10 Fatal Mistakes That Killed Our Time Tracking

Implementation

#our_way_to_accurate_time_tracking

We struggled to implement time tracking in our company.

In a company that makes time tracking software!

Tracking time will benefit in the long term.

But still the whole process of implementation can be really painful and

frustrating, for both employees and managers.

It’s easy to make mistakes that will turn everything into a failure.

We manage to collect 10 fatal mistakes, so we and you will never make them

again.

1) We didn’t explain why it is important to track time

What we need time tracking for?

***

What kind of problems it solves in our organization?

We didn’t have a certain answer for our own team members.

2) We didn’t all agree on the clear structure of projects and tasks

“If I am spending the time on writing emails, what I should track time to?”

***

“If I am spending the time on helping others, what I should track time to?”

***

“If I am spending the time on a short call which lasts around 5 minutes, what I should track time to?”

Without clear guidelines the employees don’t know where to assign the time in particular situations.

They have problems with signing a coffee break or their own work organization.

As a result time tracking becomes a frustrating experience.

3) Everyone could add new tasks and projects

Too many people had a privilege to add their own projects and tasks. It created some kind of disorder in the structure and in the reports.

The assignments were multiplied, put into different projects or had different names given.

This made the employees even more confused.

4) We didn’t clearly tell that this is an obligation

If you want your employees to obligatory track time you should tell them about it. The command should be explicit

so nobody has any doubts.

We haven’t done this previous two times. We started to record time, but just occasionally and for a short time.

Nobody treated it seriously and we haven’t disapproved such behavior.

5) Managers didn’t see clear benefits

The example comes from the top. In our company the managers were not convinced to time tracking themselves so they didn’t show enough engagement in the process.

And they should feel the duty to accomplish it.

They also should be accounted by the team members for their thoroughness in tracking their own time.

6) There was no single person accounted for this implementation

to succeed

Everyone was his own boss in this experiment and we let ourselves do whatever we want. It’s

not a path that could lead anywhere.

7) We didn’t check how people are filling their timesheets – every

single day

We didn’t monitor how we all managed with time tracking. Everyone was doing it on their own. It’s a big mistake.

To make people do it right, you should check on their timesheets and reports systematically.

First weeks make the habit and show what are the problems with time tracking – how to assign their tasks and what are the

technical difficulties.

8) We didn’t share best practices of how to track time

We didn’t show our members how to register their time in the easiest way.

We didn’t share best practices that could make it a more effortless experience for all of them.

9) People have never seen how valuable the timesheet reports are

We didn’t show people that the hours they registered were actually analyzed and that they are very helpful in our

further work.

It is good to gather your team and discuss the results.

Present them, what do you need those figures for, ex. to estimate the profitability of the projects or the

commission for the salesmen

10) We didn’t have a clear image of how the perfect timesheet looks

like

We had no unambiguous vision of how to measure the progress and couldn’t decide how

we should assess the progress made in registering our time.

THANK YOUMore at: http://www.timecamp.com/blog/