A Plea to Managers… Start Tracking Time, Now

I sympathize with every manager in every company around the world right now. Because here’s what your CEO expects of you: When the pandemic strikes, you send everyone home with a laptop and suddenly everybody is going to be a brilliant self-motivated worker. No distractions, no communication issues, no personal stresses, no loss of productivity.

By now of course you’ve already learned that the real world of work-from-home is more complex and messy than the books tell you. Your managerial instincts have been muted, since you can no longer observe your team and discern the subtle behaviors you’ve relied on before. So let’s offer a prescription which will dramatically improve your visibility on your team and help your business adapt to the new normal: daily, accurate, activity-based time tracking.

Here are the 5 areas of greatest benefit you’ll see right away:

Benefit #1: Gain Visibility Into Your Remote Team

The goal is not big-brother. The goal is to make both the employee and their manager more aware of what’s actually happening, so both of you can make adjustments and agree on what matters. As the old saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure, and too few of us measure our work output in any detail.

Make an agreement with your staff – if they report their time honestly, accurately, and promptly, management won’t get worked up about a few missed hours here or there. Plus, now’s the time you can actually get reimbursed for time that can’t be worked (see below).

Frankly, you have no other choice than to encourage candor and honesty, because the alternative is that everyone essentially fudges their timesheets (because who’s going to really know?)

In fact, as managers we must do whatever is necessary to obtain honesty from our remote teams. Only then can we do our jobs as managers -- define the work, monitor progress, motivate, and offer coaching.

It starts with understanding more of what’s actually happening:

• When your team members are actually finding productive time (possibly working around hours of childcare or meal preparation). Are they working more or fewer hours than when they were commuting and getting dressed for work? Is that working out for them, and for you?
• Which projects are actually receiving attention, compared to which ought to?
• How many times per day / per week are you interacting with each of your direct reports? Is it enough?

Only with this information can a manager really do his or her job properly.

We're all doing this for several more weeks at least, so let's get better at it. Start the discipline of timesheets now. Today.

Benefit #2: Culture of Accountability

If we wish to be truly accountable to our bosses, our customers, and ourselves, we must be willing to shine a light on the actual work we do. We expose what’s happening and, by doing so, we allow our work to be scrutinized and to speak for itself. No arm-waving, no fast-talking, no excuses. Only when we get comfortable with being observed, and observing the work of others, do we truly achieve a cultural shift.

For those companies who strive to deepen this quality of their culture, working at a distance can create obstacles. Synchronous meetings are difficult when staff are absent for family reasons. Personal challenges prevent us from meeting our work commitments, and it’s embarrassing to admit that openly to one’s team. It is a natural force which works against an accountable work environment.

So we start with documenting the work. We push ourselves to conduct our work lives out in the open, to the greatest extent possible. Clear and detailed time recording is the first step, since your colleagues cannot witness your work easily anymore.

Benefit #3: Drive Your Priorities

Right now, many businesses are fighting for their lives and realigning their priorities. A lot of the projects they had planned for 2020 may no longer be relevant.

Short-term thinking is on the minds of many of our customers -- how to quickly drive revenue, deepen customer loyalty, and promote one’s brand. But this competes with the momentum of previously stated goals. Remember that annual strategic planning offsite in December? Maybe that isn’t relevant anymore, but your team may still be clinging to those ambitious plans previously given to them. It’s an inertia that’s difficult to dislodge.

So now’s the time to see how much time (and by extension, company resources) are being channeled into your various initiatives. As managers, we state our priorities and we attempt to create clarity for our teams. But the actual front-line investment of time and resources can be quite different. When you can see summary totals of time/money in a list of your projects, you’ll see what’s actually getting the greatest emphasis by your team. If this deviates from your stated priorities, you can and should make adjustments immediately.

Benefit #4: Accurate Resource Allocation

Visibility is important, but knowing what’s happening is only valuable if you have a plan to compare it to.

When you understand which members of your team are highly allocated versus somewhat idle, you can distribute the work more efficiently. And then you’ll have something to compare your actual efforts against.

When you track time accurately and understand effort against your projects, it becomes much easier to understand how many resources (hours) you need to complete work -- whether the work is for a client or an internal project. This plan can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as robust as an online Resource Planning system (like ours.) But any plan is better than improvisation.

Maintaining the right staffing levels shouldn’t be guesswork, especially in these uncertain times. Make a plan, revise it as frequently as you need to, and continue to compare actual results against that plan.

Benefit #5: Eligibility for Government Relief

Your teams are being pulled away from work for pressing personal and family reasons:

• Watching young kids whose school or childcare is unavailable.
• Perhaps they're caring for a loved one who is ill.
• Or heaven forbid, they become sick themselves.

In the United States, the FFCRA provides for both short-term and long-term systems for them to get compensated by the government. (Plenty has already been written on this subject.) There’s only one way you’ll stand up to scrutiny when the authorities validate your claims: Accurate timesheets.

Bonus Benefit: Eligibility for Government Grants

Billions upon billions of new dollars are already flowing from federal, state, and local governments, as well as charitable foundations. This funding covers medical research, mitigating the effects of unemployment and poverty, and getting people back to work. More companies and nonprofits will be first-time grant applicants in order to avail themselves of this vital funding source. And nearly all of it comes with the obligation to document the time spent on the particular focus of the grant. And the best way to do this is… you guessed it... detailed, accurate, auditable timesheets.

At ClickTime, we are standing by to help you through your current challenges. We have a playbook for rapid implementation, motivating your team to participate, and getting valuable reports from the system in your very first week. Call us to learn how we can help.