Small and large businesses use many methods to track employee time. It is one way to manage the workforce for maximum productivity. Day-to-day management takes up a lot of time. It can be challenging for managers and employers to record when their employees come to work, take lunch breaks, and leave at the end of the day. If your workforce is managed, more work is done and can increase profits. You are missing many benefits if your company is not tracking employee time.
It is the process of tracking the number of hours employees work. There are various benefits of employee time tracking for both employees and employers. It helps employees to get paid accurately at the end of the month. Employers can track malpractices like time theft, regular absenteeism, and excessive overtime. There are many reasons to ensure your company has an accurate method for employee time tracking. Here, we share the 12 benefits of employee time tracking.
1-Increases production
It is found commonly that employees are not encouraged or motivated enough to work casually, even when a deadline is close. This can cause a decrease in production. Your employees might be unorganized if you don't have an employee time tracking method. Work allotment and scheduling issues can arise without employee time tracking. Time tracking helps employees record the progress of their work in fine detail. Employees can take ownership of their workload and are much more organized. Time tracking helps them identify how long it takes to complete a particular task. It also helps employees to determine their performance. So, with employee time tracking, you can help boost your employee productivity.
2-Help in prioritization of tasks
Each project has many tasks and sub-tasks to be completed. This will make employees confused sometimes. They need clarification on which task priority should be completed first and when. Employee time tracking helps managers to create projects and task timelines and allocate them to their teams. Employees can then prioritize tasks and set estimated time and due dates for each task. This will help them to complete tasks on time and within the given schedule.
3-Better scheduling of projects
Employee time tracking helps businesses in better project management with clear deadlines to complete those. The manager records employees' in and out times, and they know who is on leave or planning to go. So, managers can create project time estimates and deadlines by tracking employees' time.
4-Help in monitoring employee's progress
Employee time tracking can help the manager to monitor an employee's progress. It gives managers an overview of the time spent on each task. They can identify project loopholes and ways to correct them. They can replace slow or late coming employees with efficient ones or allocate more resources.
5-Billing clients for the exact work
If you are not using tools for employee time tracking, estimated time for work done differs from an accurate log, making it difficult to bill clients accurately. For example, if a job takes 20 minutes more than the estimated time and your company completes ten assignments weekly. You are missing 170 billable hours yearly, which can cause severe losses. Employee time tracking can help estimate the accurate time for every task, which will get the revenue you deserve.
6-Accurately report hours
Companies must abide by labour laws and compliance provisions to prevent the exploitation of workers. It can be tedious for HR managers to make the report at the end of each month or quarter to share with management. If the employee time tracking is done accurately, it is much easier for managers to create a report. One of the benefits of employee time tracking software is that it helps you to create reports automatically and regularly. Compliance with employment time tracking is much easier and can be done in minutes.
7-Help to get a job status
Different teams and their members working on various projects and keeping track of work done on tasks and project status can be challenging for managers. Manually checking all paper reports will take a lot of time and does not ensure data accuracy. If your company has an employee time tracking method, managers can view all the tasks, their work details, and the time spent on them. Managers can create and view custom reports without scanning through numerous paper reports and log in to the system.
8-Prevents employees burnout
With proper employee time tracking, scheduling work shifts or identifying if any employee is overworked and works too many shifts will be easy. If HR managers create hectic schedules, they can burn out the employees. It can reduce productivity and disturb employee's work-life balance. Employee time tracking can also create a great working culture that helps employees balance their work and life. With employee time tracking, managers can know when and where employees work and what tasks are assigned.
9-Make payroll process easy
At the end of the month, managers calculate the payroll. Payroll calculation can help to pay employees accurately so they don't feel underpaid or you have a loss. With employee time tracking, monitoring the number of hours an employee has worked is easier. Incorrect paychecks are an additional burden for managers to correct.
10- Help calculate employee overtime
Employee time tracking helps you calculate the employee overtime correctly. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) states that employees working more than 40 hours a week must be paid overtime at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular pay rates. You will have a real financial burden that can affect your profits if you are not tracking employees overtime accurately. Accurate employee time tracking can simplify overtime calculation and ensure no employee can exploit the company's overtime policies.
11-Prevents time theft and buddy punching
One survey finds that 43% of team members have admitted to committing time theft. This time theft costs businesses heavy losses yearly, making it essential to implement employee time trackers. If the employee time is tracked manually, there are chances that the employees may not enter the correct work hours or may round up work hours even if they have not worked. The check-in check-out or timer system can remove these chances. Accurate work hours are logged, and employees do not log incorrect work hours or manipulate log time for their colleagues.
12-Maximize workplace efficiency
Employee time tracking can significantly enhance your work efficiency.
It boosts the feelings of trust and respect in your employees, which can improve their performance and overall productivity. It also helps develop skills and talents that your employees already possess. Every employee you have has room to improve. With this time tracking, you can provide wonderful feedback to support them grow and develop their potential.
How Can You Track Employee Time?
Paper Time Sheets
The most traditional method of timekeeping in companies is paper timesheets. It is a simple sheet with a table with fields for the Date, Day, Time-in, and Time-out. The employee manually enters the in-and-out time with a pen on a paper card. These are easy to create but difficult to manage for large teams. All entries are made by hand, which consumes a lot of time and is prone to errors. There is also a risk of lost or misplaced cards. Managers manually calculate the work hours. It can lead to errors and result in inaccurate pay, hampering employee morale.
Spreadsheets
These are similar to paper timesheets used to track time by manual data entry in a spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets. The only difference is that these time sheets are created with the help of software. Spreadsheets offer a level of automation for calculation but are difficult to manage. All the data must be entered manually, which takes a lot of time and has a high chance of error. So, it is not ideal for tracking project progress or employee productivity.
Swipe Card Method
It is one of the most popular methods that most companies use. Employees swipe a card to clock in and out, eliminating manual entries. The swipe card method is best for employees who work hourly. Employees who work remotely cannot use this method to log in and out.
Time Tracking Software
It is the best tool for tracking employee time, including remote workers. With the help of these tools, you can automate the workforce, schedule, and payroll management entirely. When using time-tracking software, managers and supervisors don't have to waste hours or days managing timesheets and conducting payroll. It reduces manual entry errors and ensures accurate payroll calculations. Employees can categorize work hours for better project management and resource allocation. It helps remote and on-site employees easily track their hours and work details.