What Are The Pros and Cons of Time Tracking?

We tend to write a lot about time tracking on our blog. We have a list of Top 100 Time Tracking Software, we have created a Complete Guide to Time Tracking that is supposed to explain all its intricacies, but it also includes some of the most popular project management methodologies, and is packed with the time tracking and productivity tips. Here are some of the examples:

• Thoroughly described Project Management for Companies, including most popular project management methodologies, like Agile and Scrum.
• Various benefits of time tracking for both small and big companies.
• Proper implementation of time tracking into the company with tips how to introduce it to the team, and make sure that it is working fine.
• Project budgeting – the features of our application that help you with budgeting hours, making your interests more profitable
• Tips and trick for remote workers – how to be more productive, sleep more efficiently, manage time better, and more.

You can get it absolutely for free right here

Yes, we used to (and probably will) write A LOT about time tracking. However, we mainly focused on the positive aspects of this activity, the benefits that come from using time tracking software, etc.

Today, we are going to do the same 😀 BUT, we will try to be more neutral about it. After all, time tracking can have its bad sides too. So, without further introductions, let us discuss the pros and cons of time tracking.

Advantages

Obviously, being a company that produces time tracking software, we can find quite a lot of pros that this activity offers. Here are some of them:

• Increase Productivity – Time tracking software monitors all the activities a user is performing on his/her computer and provides the detailed analysis of the work done, and also the time spent on the unproductive actions. With this data, we can enhance our performance, as we will be able to better plan our work and eliminate the time-consuming, unproductive activities.
• Save time and money – Don’t let your employees ‘cyberslack‘!
  Cyberslacking is the act of avoiding work and/or other responsibilities by scouring the internet in search of games or other non-work related amusements. This activity is performed by almost every employee, and it wastes hundreds of company’s hours each week. Time tracking drastically reduces this behavior, saving hours, and therefore thousands of dollars.

  The conducted surveys revealed that 89 percent of people admit to wasting time at work every single day. 31 percent of workers waste 30 minutes during their working day. Another 31 percent waste roughly an hour per day. 16 percent waste about 2 hours, 6 percent waste roughly 3 hours, 2 percent 4hours, and the last 2 percent 5 or more hours daily.

• Timesheets – Manage your payrolls easily. Most of the tools on the market have the ability to create timesheets basing on the time tracked. If you are a freelancer, imagine how helpful it is to have most of the financial paperwork prepared by the software that you are using. You have more time to spend, so you can make more money, or just get a little lazy 😉

 

• Fair Employee Treatment – The unpleasant truth is that it is very hard to treat all the employees equally fair. Some people know exactly when to show up and how to behave, and it puts them higher in the manager’s hierarchy. That’s very unfortunate to those, who work hard but don’t have this type of character, and in the result, have lesser chances of getting raise or promotion. When the software installed on the employees’ computers tracks all the work done, the rewards can be based solely on their performance.
• Enhance the Workflow – As a manager, you are getting a full vision of the work of the whole team. No flaw in the system will go unnoticed. The communication is smoother, and the employees always know exactly what they should be doing at the given moment.

In our related posts section you will find plenty of articles that back up the provided advantages of time tracking, and offer many more. Also, check the arguments given by our friends at FinancesOnline, they know their job!

Disadvantages

We believe that time tracking itself does not have many disadvantages. If there are some, they occur due to the human factor or the flaws in the software. Here are those:

• The Employees’ Dissatisfaction – The first thing that should be taken into consideration when implementing time tracking software into the company is the response from your employees. It’s rather certain that they will not be pleased when being told that their computer activities will be monitored, starting now. In fact, those employees that do their work fairly will soon notice that time tracking software is helpful, not the other way around. The complaints will come only from those, who took for granted their Facebook or Youtube time during work 😉
• Fear of Being Watched – Many people believe that while their time is being tracked, the software that does this is probably picking through their database, doing who knows what, maybe stealing confidential data? 😛 In fact, time tracking software only monitors what we do at the given moment. It means no Facebook during work, but that’s the worst of it 😉
• Complexity – Correct, some of the tools designed to track computer time are not that easy to learn. It may take a while to learn about all the features and their purpose, and not everyone, especially if our employees are older, want to learn every single detail of the complicated software. Luckily, the online support is usually top notch and if the company pays a big sum of money for the app, they can most likely count on a 24/7 service.

Summing Up

As you can see, it is pretty hard for us to give some serious disadvantages of time tracking. We don’t deny it has some but the technology is developing very fast, and all the technical flaws are disappearing quickly. What’s left is the attitude of our employees but this is something that a good manager can change with a simple lecture that would explain all the benefits of time tracking software. And there are really a lot of them!