How are Activity Levels Calculated in Workstatus?

Activity levels in Workstatus are calculated based on the percentage of keyboard and mouse strokes over the total time tracked for a specific time period. The activity level feature lets you know exactly how productive you or your team are when tracking time. You may use this data to quickly address team efficiency on the spot.

Viewing Activity Levels

STEP 1

Navigate to Activity > Screenshots.

STEP 2

Under each segment, you’ll see an activity bar:

Calculating Activity Levels

Below is Workstatus calculates activity levels:

For every second, we label the user as active or inactive. A mouse movement or keyboard stroke = active. No keyboard or mouse = inactive.
We add all of these numbers up and give a total % of activity for that 10-minute segment using this equation: Active seconds / 600 = activity rate %

Here’s an easy way to think about how we calculate activity rates:

If you have 100 seconds of tracked time, and 20 seconds of idle time (no mouse or keyboard movement), you’d have an 80% activity rate.

Those 100 seconds might look like this:

80% overall activity rate

Because 80% of the 100 seconds were spent using the mouse or keyboard.


The percentage denotes the activity level of user during that period. The bar under that activity represents the activity level.

There 3 colors which we show here based on activity level.

0 - 30 % - Red

31 - 60 % - Orange

61 - 100 % - Green

Productivity % Per entry in Timesheet

For example :

Refer above image as an example to calculate Productivity % Per entry in Timesheet : :

check the screenshots to get the activity % of each interval(5mins, 10mins, 15mins) respective to Timesheet entry you wish to calculate % for for.
in above image we have time slot 6:08 pm - 6:23 pm - go to activity>> screenshots>> sum up the average mouse and keyboard % of each interval.

Divide activity>> screenshots>> sum up the average mouse and keyboard % of each interval by no of intervals, in this case its 3
ie 66+ 53+77 = 196 sec
now 196/3 = 65% (round off)

Total Productivity %

For example :

Refer above image as an example to calculate Total Productivity % :

Change working hours of each entry in Timesheet in seconds ie 00:14:33= 873(60*14+33) seconds (consider this as LHS)
Multiply #1 with its respective Productivity % ie 873 sec * 65 = 56745 (consider this as RHS)
Repeat #1 and #2 for all the entries in Timesheet.
ex: 2nd Entry : 3:48:44 = 13724 * 37 = 5,07,788
3rd Entry : 0:34:03 = 2043 * 34 = 69,462
4th Entry : 00:00:16 = 16 * 44 = 704

Divide RHS/LHS = Total Productivity %(round off value)
5,62,388(56745+507788+69462+704) / 16,656(873+13724+2043+16) = 38% (round off)

Calculating Idle Levels

For every second, we label the user as active or inactive and for inactive time, its called as Idle time. A mouse movement or keyboard stroke = active. No keyboard or mouse = inactive.
We add all of these numbers up and give a total % of idle for that 10-minute segment using this equation: Idle Time Percentage = (Idle Time X 100)/(Effective Time-Manual Time)
Effective Time: The Actual time spent/captured by the Desktop App.
Manual Time : Time enters manually by the employee.

What activity rates mean

Depending on someone’s job and daily tasks, activity rates will vary widely.

Jobs involving data entry, design, development, and other high mouse and keyboard activity will tend to have higher averages.

Team members who spend more time in meetings, doing more research, or participating in video chats will tend to have lower scores. It makes sense; they’ll be moving their mouse and keyboard-less if they’re primarily talking or reading.

That’s why people with 75% scores and those with 25% scores can often times both be working productively. If a usual day for your team involves checking email, reading articles, or having calls with one another, they might have an average activity rate of around 50%.

Instead of using activity rates as a one-time snapshot of productivity and making a decision based only on them, our recommendation is to use these as trends.

Look for patterns, and if a continually declining activity rate shows up, have conversations. The idea of activity rates is to keep a dialogue going and improve processes and workflow over time.

At Workstatus, we discourage the use of quotas or scoring based on activity rates. Frustration can emerge when managers and team members aren’t clear on what’s expected of them, so an open dialogue can keep work moving.

Workstatus does NOT store individual keystrokes that are entered (there is no keylogging) or where your mouse clicks. We simply track the number of seconds we detect keyboard or mouse activity which includes mouse move, mouse click, mouse wheel, and keyboard presses. We don’t store specifically what was done, only that there was some activity during a second.

Please refer following link for accessing Roles and Permission : https://support.workstatus.io/en/article/workstatus-roles-and-permissions-guide-zzkoo6/

Updated on: 25/10/2024