As a small enterprise proprietor, time is considered one of your most precious property—not simply yours however your staff as properly.

The easiest way to get a deal with on the way you’re spending your time? Time monitoring.

Time monitoring can really feel tedious, however you could be stunned at how a lot it ranges up your office for everybody. 

However don’t simply take our phrase for it. We’ve rounded up a number of the prime benefits of time monitoring for small companies. Now, you by no means should guess if time monitoring is definitely value it ever once more.

What’s worker time monitoring?

Worker time monitoring is when a enterprise data the variety of hours that an worker works throughout a given time period. 

Sometimes that is finished by having staff clock in at the beginning of their shift after which clocking out on the finish. For workers working longer hours, they’ll often clock out for breaks as properly. This data is then used to optimize labor prices and pay staff for the variety of hours they labored.

Alternatively, worker time monitoring may also consult with monitoring the time spent on particular person tasks or duties. It’s a technique generally used to enhance time administration and productiveness. 

Who tracks time? 

Worker time monitoring is tremendous widespread amongst companies which have shift employees. This usually contains groups that don’t work fastened hours and staff are paid for the period of time labored. You’ll usually see shift work and time monitoring in companies like retail, restaurant, and manufacturing.

Time monitoring can be generally utilized by staff who work in distant settings, the place supervisors aren’t at all times conscious of their comings and goings. For instance, groups on building websites or cell service suppliers.

Worker time monitoring is much less widespread with salaried staff who’re paid a hard and fast quantity, no matter what number of hours they’ve labored. In these circumstances, you would possibly nonetheless see staff observe their time. Nonetheless, it’s often extra in order that they’ll get a greater thought of how they’re spending their work day.

Is time monitoring efficient?

Sure. Oui. Si. Ja.  (Be at liberty to faux that we answered in each language around the globe.)

Time monitoring helps firms preserve higher observe of the time staff are at work and the period of time spent on numerous duties. There’s a motive nearly all firms with hourly employees will use some kind of time monitoring, whether or not it’s a punch clock or perhaps a spreadsheet. 

One research discovered that over 50 million hours of productiveness are misplaced within the US per day resulting from unrecorded work actions. The truth is, even non-hourly staff will use time monitoring to ensure they’re taking advantage of their time.

However time monitoring isn’t nearly enhancing productiveness, it may be efficient at boosting worker morale and saving prices as properly.

15 benefits of time monitoring 

Time monitoring isn’t a technique firms ought to use to nickel and time their staff. It’s a software that may help employees, shoppers, and the corporate as a complete. It will possibly even influence firm tradition.

We discuss an enormous sport about the advantages of time monitoring—so listed here are 10 benefits to show it.

1. You’ll get higher visibility into your labor prices (and lower your expenses!)

Cash talks, so let’s begin with the fee financial savings. 

Labor prices are one of many greatest bills on your small enterprise. And in case you have hourly staff, you’re paying them for the variety of hours they’ve labored. Time monitoring helps assure that you just’re solely paying for the hours really labored.

Ten to fifteen minutes right here and there might not look like an enormous deal. However whether or not it’s buddy punching, time theft, or easy payroll errors, the price of that point can add up. When you’re consistently paying for time that’s not labored, you might simply end up overpaying your staff by tons of of {dollars} yearly. 

Time monitoring helps you retain your labor prices in test—proper all the way down to the second.

2. You’ll be able to enhance worker morale and happiness

In relation to time monitoring, it would really feel a bit like micromanaging your crew. And should you’re accustomed to micromanaging, you recognize it’s not an efficient crew administration technique. 

However when finished appropriately, time monitoring can really empower your staff to be happier at work. How?

• They’ll receives a commission appropriately: Time monitoring means they’ll be paid for all the work they’re doing. Keep in mind these 10 to fifteen minutes of misplaced time we talked about earlier? If worker working hours aren’t accounted for, your staff might be shedding out as properly.

• They’ll be extra productive: Time monitoring has been confirmed to enhance productiveness—extra on that beneath! And when staff are productive, they’ll really feel extra achieved and glad of their jobs.

