Why Time Tracking? You have most likely heard this before – remember how you are spending your time! Wonder why?
That’s a lot of money. So What is Time Tracking?
Time tracking is the process of recording time against assigned tasks and planned activities. It serves as an additional source of information during productivity measurement and helps businesses to compensate employees for work fairly and accurately.
Typically, time tracking is carried out using specialized software that not only provides convenient tools for capturing time but also offers analytics and reports that provide insights into individual and team productivity, costs and profits, task and project distribution, and more.
Time tracking is not just essential for individuals; it’s crucial for the success of entire teams and businesses. Whether you’re an executive, manager, or team member, knowing how you spend your time is of utmost importance. It unlocks the key to enhancing productivity, gaining valuable insights, and maintaining a healthy workflow. Surprisingly, the most time-consuming tasks may not be the ones that require the most effort or deliver the highest value. Time tracking helps identify where time is being well-spent and where adjustments can be made for maximum efficiency.
Benefits of time tracking for teams:
Time tracking is one of the essential time management tools that every manager, executive and employee should master and use at the workplace. According to the 2020 Market Research Future study, the US economy loses 50 million hours (about 5704 years) in productivity or 7.4 billion dollars (about $23 per person) daily due to unrecorded work activities. Google Trends reports a 25.6% increase in the “time tracking” search term popularity for the past three and a half years. And it’s no wonder because after the WHO announced the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, many businesses went remote and the “time tracking” term popularity has increased by 17% as of September 2021.
Time tracking is beneficial not only on a macro level but also for project managers and individual employees. First of all, it teaches your team to be more responsible and mindful about their working time. But even more importantly, it provides managers with data and insight that they can use to distribute the workload, identify and eliminate bottlenecks, streamline processes, and improve collaboration. But this is not the full list of time-tracking benefits for team management – let’s see what else it has in store.
1.Get Personal & Business Insights
Time tracking against tasks provides managers with useful intel on how employee time is distributed across clients, projects and specific tasks so that they can use this data to train their team members and manage time better in the future. Companies and teams that combine time tracking, project, and resource management tools make the most of this data because it allows them to review and distribute the workload accurately, entity and eliminate bottlenecks as early as possible and maximize profits.
2.Manage Scope Creep
Any projects, especially Agile projects, are prone to scope creep – change of requirements that occur after the project scope has been defined, causes delivery delays and cost overages. Time tracking allows you to define deadlines, time and cost budgets to identify and manage scope creep before it happens.
Any project, especially Agile projects, is susceptible to scope creep—changes in requirements that occur after the project scope has been defined, resulting in delivery delays and cost overruns. Time tracking allows you to define deadlines, time and cost budgets, and proactively manage scope creep before it wreaks havoc.
3.Distribute Resources
Tracking employee hours gives you an accurate overview of your team capacity. You can see who’s close to completing a project and needs more workload, notice performance declines and prevents burnout cases, identify bottlenecks and mobilize your resources in a timely manner. Team time tracking brings you effective resource allocation and proactive support to ensure project success.
4.Reduce Stress
Most of us tend to experience stress when we face big tasks, feel overwhelmed or don’t feel enough control over a situation. When your employees track their time against tasks, they can see how much they’ve accomplished and how much work left until the end of the project, which reduces the buzz in their heads, leaving space for concentration and relaxation.
5.Improve Employee Performance
With time tracking data, managers can gain insight into employee performance and identify areas where they need coaching. For example, if the same task takes other employees much less time to complete, you may want to offer that underperforming employee some training. As a manager, use time tracking data to review team performance and productivity, which allows you to manage resources and distribute tasks evenly.
6.Enhance Collaboration
To improve workflow and collaboration, managers need data about employee workload, capacity and talents. In remote or distributed teams, you can’t “investigate” every team member manually, but time tracking data can give you a quick overview of your resources. If you refer to this data regularly, you may notice overloaded employees, delegate part of their responsibilities and encourage collaboration between them.
Final Thoughts:
In conclusion, time tracking is not just a trendy buzzword; it is a powerful tool that unlocks a world of benefits for individuals, teams, and businesses alike. By understanding how time is spent, you can harness the key to productivity, gain valuable insights, and establish a healthy workflow. From managing scope creep and distributing resources effectively to reducing stress and improving employee performance, time tracking empowers you to make informed decisions and drive success. Embrace the power of time tracking, and watch as your productivity soars and your achievements multiply. It’s time to track your way to greatness.
