Mensa Improves Operations and Program Management with ClickTime

American Mensa is home to more than 57,000 members, comprising engineers, teachers, homemakers, athletes, students, and CEOs who scored in the top two percent on standardized intelligence tests. The organization also supports the Mensa Foundation, which recognizes, encourages and communicates excellence in human intelligence globally through education, research and recognition programs.

Through ClickTime, Mensa is able to improve operations, gain insights into program costs, and make better decisions about how to allocate employee time and resources.

Program Insight

With a growing national membership and an increased focus on operational efficiency, Mensa turned to to ClickTime to more effectively manage their organization.

“ClickTime shows us the true costs of projects and programs,” said Trevor Mitchell, Director of Membership and Strategy at American Mensa. “It provides us with an accurate understanding of how staff are spending time. In the past, we had to work with estimates, but we now have actionable data.”

Mitchell and his team worked with their Board of Directors to tie specific Mensa cost centers to strategic parts of the organization. Within these costs centers, the data from ClickTime highlights the costs of specific initiatives, based off the time and hourly rate of each employee.

“How much time do we spend each month on our magazine?” asked Mitchell. “Is that amount consistent, or does that have its own peaks and valleys? What can we do with this information? Are there processes we can put into place to improve how we work? Or if we have an event coming up, what trends can we understand to help us more effectively manage our time?”

ClickTime answers these questions and many more, while provided increased flexibility for the organization.

“If our organization decides to change priorities, we can now predict the impact on the staff,” said Mitchell.

Increased Productivity

“ClickTime provides real insights into what we can do to be more effective as an organization,” said Mitchell. “It’s helped us better understand our processes and get more work accomplished.”

Before ClickTime, Mensa would enter time once a month via paper-based timesheets. Transitioning to cloud-powered time tracking has enabled the organization to capture time faster, more frequently, and more accurately.

“ClickTime allows us to see what employees are spending their time on,” said Mitchell. “But it goes much beyond that. Using the reports, we were able to better understand and improve upon our internal processes. The data from ClickTime drove new conversations that has improved how we operate,” said Mitchell.

“The system is very intuitive, and I love the app,” said Mitchell. “ClickTime makes everything simpler for us.”

Time Data That Drives Strategy

After a mere one-and-half months of using ClickTime, Mitchell and his team were able to present meaningful findings to their Board of Directors. The reports in ClickTime provided insights into the employee costs of managing scholarship programs, and it helped the team determine whether or not they needed to hire additional staff to oversee new scholarships.

Mensa has only one paid staff member who directly supports the foundation, but the other employees often step up and offer to their support for this program. With ClickTime, employees are able to code their time to the foundation, which enables the organization to analyze the real costs of maintaining and growing the foundation.

“ClickTime has allowed us to pull data in so many ways,” said Mitchell. “It’s enabled us to set more focused priorities for our team, and it’s facilitated strategic conversations throughout the organization. It’s incredible.”

Want to learn more?

Check out how nonprofit organizations can better track time and manage projects.