It has been said that up to 8 billion dollars a day may be lost in untracked work hours, affecting the US economy and having a very real impact upon individual businesses, big and small. Time is as important an element of business as any other, but it can be challenging to encourage employees to see it as being so.
So, to help you try and combat this common problem, here are a few tips for trying to convince your employees that it’s also in their best interests to track their time at work, properly.
Establishing trust:
Vital for a healthy relationship between management and employees, trust must be a two-way street. If your staff are forced to track their time without being told why it’s so important, then you’ll doubtless do nothing more than encourage suspicions and a lack of trust. It may also lead to employees feeling that they need to cheat when filling out their timesheets. Instead, talk to your workforce about why you need tracking data, and how it benefits every party.
Set up a system that everyone can easily use:
Once you’ve set up a tracking system to record your employees working hours, talk them through it and ensure that they all know how to use it correctly before you put it into force.
Sharing is caring:
Unless the time logs of your workers really must be kept private, you should consider sharing them with the team to encourage and build trust. You can use a big screen to display the teams tracking data and display it in a place where it can be seen by everybody.
Gain their valuable feedback:
Listen to your employees when/if they give you feedback about their use of time and give them ample opportunity to share their thoughts with you and the management team. Also talk to them regularly about how they are getting on with the new tracking system and take on board any suggestions for improvement that they might have.
Positive reinforcement:
Reward for desired behaviour is a centuries old, tried and tested method of modifying people’s behaviour. If your employees are conforming to your time tracking requirements, then reward them with bonuses, days off or gifts, making them far more likely to continue repeating that behaviour in the future.
Outsource time tracking:
One way of ensuring that you always get accurate data from your employees, is to outsource time tracking and have a professional company take over the process from beginning to end. This is often the most cost effective and efficient way of tackling the issue of tracking time, and is a one-stop solution for all your employee related concerns, since most such companies offer multiple work-related services, such as HR and payroll.
Never underestimate the importance of accurate tracking of your employee’s time, and as we enter a new year of business, make it one of your top priorities if you feel it to be an area of your business at which you may be failing.