Online time tracking has become a necessity for a business to work efficiently. With the increase in the number of remote employees reporting to work from various locations, time tracking becomes vital. And, how can one forget buddy-punching, where employees clock in for each other. HR has to face a horde of challenges when it comes to tracking employee time.
So the question is how to track employee time effectively? Before answering that, let us first understand the importance of time tracking for profitability and productivity.
– Knowing what to pay your people: Time tracking means that you can pay your people accurately.
– Keeping your people on task: When employees know that their time is being tracked, they tend to give higher productivity.
– Pinpointing areas of inefficiency: With timely insights into your employee time data, you can determine areas of inefficiency and growth.
– Saving time: An easy cloud based time tracking software means that your HR would spend much less time in dealing with manual and inefficient time and attendance tracking processes.
Here’s how HR can get the most of time tracking:
1. Keeps everyone on the same page
If you wish your company to run in a smooth and efficient manner, you ought to get everyone on the same platform. For instance, if you have various people using multiple time tracking tools or processes, then it’s a huge mess.
2. Go for a tracking system that is accessible 24 x 7
Not every time tracking tool you come across will be the best thus, it calls for proper research and planning. You may want to pick a software that is easy to use and is accessible 24 x 7 to your HR department and business managers. Yes, your HR should be able to track time of employees on the go through his/her smartphone or tablet.
3. Outline your procedures and policies
Make sure to outline as how you would want the software to track time. This means figuring out whether you would want the software to track part time shifts, full-time shifts, overtime, etc.
4. Keep an eye on outliers
Some tasks will take an inevitable amount of time and different employees might offer different completion rates for those tasks. So it is advisable to keep a tab on outliers i.e., tasks that didn’t took much time or the ones that took too much of time. This can assist to identify problem areas or growth opportunities.
5. Avoid micromanaging
After implementing a time tracking system, it is quite easy for HR managers to delve into micromanaging i.e. questioning the employee about every minute. This may irk the employees and make them feel resentful thus, causing them to be less productive at work. Instead, offer proper guidance with the help of insights received from the time tracking solution.
6. Learn from the roots of inefficiency
Over time, the tracking solution would help you fetch substantial amount of data giving you detailed insights into how your people are spending their time. It will offer a set of patterns. You will be able to figure out the tasks that make your team sluggish thus, enabling you to determine the weaker areas.
7. Change/replace what fails to work
Remember, insights without any action are simply futile. Therefore, when tracking time, take a good note of strategies or processes that aren’t working as they should be and make changes to the same.
With all these tips and tricks, human resources people will be in a better position to track the time of employees in a much accurate and seamless manner. The more time you devote in learning about various time tracking techniques and embrace new concepts, the better you will be over time.
To know how a cloud based time tracking software can help your HR track employee timings like a pro, contact us. You can also write to us at sales@pockethrms.com or give us a shout out here Twitter or Facebook.
