Employee time tracking was largely frowned upon in the past, as employees considered it too intrusive. Moreover, with workplaces becoming more casual and laid back, and allowing flexible timings, the need for employee time tracking stood at an all-time low.
However, with every company moving to remote work due to the pandemic, employee time tracking software has seen a resurgence. In the office, employers and managers can supervise and monitor employee activity on a regular basis. However, at home, there is no one to supervise, and this could lead to lower employee productivity.
This is where employee time tracking can come in handy for both employees and employers. For an employer, it allows them to see exactly how much time an employee has spent on a task in a day. For an employee, it allows them to see how productive they are at work.
In some jobs tracking the time is not necessary, even when working from home. However, in some businesses, the clients are charged an hourly rate, and the employees also are paid hourly, which makes it crucial to monitor and track the time.
Even for companies that do not have strict time-based projects, tracking the employees’ time might help them find inefficiencies and problems in their workflow. This enables employers to make more intelligent decisions to help boost their work performance by desktop monitoring software.
There are various methods to track your team’s time like pen and paper, biometrics, mobile apps, and much more .There are various methods to track your team’s time like pen and paper, biometrics, mobile apps, and much more.
Reasons to track and monitor your employees’ time.
1. Accurate payroll and invoice
Marketing agencies, lawyers, mechanics, designers, or other service-based companies often charge clients hourly rates and pay the employees hourly. Therefore, using time tracking becomes essential for such businesses to generate invoices and payroll accurately.
Each minute spent by each employee on a specific project is monitored, eliminating errors and guesswork. It also safeguards the employees as well from being underpaid due to inaccuracy of records.
2. Adhering to labor laws
Labour laws dictate the number of hours your full-time and part-time employees can work. Keeping a proper and organized record of their time helps ensure that your company is adhering to the labor law policies.
Moreover, tracking ensures employees are fairly compensated for any overtime. For example, in the case of truck drivers and taxi drivers, the labor law dictates the maximum working hours in a day. So, tracking their time enables the employer to give their employees time off when they have worked the mandated hours.
3. Understanding the employees’ performance
Tracking the time will help you get insight into where your employees spend most of their time. You can then easily determine which kind of projects are most profitable by comparing the time taken to labor costs.
This way, you will be able to pick and choose the projects that give you the highest profitability. Moreover, you can assess the efficiency of employees and reward them accordingly or address any inefficiencies.
4. Create forecasts and benchmarks
Using various methods of time tracking, you can assess the time it takes to complete each project. A comprehensive data of time taken can enable your company to create internal quality benchmarks.
Using such standards and historical time data, you can accurately develop forecasts regarding profitability. Making accurate and data-backed forecasts is crucial to attract more investments, clients and to impress the board members.
5. Measure Employee Availability
Tracking the employees’ time and maintaining proper timesheets helps you understand the utilization of resources better. For example, if employees are regularly working overtime or the efficiency is going down, it can help the departments make hiring decisions. In addition, using a timesheet, the company can assess how many more people are needed for a job.
There are multiple applications through which you can track your team’s time. Such software gives you a comprehensive insight into where your employees spend their time by providing properly organized timesheets and reports. Using these reports, you can assess the efficiency of your employees’ workflow.
