way. While Breathe doesn’t offer track apps and websites, our tools support focus by helping teams manage time better.

With our Rota, Time & Attendance add-on, you can see who’s working, when, and where—helping managers plan smarter and reduce the kinds of scheduling issues that lead to employee distractions. Combined with features of our core HR software like burnout monitoring, Kudos, and regular 1-1s, Breathe helps create a workplace where people feel supported and can stay on track without being watched.

Breathe lets you store contracts, policy documents and employee records in one secure place—with role-based access, GDPR-aligned tools and audit-ready reports that help you stay compliant and avoid unnecessary risks. This means you can keep sensitive data safe and organised in the same system as your employee tracking software.

Yes, Breathe’s integrates seamlessly with Xero Payroll. You can sync employee data, approved time off, and work hours directly into your Xero account—cutting down on spreadsheets, manual entry, and payroll mistakes. It’s a simple way to track time, stay accurate, and save time for the things that really matter.

Simple: by cutting out the faff and helping you stay one step ahead.

Breathe takes care of the time-consuming bits – like logging holidays, tracking sickness and managing flexible working – so you don’t have to. Everything’s stored in one secure, easy-to-use system, giving you a clear picture of who’s in, who’s off, and what’s coming up. No more back-and-forth emails or chasing spreadsheets.

This means less admin for you and fewer mistakes. It also means your team can self-serve – things like checking their holiday allowance or booking time off take seconds, not hours.

Planning rotas and managing shifts? With Breathe's Rota, Time & Attendance add-on, you can build, share and update them in a few clicks. And because you’ll spot clashes and gaps early on, you’ll reduce unplanned absences and make better use of your team’s time.

In short: less admin, more time to focus on what really matters – your people and your business.

Yes – Breathe works nicely with other tools you’re already using.

Our software is designed with flexibility in mind, so whether you’re syncing holiday data with payroll, or need to pull reports into Excel, we’ve got you covered. We offer a range of integrations and easy data export options to help everything run smoothly behind the scenes.

And if you’re not sure what’s possible, our support team are just a message away – they’ll help you find the best way to connect the dots.