Businesses need to manage time more effectively to get an advantage in today’s increasingly competitive economy. They can increase revenue faster if they can complete more work in the least amount of time. As a result, both independent contractors and business owners strive to increase their daily productivity.
Keeping track of your time is one approach to increasing productivity. But there are also some other benefits of time tracking that you should know.
Ask for 100%
It’s unlikely that your staff members are being lazy if you see a drop in your business’s productivity. Rather, they can simply lack a sense of urgency when it comes to deadlines.
Employees who take responsibility for their workload and log their time can better understand how long it takes to accomplish each task and gauge their own performance. Your staff will feel more in control of their work and schedules if you involve them in their own productivity.
They will always have something to do if they utilize time tracking software because they can view every job that is waiting in line. For instance, a tool such as the Insightful app not only allows you to track time but also offers comprehensive productivity monitoring and remote work management.
Accurate Billing
Your entire staff presumably has a general idea of how long it takes them to finish various tasks. An approximate estimate, however, differs from an actual log. You cannot charge the client for the time you actually spent on work if you don’t keep track of it.
For instance, you would lose more than 170 billable hours annually if you completed 10 jobs on average per week and each job took just 20 minutes longer than anticipated.
But by precisely recording each employee’s time, you’ll be able to receive the compensation you’re due for the time you put in.
Burnout Prevention
Burnout at work can occur for a variety of reasons.
Work pressure results from the uneven distribution of project activities throughout the workday or workweek. Regularly working longer hours than agreed on slows down employees and causes mental stress.
Employees enter the area of exhausting overtime when they take on more projects and tasks than they can finish. Employee productivity at work declines when they put in hard work for long stretches of time without taking any breaks.
Employees are more careful about how they use their time when they log it. They are able to protect themselves from burnout by limiting the number of hours spent at work.
Keep Contractors Visible
When you hire independent contractors or freelancers, you need to keep a close check on the amount of work they do and the hours they put in so that you don’t go over your budget.
Request that your independent contractors fill out the same timesheets as your regular employees. Using time tracking software to keep an exact record of their hours not only guarantees that you are only paying for work that has been completed, but also enables you to monitor the productivity of various contractors.
As a result, this allows you to distribute assignments to the most qualified individuals.
Scope Creep
Every type of service business faces the problem of “scope creep” in some way or another. The customer will think they want one thing, but in the end, they will add a whole load of new responsibilities to the project.
Before you know it, you’re facing a whole different beast to the project that was first agreed upon, complete with a stretched-out deadline and additional hours to match.
You can recognize and manage scope creep when time and money are being monitored with the help of your time tracking system. In fact, you will be able to do this almost before it begins.
Give Credit Where Credit is Due
Many members of staff, particularly those who are not accustomed to using time tracking software, are concerned that recording their hours may give the impression that they’re not working hard.
But in fact, the contrary is typically the case. You, as the owner of the company, can identify when good work is being done so that you may reward it appropriately if you keep exact track of the hours worked.
When someone’s performance is regularly exceeding their goals, it may be time to consider promoting them to a higher position. Similarly, you might encourage employees to test their limits by holding friendly competitions or challenges depending on the time invested.
Final Words
The key benefit of effective time tracking is keeping track of data in your company and then using that information to operate as productively and profitably as you can. Hopefully, you now have some ideas to consider and put into action.
