Time tracking is a tool designed for business applications. The idea behind it is to assist with various aspects of a normal business day. They include the effective scheduling of time for all staff and employees, the provision for covering shift changes and the flexibility of tracking holiday and leave of absence time. In effect, time tracking tools make a business efficient.
The efficiency that can come from the proper use of time tracking tools increasing the productivity of all concerned. With an increase in productivity, the business gets stronger and more successful. Without time tracking, lost time and even time theft can go unnoticed. These forms of lost time can be costly to the average business. Time tracking tools clean this problem up.
Ximble produces several different office tools including a time tracking one. Businesses that utilize these types of scheduling tools become better equipped at dealing with various issues related to hourly work on the job. Here’s how time tracking can be used in an office setting and the best method for it to be used for.
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1. For Accurate Payroll Data
How exactly does time tracking help with payroll? Well, when an employee punches in or checks in, the time tracking tool will take note of that employee’s start time on the job. When that same employee punches out for the day, the software records the time that work ended. Over a pay period, all work hours are accounted for in a simple to use format for payroll.
The way time was once tracked included punch cards or managers having to fill out time worked on manual data sheets. For a business with multiple employees, gathering the paper data for the average pay period would have involved several pieces of paper and time lost sorting through all of it. Time tracking tools save time by just providing printable reports with the data saved.
2. For Eliminating Lost Time
Every company has to be able to account for all time used in the workplace. Unfortunately, some employees are not as diligent in this matter as management would probably prefer. This is why you may see the odd co-worker stretch a coffee break by an additional five minutes or take a quick trip out of the office that results in an extended lunch break or another break from work.
Another way in which businesses lose time is when employees try to help others on their team by punching in for them if one is a few minutes late. The practice, known as buddy punching, actually costs the company money for the time paid but not worked for. Time tracking tools eliminate these losses and calculate the exact time spent on tasks and other activities at work.
3. For Covering Shift Changes
One task that time tracking tools can easily manage is when staff shifts get flipped around or two or more employees swap shifts. It can happen in a trade or possibly as part of a change in a department. Being able to have a software program that is flexible enough to allow for shift changes with little notice will make a difference in the overall time of use on the work site.
Time tracking and scheduling tools have the ability to make changes ‘on the fly’ so that there is no missed time and everyone gets the hours they deserve. Sometimes a paper or other spreadsheet practices are not as easy to maneuver around and sometimes a shift or partial shift gets dropped or lost in the shuffle. Tracking tools prevent this from taking place in the work setting.
4. For Managing Vacation/Sick Days
Considered by some HR department heads as a logistic nightmare, being able to juggle and fill open shifts because of sickness or vacations becomes a valuable tool. Tracking software can do this with ease. When a tracking software program is in place, not only can shifts be accounted for when vacation time in used, it can help to fill those shifts far in advance of the time taken off.
Plus, with the ability to accept data from several different departments, the task of sorting through all holiday or sick time can be conducted automatically. Computer software has changed a lot of ways in which we used to do things and time tracking has improved a great deal as a result of the software now available. There are no problems with shifting hours anymore.
5. For Improving Productivity
The best method of use for any kind of time tracking tool is how it can improve the productivity of your staff and management. It does this in several different ways. By reducing the time spent on documenting and collecting time sheets it frees up time from everyone. By allowing for easy shift changing it increases the moral of the workers trying to switch hours.
Time tracking tools also improve productivity by showing employees exactly how their hours are used and where lost time is located. Also, by giving your employees access to time tracking tools they become better at managing their time on the job which increases their productivity and impacts the revenues and success of your business. Time tracking boosts your overall output.
In Conclusion
Time tracking has become a common practice in today’s business world. It helps to streamline the workflow for employees and it gives management a way of documenting the effort being used in completing various tasks. Time tracking software has also become an industry of its own to address the needs of businesses seeking ways to cut down on time-wasting activities.
Not only does time tracking allow for better scheduling of time for all who use the program, it increases the productivity of staff once they see how their time on the job is used. Better scheduling eliminates lost time, wasted time and keeps everyone focused on the tasks at hand. If your business is in need of streamlining, then time tracking is a tool that can fix that situation.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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