You just purchased a subscription for an online time tracking software to be used by all your employees. You know accurately tracking their time can help them be more productive and prevent burnout, and it will save your business time and money. However, you also know getting your team to start something new can be a challenge. Here are valuable tips for getting your team started on time tracking quickly.
Onboard Your Team
Employees have a natural resistance to tracking their time. It disrupts their workflow and makes them feel they are being micromanaged. So, before implementing time tracking, explain why you are doing this. Don’t just send a quick email and expect your employees to go along.
Implementing time tracking software is a big deal. It may elicit strong emotional reactions such as suspicion and resentment. Here are best practices for properly onboarding your team and communicating the benefits of time tracking:
- Organize an all-hands-on meeting. An organization-wide orientation demonstrates you see time tracking as a business priority. And it allows your employees to voice their concerns.
- Dispel their doubts and fears. Clearly explain what time tracking will not be used for, such as spying on or micromanaging their work.
- Explain the benefits to them. Show your employees how logging their hours helps them be more productive, manage their time better, and meet project deadlines.
- Emphasize that you reward performance, not time. Clarify that you do not expect them to fill every minute with work, which is unrealistic, and that they will be incentivized for how they perform.
- Show sample reports. It is easier to visualize benefits if you show them sample reports and invoices and how time tracking affects the numbers in the reports.
- Be transparent about business benefits. Explain how time tracking software can accurately track billable hours, create better pricing estimates, and keep projects on track. If you are expecting cost savings, tell them as well.
Most employees want the company to succeed and will be supportive if you are honest, fair, and upfront.
Train Your Team to Use the Software
It is not enough to explain the benefits of time tracking. You need to train your employees to log their hours and your managers to create and use reports. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Do a demo. Your employees may be unfamiliar with time tracking software and may have misgivings about using new technology. The best way to address this is to demonstrate the software. Let them try it themselves. Once they see that it’s not complicated, they will be more receptive to using it.
- Create resources. Make demo videos, tutorials, and FAQs available to your employees. It takes time to learn something new, so having resources accessible will hasten their learning curve.
Make Time Tracking Easy to Do
If your software is complicated to use or your rules are confusing to comply with, don’t expect your team to succeed in time tracking. These are tips you can do to make your time tracking system easy to use.
- Set clear rules. Explain what activities your employees should track, how they should categorize their tasks, how often and when they need to log their hours, and what to do if they forget to use the timer.
- Explain your categories. Ensure your employees use the same categories for projects, clients, and tasks. Explain which categories tasks like emails or meetings should fall under. Creating a legend of categories with descriptions will help.
- Make time tracking part of their workflow. Tracking hours can be disruptive if it requires switching apps or logging into another device. Eliminate friction by ensuring the time tracking tool is installed in the devices and browsers your employees use the most.
- Integrate other systems. Maximize your time tracker’s integrations with project management, invoicing, and customer support systems. This makes time tracking convenient if they can start or stop timers from the same software interface.
Make Time Tracking Part of Your Culture
Getting your team started on time tracking is one thing; sticking to it for the long run is another. The only way to make time tracking sustainable is to make it part of your corporate culture. These are some ways to make this happen:
- Send reminders. It takes a while for anyone to form a habit, and tracking time needs to be a habit for employees as it just doesn’t come naturally. You can email reminders and remind them during team meetings, at least in the first few months of its rollout. Your time tracker may have a built-in function that sends automated and scheduled reminders.
- Act on the data. Time tracking aims not to show reports but to turn the data into actionable insights to improve productivity and efficiency. If the software reveals a lot of time wasted on meetings, fix that problem. If it shows one team member is doing most of the work on a project, re-assign tasks to others. You can intervene to prevent burnout if you see employees going overtime often.
- Make someone accountable. There should be one person or department responsible for ensuring employees are logging their hours. When no one is accountable, no one will ensure compliance.
- Reward people. A little incentive can go a long way. Habits are formed when there is a positive reinforcement for action taken. While you’re in the early stage of implementing your time tracking software, reward teams who submit their timesheets on time and without errors with things such as free pizza or movie tickets.
- Get feedback. You can continually improve your time tracking system. Ask your employees for feedback, problems, and suggestions. Listening to them and doing something about it makes them more cooperative and do it without being prompted.
Get Your Team Started on Time Tracking
Ready to rollout time tracking for your employees? Try Time Tracker by eBillity, our online time tracker that is flexible, feature-rich, and easy to use. Start eBillity’s free, 14-day Time Tracker trial today.
