Productivity by User

Productivity by User, available in all ActivTrak plans, identifies top performers and helps understand whether teams and individuals are working as expected. It provides real-time visibility into productivity data and a detailed breakdown of time spent in productive and unproductive activities throughout the workday.

To access Productivity by User, navigate to Workforce Management > Productivity by User.

Tip: Add Productivity by User to your Favorites for quick access.

Contents

• When to use Productivity by User
• Navigating Productivity by User
  • Filter settings
  • Search functionality
  • Productivity data
  • Schedule Adherence features
  • Reporting in User Time Zone mode*
  • Column selector
  • Exporting data
• Practical applications
  • Schedule adherence monitoring
  • Identifying productivity patterns
  • Monitoring workload balance
• Learn more

*User Time Zone support in Productivity by User is available in Early Access beginning March 31, 2026, to select accounts. We plan to make this available to all accounts soon.

When to use Productivity by User

Productivity by User provides a comprehensive view of how your teams and individual users spend their time. This data helps you:

• Identify top performers and productivity trends across your organization
• Understand if teams and individuals are working as expected
• Monitor work patterns and ensure alignment with company policies
• Make data-driven decisions about resource allocation and training

Navigating Productivity by User

Filter Settings

Productivity by User can be filtered by User, Group, and time range using the drop-down filter menu options at the top of the dashboard. Click the Refresh button after making your selections to ensure they are applied.

Search Functionality

The new search bar at the top of the dashboard lets you quickly find specific users or groups without scrolling through the entire list. Simply type a name or part of a name into the search field, and the dashboard will instantly filter to show only matching results.

Productivity data

The dashboard is displayed in two sections:

The top section provides a high-level overview of each user’s or group’s time allocation during the selected time range. Use the toggle in the top left to switch between Users and Groups. Use the search bar at the top to quickly find specific team members.

In the Summary View, you will see the Productivity Ratio (hover over for more details) and the following: 

Click any of the column headings to sort the table. Switch to Detailed View for additional metrics, including a breakdown of the activity types into Active and Passive. Specific columns can be added or removed from this panel using the Columns dropdown menu in the top right.

When you select an individual user from the top panel, the bottom section displays a timeline visualization for the specified time range. Each time interval is color-coded based on the productivity category of the activity where the user spent the most time during that period. Note that the bottom panel is only available when the toggle is set to Users and won’t appear when set to Groups.

Note: Offline Meetings and Location data (available in select plans) will not show for the current day.

The Interval selection dropdown allows you to adjust the timeline's granularity (5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours). However, larger intervals yield lower-accuracy estimates. Clicking an interval region takes you to the Activity Log for that user during the selected time period.

When you enable Strict Mode, any time interval that includes unproductive activity will be marked as Unproductive. In addition, any time interval that includes passive activity will be marked as Passive Time when the Detailed View is selected.

To optimize your view when looking at multiple days, use the Rows per page dropdown in the bottom right to view 5, 7, 10 or 14 days simultaneously. Use the pagination arrows to navigate through longer timeframes. Remember to use the Hide Empty Days toggle to remove unworked days, like weekends.

Because the interval aggregation method is based on the predominant activity during that period, the chart provides a high-level view of the day and will not precisely match the calculations at the top of the dashboard. For example:

• If your interval is set to 30 minutes and a user was productive for 18 minutes before logging out, the entire 30-minute block will appear as "productive" in the chart (green) because productivity was the dominant activity (60% of that interval).
• However, the actual calculations count only the exact 18 minutes of productive time.

The larger the interval you select, the greater the potential discrepancy between the visualization and the precise calculations. This visualization approach allows for effective pattern recognition while maintaining accurate time calculations in your reports.

Schedule Adherence features

Productivity by User now includes Schedule Adherence capabilities that allow you to define when employees are expected to work and compare this with their actual working hours.

Using the toggle to view your data against either the Saved schedule (i.e., the Work Schedule you created in Settings > Schedules) or select Quick entry to set the following:

Note: These schedule settings will persist when you return to the dashboard, so you don't need to enter them each time.

This visual representation makes it easy to identify adherence issues and ensures proper coverage during core business hours. This feature supports structured schedules and flexible working arrangements while maintaining accountability.

Reporting in User Time Zone mode*

*User Time Zone support in Productivity by User is available in Early Access beginning March 31, 2026, to select accounts. We plan to make this available to all accounts soon.

When User Time Zone mode is enabled under Settings > Time Zone, Productivity by User reflects each monitored user's local time zone. While this dashboard will not change visually because it already summarizes metrics at the day level (for example, total productive time over a week), when User Time Zone mode is active, the system calculates each user's daily totals using their local midnight-to-midnight boundaries instead of the account's.

For more information on enabling User Time Zone mode and managing user time zones, see Time Zone Settings.

Column selector

The column selector dropdown in the top-right corner of the dashboard provides flexible customization of the displayed data:

1. Click the Columns dropdown to view all available columns for your current view (Summary or Detailed)
2. Check or uncheck boxes to show or hide specific metrics
3. Customize both views independently - set up different metrics for the Summary view and the Detailed view based on your needs
4. Click the Apply button
5. Your customizations persist - once set, your column preferences will be saved for when you return to the dashboard

Important: Your column selections are specific to each view (Summary or Detailed). When you switch between views, the column selections will update to reflect your saved preferences for that view.

This feature is especially useful when you need different metrics for different purposes:

• Configure the Summary view for quick status checks with essential metrics
• Set up the Detailed view with comprehensive data points for deeper analysis
• Both configurations remain saved, creating a personalized reporting experience

Exporting data

Use our Export feature to seamlessly integrate ActivTrak data with additional metrics to uncover correlations between user productivity and key performance indicators.

The metrics you've selected to display using the column selector will be included in your export. If you need additional data in your export, make sure to add those columns to your view before clicking the Export button.

1. Set your desired filters for user, group, time range and columns
2. Click the Export button in the upper right corner
3. Choose to Download the data directly to your device or Save to Google

Practical applications

Schedule adherence monitoring

For organizations with defined working hours, Productivity by User helps you:

• Compare actual working hours against expected schedules
• Ensure adequate coverage during core business hours
• Support flexible working arrangements while maintaining accountability

Identifying productivity patterns 

Productivity by User helps you understand when your team members are most productive:

• Identify peak productivity hours for individuals and teams
• Spot patterns in unproductive time that may indicate workflow obstacles
• Track productivity changes over time to measure the impact of new processes or tools
• Variations in working patterns across different departments or roles

Monitoring workload balance

Productivity by User helps you spot potential workload imbalances before they impact performance.

• Identify team members who consistently work outside standard hours or unusual shifts in work schedules
• Recognize when team members may be experiencing burnout or disengagement

This dashboard is a helpful starting point for organizations making strategic decisions about workload balance. However, for a more comprehensive workload analysis, ActivTrak offers a specialized solution:

• Workload Balance (available in select plans) - Provides deeper insights into team utilization levels, helping identify individuals at risk of burnout (overutilized) or disengagement (underutilized), with detailed work-habit metrics and trend analysis.

Pro Tip: Use the Team tab in Workload Balance to track how team utilization changes over time, identify coaching opportunities, and create a healthier balance by distributing work more effectively.

Learn More:

• Understanding Live Data and Insights
• Schedule Adherence
• Active Time and Passive Time
• Activity Classification in ActivTrak
• Offline Meetings