Insights dashboards (available in trials and select ActivTrak plans) provide valuable productivity insights, coaching opportunities, and recommendations for leaders, as well as goal-setting capabilities that help you and your teams work wiser. To ensure accurate reporting and data privacy, you’ll need to customize how Insights are configured for your organization.
To get started, navigate to Insights > Configuration to access the Insights Configuration Page. Here, you can customize your Insights settings, which are organized into three tabs: Metrics, Privacy and Subscriptions.
The table below shows which settings appear on each tab and explains how changes affect historical data and reporting. Click on a specific Tab or Setting to navigate to the corresponding documentation.
| Tab | Are changes retroactive? | When are changes reflected? |
| Metrics | Yes | After the next Insights data refresh |
| Privacy | Yes | Immediately |
| Subscriptions | N/A | Immediately |
Note: Users' access to dashboards and features may vary based on account configuration. ActivTrak Admins can adjust access settings by assigning user roles and permissions.
Contents
Metrics Tab
View and adjust key metrics that impact productivity measurement. This tab includes five settings, which are detailed below.
Configuration to Compute Averages
Several ActivTrak metrics, including average daily productive hours, are calculated based on a user's number of Active Days during a specific period. The Threshold to Count Active Days allows your organization to set the minimum number of working hours needed for a day to count as "active." This prevents brief periods of activity on weekends or non-work days from diluting your productivity averages. However, setting the threshold too high can produce skewed results. ActivTrak recommends setting the Active Days Threshold to 2 hours (the system default).
Configuration to Compute Averages - Metrics Tab
Let us explain using examples:
- Example 1: Setting the Threshold to Count Active Days too low
Let's set the Threshold to Count Active Days at 0 hours. If an employee logs 40 hours of productive time over 5 days, the average productive time will be 8 hours/day. If that employee logs onto their computer for 1 hour over the weekend, that day will be added to the number of active days. The time worked now will be divided by 6 days, diluting the average to 6.7 hours/day. (See the table below.)
- Example 2: Setting the Threshold to Count Active Days too high
Let's set the Threshold to Count Active Days at 5 hours. If an employee logs 40 hours of productive time over 7 days, their average productive time will be 5.7 hours/day. Due to the 5-hour threshold, the number of active days will be only 3, inflating the average to 13.3 hours/day. (See the table below.)
To further understand these two examples side-by-side with ActivTrak's recommended approach, see the table below.
Example Data - Threshold to Count Active Days
Notes:
- This setting will apply to all users and cannot be configured for individual users or teams.
- The threshold applies retroactively to ensure accurate data comparison. After setting a minimum threshold, you may notice higher values for average metrics.
- The Threshold to Count Active Days is not synonymous with a team’s Productive Time goal. The Productive Time goal represents the ideal number of hours employees will work each day, while the Threshold to Count Active Days is the minimum number of expected hours for an active day (e.g., working day).
Account-level Goals
With one easy setting, Admins can set or adjust goals for productivity metrics (Productive, Collaboration, and Focus Time) for all teams in the account, including existing and future teams.
When setting goals, consider employees’ historical benchmarks and our Benchmarks Guide, which is based on data from ActivTrak’s customer base.
Account-Level Goals - Metrics Tab
Managers on select ActivTrak plans can also set custom team-level goals via the Benchmarks & Goals Dashboard.
Note: The goal that was most recently set — whether at the account or team level — will take precedence.
Utilization Level Threshold
Admins and Configurators can customize the Utilization Level Threshold for a user to be determined as either overutilized or underutilized (the percentage over or under their Productive Hrs/Day goal). This ensures managers and leaders can accurately assess which employees are overworked or disengaged according to the organization’s expectations rather than relying on the default threshold.
Utilization Level Threshold - Metrics Tab
The Utilization Level Threshold Setting defaults to 20% but can be configured to any value between 10% and 80%. To adjust your account’s Utilization Level Threshold, update the Threshold vs Productive Hrs/Day Goal (+/-) field and click the Save button to apply changes.
Attention Shifting
An Attention Shift is triggered when a user toggles between multiple applications or screens within a minute. Consecutive minutes without Attention Shifts are counted toward a user’s Focused Time.
Attention Shifting - Metrics Tab
There are two ways to customize Attention Shift settings:
- Set the number of applications or websites visited within a minute that will trigger an Attention Shift
- Set how the number of screen views will trigger an Attention Shift
Tip: Consider the nature of your team’s work. If their processes often involve multiple screen views or site shifts, increase these settings to capture Focused Time accurately. If their work dictates high focus within single applications, decrease these settings.
Collaboration Time
Determine which activity categories should count toward users’ Collaboration Time. The applications and websites within each category can be configured from the Classification page.
Collaboration Time - Metrics Tab
By default, Collaboration Time includes the “Meeting Software” and “Chat & Messaging” categories. Tailor what is considered Collaboration Time in your organization by selecting all the applicable categories, then click the Save button to apply the changes.
Privacy Tab
It is critical to ensure organization and employee data privacy while measuring productivity. This tab includes two settings, which are detailed below.
Exclude Non-Business Activity Details
By hiding details of non-business activities from Insights dashboards, organizations can give managers access to deep workforce productivity insights while protecting employee privacy and reducing concerns about exposing personal data.
Exclude Non-Business Activity Details - Privacy Tab
When this setting is enabled, Insights dashboards will show the total time spent on unproductive or unclassified activities but not details about the specific apps and websites accessed.
Note: This setting is applied at the account level and cannot be configured for individual users or teams.
An example of the Insights Dashboard with activity details hidden
An example of the Insights Dashboard with activity details shown
Hide User Activity Data
Toggle the Hide User Activity Data setting to protect employee privacy and focus on analyzing productivity metrics at the team or account level in Insights Dashboards. Once enabled, all Insights dashboards will display aggregate or anonymized data only and will not display individuals' names.
Note: This setting does not apply to the Personal Insights Dashboard.
Hide User Activity Data - Privacy Tab
An example of the Insights Dashboard with user activity data hidden
Subscriptions Tab
Email Subscriptions make it easier to share Insights reports and enable your team to:
- Align on goals and measure progress
- Identify productivity blockers and the necessary actions to remove them
- Have more productive coaching conversations
- Optimize schedules based on personal and teamwork habits
Subscriptions & Sharing
By default, managers with access to the ActivTrak app can share the Personal Insights Dashboard with their direct reports and create email subscriptions for other app users. To change this, toggle off "Allow Users to Share Personal Insights with direct reports or subscribe other application users.”
Subscriptions & Sharing - Subscriptions Tab
Important Note: Your company agrees to obtain all required consents from an employee before using the ActivTrak application to capture and share activity data with the employee, other employees, or representatives of your company. ActivTrak's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy continue to apply.
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