Hubstaff Creates the Confidence for Mr Digital to Go Global

Key outcomes

• Reduced check-in meeting time by 10%

• Increased activity level by 10% through incentive program

• Improved profitability analysis through tracking time to projects

• Confidence to run a fully remote, global operation

Building a business is tough, especially when you’re growing from a team of one to an agency of 15 across multiple countries. But that’s just what Mr Digital’s managing director Ross Crawford did in 2018. After two years of running a solo operation, he began this global journey with a new office in India while staying in the UK, choosing Hubstaff as his time tracking solution.

“I knew there was a lot of talent in India, particularly in web development. After traveling a bit, I decided to set up our company in India to expand my service offering and meet clients’ growing needs,” says Crawford.

When the 2020 pandemic hit, and offices closed, Hubstaff was a core partner that helped Mr Digital keep operations running smoothly. Learning that his team preferred to work from home and was performing during the pandemic, the shift to remote work has become permanent for Mr Digital.

“Without Hubstaff, I wouldn’t be confident in running a remote business. We used the platform from the first day we opened the office in India, so I knew it would give me the insights and confidence to commit to remote working.”

Running a successful international brand requires using your time effectively and efficiently. In most cases, that means fewer meetings and faster internal support. This is one area where Mr Digital finds Hubstaff to be a reliable partner.

“Eliminating unnecessary things is where Hubstaff saves us a lot of time. We’ve probably reduced meeting time by 10% as we can check in and see how progress is being made without interrupting people’s work.”

To support that, the company utilizes Hubstaff tracking elements such as screenshots for training opportunities.

“Sometimes we give a team member a task that is new to them or something we know they will need support with,” says Crawford. “Then, we check in throughout the day to see how they are getting on by looking at the screenshots. It usually indicates where they are with the task, whether the project is on track, and if they need help.”

As managers embrace remote work, these efforts provide clear digital alternatives to the traditional desk drive-by or popping your head in someone’s office. Only here, there’s less interruption if the team member is succeeding with the new responsibility.

The future of workforce management lies in motivating teams to succeed and continually achieve reach goals. Instead of tracking time to ensure people are simply on task, leaders are approaching tools like Hubstaff to provide positive motivation and honest feedback on work being done.

Mr Digital relied on Hubstaff to help establish the baseline of company performance and then reward those who stepped up and improved work and efficiency. Hubstaff made it easy to look at the historical performance of different staff members and roles so that the company could ensure evaluations and rewards were fair.

And then, Hubstaff’s metrics were applied as a direct measure for company incentives.

“We offered a monetary bonus to team members who achieve at least a 50% activity level in Hubstaff. We saw a big performance increase after that, so we will increase that goal to 55% in January for people who complete at least eight hours of tracked time.”

Mr Digital saw activity levels increase an average of 10% during the first four months of this incentive program.

Beyond individual team member support, Hubstaff can help brands like Mr Digital look at the health of their organization. Typically, this happens at the project level, where time and resources impact profitability most.

The depth of our data and availability of dashboards and reporting offer this insight and allow companies to manage it at their own pace.

“Hubstaff helps us understand the profitability of projects as the time is tracked against them. That’s a huge value."

We don’t use this analysis regularly. But about twice a year, we’ll look back and review which projects made the best profit. Then we review why they did, as well as which weren’t as profitable and why. That enables us to make improvements to our overall business operations."

Hubstaff’s Insights platform offers data-driven business intelligence for brands like Mr Digital, and we’re confident it can do the same for you. If you’d like to understand profitability, improve tracking, and motivate your workforce through accurate reporting, our team is here to help.

Click the button below to get your custom demo and see how you can go global, just like Mr Digital.