The Benefits of Tracking Your Employees' Time

No matter what size or type of business you run, keeping track of your employee’s time can be complicated and messy.

Let’s start with the basics. Time tracking is the process of tracking one’s time in hours to get paid at the end of their payment cycle.

As a manager or boss, you’ve probably said the age-old phrase, “Don’t forget to log your hours this week.” Trying to get everyone to log their time can sometimes feel like herding rogue sheep. Additionally, manual timesheets can bring up issues of dishonesty, excessive overtime, and even time theft. Yikes.

This is why time tracking is so important. There are several benefits to time tracking, and time tracking can be used for many industries. So let’s get into it.

Other than the obvious benefit of knowing how long someone has worked, tracking your team's time using time tracking apps like Hubstaff provides many benefits. Here are ten reasons time tracking could benefit you and your company.

1. Increase profitability

Time tracking is a powerful tool to enhance productivity by providing a detailed overview of how individuals allocate their time and resources. It promotes accountability and self-awareness, allowing employees to identify and eliminate time-wasting activities, prioritize tasks effectively, and optimize workflows. 

The data-driven insights from time tracking empower organizations to identify areas for improvement, allocate resources strategically, and create a culture of productivity that contributes to overall success.

2. Bill and pay accurately

Time tracking is pivotal in accurate billing and payment processes by providing a transparent and accurate account of the time spent on client projects or tasks. 

When team members are tracking time towards specific tasks or in the middle of working on a project, it helps set clear goals for everyone and removes confusion around what each person should be doing.

3. Data-driven decision making

You can make better business decisions with your team’s time tracking data. Time tracking facilitates data-driven decision-making by giving organizations detailed insights into allocating time across various tasks, projects, and teams. The data generated through time tracking allows for a comprehensive analysis of resource utilization, project progress, and individual performance. 

The best time tracking tools provide valuable data that can be analyzed to make informed decisions. Whether hiring additional resources or optimizing workflows, the data provides a foundation for strategic choices.

4. Set clear objectives

Time tracking aids in setting clear objectives by providing a detailed understanding of how time is utilized within an organization. Project management and tracking costs are simple when you have more employee data.

By analyzing time data, teams and individuals can identify priorities, assess task durations, and understand where efforts are most impactful. This insight enables the establishment of realistic and achievable objectives, as it is grounded in a clear understanding of the time required for various tasks and projects. 

5. Increase productivity

In the business world, productivity is king. Anything you can do to increase team performance will directly impact your bottom line. As a business owner, a time tracking system can be a great way to see which projects move the needle.

A time tracking app like Hubstaff allows teams to stay on task with ongoing projects. See where any potential hiccups are in the day-to-day, and use that insight to create strategies to help your team be more productive in the workplace.

6. Improve work-life balance 

Time tracking contributes to an improved work-life balance by providing individuals with a clear understanding of how they allocate their time throughout the workday. It allows employees to set realistic goals, prioritize tasks effectively, and identify potential areas for increased efficiency. 

With insights from time tracking, individuals can establish boundaries around their work hours, preventing overwork and burnout. 

7. Manage projects better

Time tracking manages projects better by providing a structured framework for monitoring and allocating resources efficiently. It allows for a granular analysis of time spent on various tasks, enabling project managers to identify potential bottlenecks, allocate resources effectively, and make informed decisions to keep projects on track.

With a clear understanding of time investment, project timelines, and individual workloads, managers can proactively address challenges, optimize workflows, and ensure that team members are working on tasks that align with project priorities. 

8. Provide transparency

Time tracking allows stakeholders to see a detailed breakdown of how much time is allocated to specific tasks within a project. This transparency provides insight into the progress of different project components, enabling better decision-making. With an accurate record of exactly how much time is spent on tasks, you can establish trust. 

With tracking software like Hubstaff, team members can log hours automatically and give transparency into their work, which can help managers keep team members accountable.

9. Communicate progress better

As a team member tracks time, they’ll be able to let their managers know if they can hit deadlines within work-week hours, making it easier for teams to communicate their needs to co-workers and managers.

Beyond individual contributions, the collective benefits of employee time tracking extend to strengthening team collaboration. As team members communicate their progress and potential challenges, it fosters a culture of openness and mutual support. 

10. Improve client communication 

Time tracking serves as a powerful collaboration tool for client-facing projects. Detailed breakdowns of time spent not only foster trust but also facilitate open communication between your team and clients. Clients gain a clearer understanding of the intricate details of project development, allowing for more informed discussions and collaborative decision-making. 

This transparency builds a strengthened partnership, as clients appreciate the ability to track project timelines, milestones, and progress in real-time. By sharing insights gained from time tracking, your team can actively involve clients in the project journey, ensuring their expectations align with the efforts invested and making adjustments for a successful outcome.

