Learn how to increase productivity remotely
Timesheets are a major productivity tool for both you and your team, especially in the current climate of remote working.
‘Time is money’, is probably one of the most frequently heard statements in the corporate world, and they’re not wrong. All successful businesses focus on people, customers, profitability and continued growth. Those that understand the importance of time management are ahead of the game.
The biggest asset in any business is time – investing time in understanding and resourcing clients, spending time reviewing your team (performance management), or reporting on time wasted – success is unquestionable ‘all about time’. The more time you spend on admin and laborious tasks, the less time you have to concentrate on the things that make your business profitable.
An efficient and effective time management system is a basic need for any company, any effort that can’t be measured is worthless.
Why are timesheets important – what’s their purpose?
- Staff timesheets bring structure and accountability to make critical decisions.
- When tracking time through project management, managers can assess where resources are best placed
- When your employees are remote working or dual working, tracking time through projects and timesheets allows remote managers to track productivity off-site.
- Employees can be mindful of their focus and accountability.
Implementing a system to manage timesheets and projects provides resource planning and better workflows for project contributors and managers. Successful project management shouldn’t always be results-driven, managing workflows and providing flexible working hours to get there is equally important.
Analysing how productivity is working in your organisation helps you to gain insights into what tasks should be prioritised based on urgency and what’s critical to the business.
Importance of timesheets for employees
Timesheets help employees maintain regular discipline. Employees can sometimes perceive this to be ‘micro-management’ but in the new world of remote working, it can often be a blessing. A recent survey shows that many employees often work longer hours when working from home Filling in timesheets or clocking in and out, are a great ways to show management exactly how many hours you are working on the job. Accountability for time spent can bring some recognition for employees that feel their time is not valued.
We strongly advise adding that extra layer of project timesheet software so that your system’s recording more than just start and finish times and break durations – but what they’re working on. This is where the real value comes for both themselves and the organisation.
Staff timesheets as a business tool are also great for measuring productivity and ensuring accurate payroll.
Timesheet Compliance
It is also important to remember that in most countries keeping employee timesheets is also in fact legislation. The Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC, is a Directive of the European Union. It gives EU workers the right to:
- 4 weeks in paid holidays per annum
- Rest breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours;
- Restricts excessive night work
- A day off after a week’s work
- Provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week.
In the US, Federal laws require employers to keep minimum timesheet records of the hours’ employees worked to ensure compliance with minimum wage policies for hourly work.
Even ‘exempt workers’ can still be requested to record hours worked for resource allocation reasons.
Accurate and updated timesheets can come to your rescue as legal documents in the event of litigation.
You should have a good HR System that will allow you to present all the hours that an employee has worked and ensure that these timesheets are completed by the employee, a good reporting function is key here.
Becoming compliant under the Working Time Directive is not something that you should be fearful of. If you have a good timesheet system you will automatically become compliant.
It’s not necessary to purchase hardware such as clock-in/clock-out boxes, as an online system will suffice. Almost any device connected to the internet is sufficient to operate a time-tracking system.
Online timesheets work easier and faster – and reporting is always readily available.
