Most companies enjoy the benefits of software-based employee time tracking. While many are still deciding to adopt a digital and foolproof time tracking system. This article will serve you as a guide to introduce digital time tracking in your organization.

A good time tracking method should improve employee morale and confidence. Does your time tracking system do that?!

The following are popularly asked questions or inhibitions we receive from customers.

• What is employee time tracking and why is it important?
• Are there money leaks due to a traditional time tracking method?
• Possibilities where employees can cheat traditional time tracking methods.
• Benefits of digital time tracking for employers/organizations?
• Benefits of digital time tracking for employees/teams?

What is employee time tracking?

Time tracking is the procedure to allow employees the option to clock-in / out of work. Thereafter the HR manager or an admin will monitor these time recordings and approve or reject it.

Overall, the objective of an organization with time tracking is an effective measurement of productive time and documentation of work and break hours. Further, the documented time records help to process the payroll of employees.

List of time tracking methods followed in organizations

1. ‘Trust but verify’ method

Applicable in a company-freelancer relationship or company-agency relationship. The freelancer or agency could self declare the time taken for a task or project. The company will later, approve or reject based on their perceived time expectations.

Advantage – Cheapest in terms of zero set-up cost or overhead cost of monitoring with a time tracking system. Works for very small teams.

Disadvantage

• Break up of tasks and time is not viewable
• Insights on productivity are difficult to understand
• Will constantly bring time tracking vs. approval disputes
• The payroll will not be accurate

2. Pen and Paper time tracking method

Advantage

• Employees can record time anywhere anytime
• Fastest adoption from employees

Disadvantage

• Paper is prone to be misplaced or damaged
• Sharing timesheet is almost impossible
• Collaboration? What are we even talking about here?

3. Excel time tracking method

Advantage – Cheap to manage and maintain time records on excel

Disadvantage

• Prone to data entry errors
• Expected delay in timesheet submissions by employees
• Expected delay in timesheet approvals and communication by employers
• Possibilities of timesheet fraud by employees
• Promotes a culture of timesheet follow-up and deadline, which is a non-core business activity

4. Swipe card time tracking method

Advantage

• Brings accuracy to time tracking
• Easy to implement and scale as the company grows

Disadvantage

• It is Hardware intensive
• Needs additional camera surveillance to restrict buddy punching
• Does not allow flexibility for remote work

Well, all the methods above promote a culture of anxiety, dishonesty, and unrest amongst employees and employers.

What are the aspects should you consider before investing in a time-tracking system?

Most organizations manage time tracking as a ritual. The time tracking exercise offers a lot of scope for productivity insights and work patterns.

A good time tracking system needs to be a flexible and scalable solution. It should work for all types of employees – full-timers, part-time workers, freelancers, interns, etc. It should be accessible from any device like a laptop, tablet, or mobile.

These can be achieved with solutions like Papershift. Our system provides you the freedom to enable time-tracking for your team the way you want it to work. A good time tracking system like Papershift, does not only increases the time compliance but also has the following benefits to employers and employees.

Benefit to Employer with a Saas time tracking system

• Insight and understanding of staff productivity and resource utilization
• Overhead expense leakage due to understaffing and overstaffing is controlled
• Increased employee morale due to the equal and fair distribution of work
• Promotes a culture of trust amongst employees without followups on the time tracking data accuracy
• Managers get insight into time and effort justification
• Data should be ready for payroll
• Improved and assured law compliance

Benefit to Employees with a Saas time tracking system

• Unproductive tasks like timesheet submission are no longer required
• Ensures optimum work duration avoiding burn-outs
• Improved understanding of personal productivity with break up of work duration and areas of improvement
• Rewarding pay due to the revenue leaks controlled by the organization

We’d like to offer you a free demo to look at these possibilities with Papershift time tracking. Book a free demo with us here.