Choose a tool that works with your agency, and ask for people to test out and review various apps.ĭo people want to integrate the tool with their calendar or project management software? Is having a mobile app necessary? Do your managers need to be able to see when remote workers are online and working? Consider what would cause the least disruption in your team's workday. People don't look forward to recording hours worked in a time tracking system every Friday at 5 p.m. One fun way to do this is to give your employees back their "time" by letting those who do this well leave early once a month on a Friday. But you can reward employees with small gifts or recognition if they consistently submit accurate timesheets on time. If your agency requires employee time tracking for work projects, then time entry systems are just part of the job. One of the barriers to tracking time is overcomplicated and unusable software. Make sure every single employee - including leadership - is trained on how to use the time tracking software, how to submit timesheets, and how to review their own productivity.Ĭreate a guide for new employees to read over, and make sure you stay up-to-date on improvements in the software. Time tracking can also help to improve forecasting and capacity issues, removing the stress because your agency has underestimated the project and overpromised to the client. And profit leads to bonuses and raises and investments in future "fun" things. It's important that you explain time tracking is not about a lack of trust it's about making sure the company remains profitable, as mentioned above. To get your team on board with watching the clock, follow these rules: Communicate the benefit of tracking timeįorcing employees to track their time can breed suspicion - they feel like they are constantly being monitored and timesheets are a way to "check in" that they are doing what they should be doing. One of the biggest problems even if you've made time tracking mandatory is that timesheets are ignored and therefore inaccurate. 4 Tips for Getting Employees On Board to Track Their Time But you can make it easier on your staff to make time tracking a part of their daily work. Timesheets are a necessary evil if profitability is a concern. It creates the misconception that anything below 15 hours could be unprofitable for the agency.
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In addition, this miscalculation causes inflated prices moving forward.
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This knowledge would have changed the agency's view of that project. Now, if the designer had tracked his time, he would have been able to say that it actually took him six hours to complete the project. Future quotes for this type of design project will be set at 15 hours.The team lead reviews the timesheets and compares it to the original estimate. Besides, it looks good that he spent a lot of work on the project. He didn't actually track his time, but he thinks it's in that ballpark. Three months later, he fills out his timesheet over a period of two weeks, accounting for 11 hours of design time. Consider this: A designer estimates it will take 10 hours to complete a design. The other problem is that people don't actually track their time, so agencies never have a true understanding of how much time is required to complete a project. Even retainers are based on an understanding of how much time an agency will spend on a specific client each month.
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No one wants to know if that project took longer than it should have or discover how few hours they actually spent on "real" work that week. The real problem with time sheets is that they require employees to track time on every single thing they do, and no one likes to be micromanaged. Some agencies have even gone as far as rewarding employees with free beer if they submit their reports on time, which isn't such a bad idea. Those who need an easy way to stay on task and become more efficient for their clients will find 16 possible solutions below and free apps for startups here.Įmployees avoid it at every opportunity, but eventually, time - or the poor soul in charge of collecting timesheets - catches up with them. It's no wonder there are so many digital time tracking tools just for agencies and small business today. There is one evil that haunts the days and nights of most agency workers: time tracking.