Every minute counts for businesses, which is why it is easy to understand the current popularity of time-tracking. But what many people don’t understand is that it isn’t a tool to put employees under surveillance and in most cases businesses use it for other reasons instead.
If you want to know exactly what time-tracking really is and why it’s important – just keep reading.
“What is Employee Time-Tracking?”
Employee time-tracking is nothing new and has been around for some time. In the past, businesses would manually keep track of when employees clock-in and clock-out using paper timesheets, punch card systems, or even spreadsheets.
Nowadays however, most businesses rely on automated time-tracking software such as Controlio. It is one of the best employee time tracking apps and can not only track when employees start and stop working, but also monitor their activity including the apps they use, websites they visit, file transfers, emails, IM chat sessions, and more.
In short, Controlio and other apps like it can provide detailed insights into employee activity and behavior patterns. It will even calculate a productivity score for each employee, and has features that will allow you to block certain apps and websites or send alerts when various actions are performed.
All in all, it will give you a complete log of how much time employees spend on work activities – and that can benefit businesses in several ways.
“Why Does Employee Time-Tracking Matter?”
Lots of people don’t realize the full potential of employee time-tracking. Here are some of the ways it can be a game changer for businesses:
- Improve productivity by identifying activities that are waste time, workflow inefficiencies, and various other issues – then take action.
- Facilitate remote work by providing the means to track attendance and work hours as well as monitor activities to ensure employees are focused on their tasks even when working from home.
- Enhance project management by improving estimates for task duration, allowing you to set better deadlines and more reasonable goals.
- Provide targeted training by identifying areas that need employees need to improve based on the time they spend on various tasks.
- Ensure fair billing and payroll by tracking exactly how many work hours are spent on projects and how many hours employees work.
- Support employee wellbeing by using time-tracking to spot signs of a poor work-life balance, or burnout – and ensure employees are taking regular breaks.
As you can see, time-tracking brings a lot to the table. It isn’t about ‘spying’ or even micromanaging employees, but collecting data that can be used to empower employees and make better decisions.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the insights that time-tracking can offer make it impossible for any business to ignore it. By leveraging what it can do, you can unlock the potential of your workforce and provide them the support they need to excel in their roles. That makes it an essential tool – and one that you should definitely take advantage of.