Can they see me?
Guest Article
Tracking where and how your employees spend their time is critical, especially for service-oriented companies that bill per hour. It’s also important to understand what the overall productivity level is of your employees, especially those who work from home. It’s not that you don’t trust your employees, but when you measure something, people tend to be a lot more serious about it. Here are some ways to make the process of employee time tracking easier…
Keep an eye on employees even when you can’t see them.
There’s nothing like seeing employees hard at work only to realize they’re really just updating Facebook or Twitter. Keeping track of what employees are really doing while in the office or working remotely can be done with certain software tools.
Time tracking software is one of the easiest ways to guarantee that employees are actually working. The programs are often times fairly inexpensive, highly accurate, and worth every cent. Plus, employers get the added benefit of having all of the busy work of adding up hours and wages already completed for them thanks to the software. The biggest things to look for when thinking about purchasing a time clock software program is to make sure that it allows for unlimited employees, is easy to use, and has quality customer support.
I always feel like somebody’s watching me.
As with online time tracking software, monitoring software tracks everything employees do while using company computers. These programs can track every keystroke, block certain websites, prevent the downloading of certain files, and do just about anything employers need it to do. Reports are then generated so that employers can look at what employees have been doing.
This software improves productivity, prevents employees from either intentionally or unintentionally exposing confidential information, and keeps everyone in line. However, make sure employees know they are being monitored. Nobody wants to deal with an employee accusing the company of spying.
Keep tabs on telecommuters.
Many companies hire contract workers that either telecommute or report to the office rarely. This makes it difficult to know for sure if the hours they record were truly spent working. One way to circumvent the problem of hourly-billing is to make contract work a flat fee.
But service-oriented companies tend to have employees that work away from the office and bill by the hour. Trust is essential with these employees, but it’s not the only way to make sure they’re working.
Scheduling face-time using software programs such as Google Hangout, Google Chat or Skype, arranging for call-ins, or checking in with instant messaging helps provide the link between the home office and the traditional office.
If telecommuting employees use company-provided computers, then monitoring software should be installed to track their work as it would be if they were in the office.
Monitoring software prevents on-the-job cat naps.
What about employees who don’t use a computer for work?
Short of installing a microchip into the arm of employees that work remotely without a computer, it is almost impossible to tell how their time is spent. However, accountability goes a long way for these employees. Setting up goals and timelines for employees to reach ensures that they are working toward something.
Let them know you’ll be watching.
Using tracking software to monitor the work done by employees is the easiest way to keep track of their time spent working. Knowing that their activities are being monitored means employees are far less likely to devote time to non-work related activities… and Facebook will still be there once the work day is over.
About the author: Dana Rasmussen is a freelance author who writes about a variety of topics, including time tracking, vacation destinations, corporate jet travel, social media and trends in the work place.
Photo attribution: www.flickr.com/photos/evilerin/3093851614
Photo attribution: www.flickr.com/photos/pangpang/3505022325
There’s another type of time capture program: One that accurately captures how an employee spends his/her day…but done with complete privacy for the individual employee.
That is, the system automatically captures time-related data but is only available to the individual employee. This creates an air of trust and empowers the employee to submit accurate timesheet information with virtually no effort.
It’s amazing how people respond when they recognize there’s a degree of trust and empowerment.
Just wanted to second the importance of keeping tabs on productivity and the idea that (the right) time tracking tool can be a great way to do it. We’ve found that making a time tracking tool quick and easy to use is the best way to get employee buy-in. We’ve also made time tracking mutually beneficial by using it as the basis for employee pay (we pay by the hour). After trying a number of popular time tracking apps, we eventually built our own – Hours Tracking (http://hourstracking.com). Our employees have adapted quickly, and we’re enjoying the benefits of accurate, real-time data when we need it.
So I have a iOS app called Favalert which initially was just to help alert you when a certain favorite came online to Facebook. I then added a History log feature so that one could go back in time and check how long/when someone was online.
I had a user email me that they would like to use this to track employee time on Facebook.
I was wondering if there are any business owners around that share the same view. It seems excessive and being active on Facebook is not a sin although too much time might be.
If you would use something like this, how would you use this as a supervisor or employer?
Companies believe that productivity at work and not just time spent that produces good results. Working long hours doesn’t necessarily ensure best results. Thus time tracking becomes important in order to check how much time the employee has actually spent on work as against the employees time in office. Try Sapience.net and see the difference
Employee Time Tracking will increase the productivity of employee that will result to high revenue generated. Correct utilization of man hours is being implemented.
Great article and so true. I personally never quite understood companies, that “spy” on their employees, so watching every step they do. I think there should be some kind of trust between employees and managers. Of course, once this trust is abused, I can understand, but I think just a general time tracking tool is all that’s needed. It does indeed help you also better organize and plan your time for the future, even if you work per hour or per project. It gives you a much better overview of how efficient you and your employees are spending your time and especially, if you’re not spending too much and getting paid too little (attention). I think I personally wouldn’t want to work in a company that controls everything and appreciate that now, my company trusts us in just tracking our time (we use primaerp time tracking).
Anyone have experience in the “spying” time tracking? Does it actually work or do employees protest? And by the way, I do realize that now many mobile apps even have a GPS tracker, so in some way I think that’s also spying but do understand the importance of it- any feedback?
Melinda, I like the way you have applied the KISS rule (Keep It Simple Stupid) 🙂
The need to handle the critical aspects of time tracking, inspite of the importance, it is overlooked and under-estimated.
Tme tracking software was not designed for feel employees under surveillance, but to let them check how much time they spend on various activities, and then, improve their productivity. Benefits are mutual – employers have control at their teams and employees could do their work effectively.