Established in 2011, Alpha Efficiency is an analytics and data-driven web design and development company providing services for mid to large-sized businesses. Alpha Efficiency has been remote-first since its creation and expanded that with the 2018 launch of its agency department. It continues to support the freedom and creativity found in talent around the globe.

Hubstaff’s time-tracking services have been part of the Alpha Efficiency model since its beginning, and we’re excited to highlight the brand’s growth and continued success. We sat down with Brian, the agency's Director of Strategic Planning, to learn more about the agency, its success, and how it uses Hubstaff.

“Hubstaff is a big component of the culture we create. From the very birth of our company, I’ve been using time tracking. So, I wanted to pick an industry leader, something with a nice look and feel,” says Brian. “It also helps me be a better partner and a more transparent partner for our clients and companies like you.”

“I rely on Hubstaff to enable remote work and collaboration. For the type of work we provide, there isn’t remote work without time tracking like Hubstaff,” says Brian. Among the core results our platform helped him drive are:

• Improving productivity and visibility, generating an ROI above 100%, according to Brian

• Reducing bookkeeping processes to 1-2 days down from 1 week, helping us pay people faster

• Utilizing time tracking to offer bonuses and complete many projects in 30% less time

• Speeding up payments by clients thanks to accurate project tracking with proof

• Minimizing meetings and interruptions thanks to robust tracking and reports

• Allowing team leaders to track their own time investment to support revenue analysis

The Alpha Efficiency agency grew out of freelancing business models that depend heavily on the billable hour. Accurate time tracking is essential, and since day one, Alpha Efficiency has relied on Hubstaff for that accuracy and support.

Hubstaff makes it easy for the company to track core metrics and KPIs for staff across the world, including:

• Attendance

• Timeliness

• Activity

• Accuracy of hourly tracking

• Wasted time

• Task completion rates

• And resource allocation per project

“It’s pretty straightforward how I use Hubstaff for my team. There are a lot of daily habits that revolve around it, and I evaluate it as part of our agency’s scorecard,” says Brian.

And his favorite thing about it? Being able to monitor tasks and statuses without creating a meeting or interrupting someone’s work. That way, he can jump in and help team members as soon as they hit a roadblock or need help improving performance. 

Our tracking and reporting options make it easy to understand projects and operations at a glance, allowing Brian to prioritize supporting his team.

Time tracking services like Hubstaff can create caution in employees. Alpha Efficiency said some of its team was initially hesitant to adopt time tracking, but they became more enthusiastic when it was tied to employee benefits.

“I like to reward my team for working hard and hitting KPIs, and they have started to like the tool,” says Brian. “When I can show them a correlation between their financial benefit and the tool, they see the good side of these practices.”

Using time tracking enables Alpha Efficiency to create a baseline for project speeds and time requirements. Then, it rewards staff who come in under time or find novel ways of completing projects faster while maintaining accuracy. When employees deliver projects ahead of schedule, clients get deliverables ahead of time, too, helping everyone be happy with the relationship.

Alpha Efficiency estimates that some projects are finished 30% faster by taking this iterative approach and connecting performance bonuses to hourly budgets.

Alpha Efficiency highlights one of the best options for a service like Hubstaff: building it into employee benefits and support instead of using performance as a negative metric against which to compare people. 

It’s a smart move for any organization that wants to improve the employee experience.

Agencies like Alpha Efficiency need to precisely track hours and bill clients appropriately. Billable time and overages can be issues when teams don’t use time trackers, leaving money on the table or creating client concerns.

It’s common for many projects to go over budget in this space. Brian said that while his agency faces this challenge, Hubstaff helps prevent overruns on consecutive projects. Proper documentation through the Hubstaff timer and Tasks can help leaders figure out why an overrun occurred. The data makes it easy for agencies like Alpha Efficiency to put preventative measures in place afterward.

Alpha Efficiency says Hubstaff makes it easy to provide employee feedback and determine whether a client is responsible for any additional costs.

When asked about Hubstaff providing support and trust with clients, Brian noted that Hubstaff was part of the agency’s approach to trust and transparency:

“A lot of my remote workers default to Hubstaff, so I work in a Hubstaff-first reality,” says Brian. 

Integrating the Hubstaff solution into their daily processes has provided support for team members and project leads, as well as in payroll and client support.

Alpha Efficiency also adopted the Hubstaff Tasks add-on to help track hours relative to projects and better understand the time spent for each client: “When we introduced Hubstaff Tasks, there was our win. The integration between Tasks and the timer is essential to our growth.”

Brian said the bookkeeping process was reduced by roughly 50%, down to 1-2 days, to help his teams faster. Adding Tasks also increased productivity by 25% to 30% by providing greater visibility into where team members spend their time.

“I use Hubstaff because it eased a lot of my managerial pressure by freeing staff from being accountable for the next task,” says Brian. Now, I can give people more autonomy to succeed while identifying what isn’t working. Hubstaff allows me to correct issues in real-time, so labor slippage is minimized.”

That means more time focused on asking “what’s next” and scaling to meet client demand.

In today’s environment, budgets are tightening, and talent can be hard to find. Hubstaff helps companies like Alpha Efficiency to make the most of their people’s skills. The company is on a robust growth path and expanding into larger agency services, and we can’t wait to help it achieve its goals and become a go-to provider in the marketing space.

That means more time focused on asking “what’s next” and scaling to meet client demand.

In today’s environment, budgets are tightening, and talent can be hard to find. Hubstaff helps companies like Alpha Efficiency to make the most of their people’s skills. The company is on a robust growth path and expanding into larger agency services, and we can’t wait to help it achieve its goals and become a go-to provider in the marketing space.