As a business, there’s a direct correlation between productivity and profitability. Tracking employee time is often not seen as a high priority because time tracking software can be costly to implement and in general, employees that are watched tend to have lower moral.
However, time tracking can be useful if you’re looking for ways to stay on target with budgets and increase productivity.
Even though they may not like it, employees that have accountability tend to do more work while they’re on the clock than those that don’t.
Software
There are several options on the market when it comes to time tracking. You can rely on employees to fill out a timesheet, or you can use a digitized system that tracks when employees turn on/off the computer. Either one of these can be used to determine how much time employees spend on the clock and how much time they spend taking breaks.
Once you know when employees are on the clock, you can start tracking their activities to see how much time they spend working and how much time they spend doing other activities. Almost all modern businesses buy time tracking software to make the work of tracking their employees easier.
Efficiency
Time tracking numbers can be used for more than just gauging how your employees are spending the work day. The numbers can also be used to make other processes in your business more efficient.
For example, your payroll department can benefit greatly from installing time tracking software. Instead of manually tallying hours worked, the software can do that for your accounting department. Some programs even let you input your employee’s hourly rate and any overtime rates, so money owed can be automatically calculated.
Streamlining the payroll process will free up your accounting department for more pressing tasks. You may also be able to combine positions and reduce operating costs by having software do what a human employee is currently handling.
Project Management
Finally, time recording can help with project management. By tracking how long an employee works on a specific project, you can assess strengths and weaknesses within your organization. You can have employees that are particularly skilled at a certain task do more of those types of tasks. Assigning work based on strengths is far easier, less expensive and a better use of resources than trying to train an employee in an area they are lacking.
You can also easily identify projects that don’t have a good return for your company. A low-paying project that demands many man hours to complete is a bad investment for the company. Likewise, a project that is completed quickly and has a high pay rate is a good investment for the company.
Installing project time tracking software can really benefit a business, but is likely to be met with resistance from employees.
Make sure you speak with your staff before implementing software and explain how the data will benefit them, as well as the company.
If you show your employees that you are trying to make their jobs easier with the time tracking software rather than simply installing it as a sort of nanny system, they are more likely to embrace the change and help your company succeed. Look into time tracking software today and see how your business can benefit from today’s technology.