• They’re much less prone to be burnt out: When you recognize precisely what number of hours an worker is working, you may keep away from over-scheduling them, to allow them to nonetheless preserve a strong work-life steadiness.

When you’ve by no means tracked time earlier than, you would possibly get some pushback out of your staff. However don’t fear, should you clearly talk the advantages, your staff can be on board very quickly!

3. Everybody will save time

The considered including the additional step of time monitoring to your workflow can sound like a ache. However in actuality, it may well really save everybody time in additional methods than one.

• Much less handbook monitoring: Even should you aren’t monitoring time, you continue to want to take care of stories of hours labored. So this implies you and your staff must spend time manually calculating hours labored.
• Sooner payroll: Time monitoring, particularly digital time monitoring, may help pace up payroll prep. So when payday rolls round, you may simply test what number of hours have been labored and the way a lot everybody ought to receives a commission.

4. Your staff can be extra compliant with firm insurance policies

Time monitoring isn’t meant to show anybody into the time police. However it may well function motivation for workers to come back to work and go away work on time.

It’s estimated that 20% of staff will come to work 10 minutes late a minimum of twice per week. When you’re monitoring that point, you’ll know precisely who’s late and the way usually. And while you’ve documented it by means of time monitoring, you additionally gained’t find yourself by accident paying them for that 10 minutes.

Whereas cash isn’t the one motivator, it may well assist. If staff know their pay can be docked, they’re extra prone to skip that further espresso run that makes them late for work.

Be sure to’re taking the time to doc your time-tracking insurance policies. Undecided the place to begin? Homebase’s crew of HR execs may help.

5. You’ll be able to degree up your worker productiveness

We are able to’t count on to be productive 100% of the time. In any case, we’re solely human. However it is best to at all times do what you may to spice up productiveness, so staff can benefit from their time at work. 

Time monitoring has lengthy been a time administration technique for companies. You get an in depth log of who’s engaged on what and when. It provides you and your staff a greater understanding of how time is getting used, so you can also make enhancements sooner or later. 

Monitoring time additionally doubles as a type of time blocking, serving to staff keep centered on the duty at hand. Whether or not it’s getting distracted by their cell telephones or multitasking, it’s simple for hours to get wasted all through the day. Realistically, multitasking can scale back productiveness by as much as 40%.

6. Your customer support will thrive

For service-based small companies, your staff play a important position in ensuring your clients get the most effective expertise. However should you don’t have sufficient staff working at any given time, service can rapidly decline.

Once you observe worker work hours, you additionally create historic knowledge that you may assessment. You’ll be able to then examine this development with gross sales forecasts and former gross sales. This manner you may anticipate busy instances and calculate precisely how a lot labor you could serve your clients.

No extra overscheduling or underscheduling.

7. You’ll be capable of keep on prime of worker additional time

Anytime an hourly worker works over 40 hours per week, they’re entitled to additional time pay.

When you’re not monitoring time, you’ll should guesstimate what number of hours an worker has labored thus far each week. This implies an worker would possibly by accident slip into unauthorized additional time with out you realizing it. 

Even when this occurs by chance, you’re nonetheless on the hook for monitoring and paying that over time. And since additional time is usually paid at 1.5x an worker’s typical wage, these prices can add up rapidly.

What’s worse? You would possibly end up in some scorching water with the Division of Labor. 

Simply ask this café in California. In 2022, they have been fined $40,466 and owed $185,097 in additional time again wages for failing to pay their staff additional time. Additionally they confronted a number of FLSA record-keeping violations. 

8. You’ll get a greater deal with on paid day without work (PTO) accruals

Whereas PTO isn’t required by the Truthful Labor Requirements Act (FLSA), we all know {that a} PTO may help you stand out from different employers. Plus, it’s a significant plus for enhancing your worker work-life steadiness. Research have discovered it may well make staff as much as 68% happier.

So it’s value doing PTO proper—and time monitoring may help.

For hourly staff, PTO is usually accrued based mostly on hours labored. This implies you could know what number of hours an worker works, so you understand how a lot PTO they’re owed.