While time tracking can benefit many businesses, some disadvantages still need to be considered when deciding if implementing time tracking in your workplace is best.

Regarding the pros and cons of time tracking, the first thing to consider is how your team members will take the news that you’ll now monitor their work activity. At the same time, this may not be that big of a deal to some (probably those who do what they’re supposed to at work); others who are used to binging cat videos and liking their best friend’s baby photos might be a little less excited. 

This will only help increase productivity in those who typically don’t work too hard, so it’s a benefit and investment in your business in the long run. Learn how to motivate employees to track time here.

Another consideration is that your employees may begin to feel they’re being watched constantly. A big brother effect at work isn’t what most people want in an office setting. Suppose you’re using a sophisticated time tracking app like Hubstaff. In that case, that doesn’t save any personal information and only monitors what they’re doing now — then they don’t have anything to worry about. 

The best ways to track your employees’ time

Many services offer time tracking templates and software that make tracking your team’s time at work easier. We’re biased here, but we think the best time tracking software is Hubstaff.

Using our desktop, web, or mobile apps, Hubstaff allows you and your team to automatically tack time towards specific tasks and projects while everyone works. Our apps will automatically track the activity levels of each employee, and you can even set it up to take automatic screenshots so you’re always in the know.

If you run a more on-the-go team with remote or traveling employees, they can use our iOS or Android apps to track time wherever they are. The Hubstaff mobile apps will automatically track GPS locations, and you can even set up geofences to have team members clock in automatically when they’re on a physical job site.

At the end of the work week, Hubstaff will automatically notify you to pay your team, which you can easily do with the click of a button based on the predetermined pay rates you’ve set up.

The short answer is everyone. However, time tracking benefits different teams in different ways. Here are just a few examples:

Agencies

Agencies typically employ a lot of freelance talent to meet their clients' tight deadlines. Because of this mix between full-time and freelance, using a time tracking app like Hubstaff benefits any agency. They can ensure they accurately pay all their team members for their work without worrying about pay rates or employment status differences. At the same time, they can easily create accurate invoices with billable hours ready to be sent to clients.

Architecture and law firms

Firms, just like agencies, utilize a lot of freelance talent and have a lot of clients to keep up with. By using time tracking software, firms can properly bill clients and draft invoices while still being able to pay their members and track productivity for ongoing projects.

Freelancers and consultants

As a freelancer or consultant, you’ve got many hourly clients to juggle. Making sure you bill each client for the correct amount of time you’ve spent on their work is vital (considering they’ll only want to pay you for the hours you’ve put in on their projects, not someone else’s). By tracking time, you can accurately log timesheets for each client, impress them with your efficiency, and send out invoices to get paid for all the work you do. They’ll know they can expect this level of transparency on future projects. 

By tracking your team’s time accurately, you won’t have any guesswork for how long each person was on the job. Plus, you’ll get a better picture of how long certain services take, meaning you can better predict how much everything will cost you and your clients.

Small businesses and startups

Both startups and small businesses have many moving pieces at one time. To balance ever-changing team members and out-of-the-ordinary work schedules, implementing time tracking makes keeping tabs on everything a lot easier. Managers and owners won’t have to deal with manual timesheets, meaning that’s one less thing on your desk to review.

If you’re wondering whether or not your business would benefit from starting to use time tracking, see if your company matches any of the following criteria:

• An office or work setting that bills by the hour

• A business that works with several different clients

• Companies that employ lots of remote or freelance talent

• Managers looking to monitor their teams better

• Teams looking to increase productivity

• People who like to watch numbers count up

Well, once again, pretty much everyone. Let’s look at a few specific roles on a team and how they can benefit from time tracking.

Project managers

As a project manager, you have to be able to determine who on your team can complete specific tasks. Time tracking lets you more accurately see how long any task takes to achieve and who on your team works most efficiently.

Writers and designers

If you work on a creative team, you’ll be able to see how long each project takes to complete as you work through your to-do list. So, if you’re designing a website for a law firm that takes 80 hours to complete, you can better estimate how long future web design projects might take.

Producers

As a producer, you’re working with many outside companies to get your work done. With time tracking, you can accurately pay them for their time and bill any clients based on all the hours worked across teams.

Contractors

When you’re working on-site, your attention is more on the job at hand rather than what hour it is into the workday. Using a mobile time tracking app like Hubstaff, your contractor team can better track time on the go while focusing on their work.

Developers

Sometimes, things don’t always go to plan when you’re developing software. By tracking their time, a developer can accurately see how long specific tasks take to complete while still being able to run all their tests. Plus, with a lightweight app like Hubstaff, time tracking will never hinder their hard work.