And on the flip aspect, should you’re not monitoring hours, it can be tough for workers to know what number of hours of PTO they need to request after they finish day without work.

9. You’ll be able to construct a stronger firm tradition

In fast-paced environments, constructing a strong firm tradition is usually a problem. And imagine it or not, time monitoring may help make a optimistic influence on firm tradition. 

Time monitoring fosters a optimistic firm tradition by:

• Bettering transparency: Time monitoring helps make it clear how staff are being paid, it additionally presents a transparent overview of hours labored and duties accomplished throughout your entire crew.
• Creating alignment round goals and priorities: Time monitoring helps staff see how their time spent at work ladders as much as firm objectives. It additionally creates a way of accountability.
• Streamlining workflows: Time monitoring may help determine gaps in scheduling and activity assignments. By optimizing your schedules to raised handle your assets, your crew can be extra environment friendly and really feel extra assured of their work.

10. You’re extra prone to keep compliant with labor legal guidelines

The largest benefit of worker time monitoring? Not having the federal government throughout you.

When you’ve got hourly staff, the FLSA requires that you must have timesheets that clearly point out when an worker begins their shift and when their shift ends. 

So primarily, if you wish to keep compliant, you’ll have to make use of some type of time monitoring. The very last thing you need is a not-so-happy name from the Division of Labor.

After all, further time monitoring for issues like duties and tasks isn’t required by regulation. However as you’ve discovered above, there are some fairly rad advantages to it.

The advantages of time monitoring software program

Time monitoring brings tons of worth. However we gained’t mislead you. When you’ve got a busy enterprise, typically it’s simpler mentioned than finished.

Enter time-tracking software program.

These are digital instruments which are specifically designed to assist companies observe time effectively and successfully. The most effective time-tracking software program may help you and your staff save time:

• Automate the method: So that you (and your staff) can spend much less time calculating what number of hours have been spent and extra time really working.
• Reduces human error: When staff observe time immediately in an app, it may well calculate the hours for you. Decreasing the chance of clicking the flawed button on the calculator or lacking hours altogether.
• Streamlines your online business workflow: As a rule, you want your time monitoring to seamlessly combine with different capabilities of the enterprise, together with payroll or invoicing. time-tracking software program can do this for you routinely.
• Empower staff to take management of their work: If each worker can observe their time themselves, it places the accountability again of their arms.

Homebase: your new favourite software for worker time monitoring

Homebase’s time clock app is the primary resolution for small enterprise time monitoring.

From monitoring worker work hours to optimizing your labor prices, Homebase’s all-in-one worker administration resolution can have you profiting from the entire advantages of time monitoring very quickly. 

The most effective elements?

• Time observe precisely with a small enterprise time clock that can be utilized on most iOS, Android, and POS gadgets.
• Examine your time monitoring along with your worker schedules and labor forecasts in only a few clicks, so you recognize your labor prices are on observe.
• We’ll automate your payroll processes. Now that point you’ve tracked can simply flip into cash in your staff’ pockets.
• Share the newest time-tracking updates along with your crew utilizing our in-app crew communication options.
• Compliance has by no means been simpler with options that assist you to keep compliant with state and federal labor legal guidelines. And don’t fear, our execs are right here to information you alongside the way in which.

Worker time monitoring made easy? 

Yep, you learn that proper. Homebase’s free time clock app makes monitoring worker time simpler than ever. Get began immediately.

Benefits of time monitoring FAQ

Is time monitoring efficient?

Completely! Time monitoring may be very efficient for companies because it helps companies preserve higher observe of the time staff spend on the clock. In addition to staying on prime of time spent on completely different duties all through the work day.

What of the advantages of worker time monitoring?

There are various advantages of worker time monitoring embrace:

• Growing productiveness
• Saving time on processes like payroll and worker scheduling
• Serving to keep compliant with labor legal guidelines
• Boosting worker morale and firm tradition
• Decreasing labor prices
• Bettering customer support

What are the advantages of time-tracking software program? 

Time-tracking software program presents many advantages together with:

• Automating the worker time-tracking course of
• Decreasing the chance of human error
• Streamlining workflow
• Empowering staff to take accountability for his or her work