Many organizations face the problem of monitoring the working hours of the employees, and it has become a huge task during COVID. When the whole world is working from home, it becomes a little challenging to track every hour.
Hence, this is the reason why there is a need for organizations to get their hands on remote workforce management software at the earliest. Employee time tracking follows one cardinal law, which should come as no surprise to anyone in the business world: people despise filling out timesheets.
Because of this fact supervisors and managers are continually battling to collect everyone’s completed and accurate timesheets. Here are ten suggestions for getting employees to complete their timesheets on time:
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Make it easy on yourself
Each day, timesheets should take no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete. When an employee uses a system that takes 30 minutes or more to track their hours, the person becomes upset, and the organization wastes time that may be better spent elsewhere.
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Make it simple to submit your work
Many businesses use time-tracking systems that are either complicated or time-consuming.
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What does WIIFM (What’s In It for me?) mean?
Make your justifications clear. Make the use of the timesheet software clear (and how it will not be used). All employees should be aware of the importance of time entry. Communicate if the data helps to lessen the amount of multitasking or firefighting.
You can make them understand and desire to help by defining the procedure and describing how timesheets can speed up the billing cycle and enhance cash flow, allowing you to take on more projects (which can mean more money for everyone).
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Be flexible with how you track time
If you don’t want your staff to be monitoring the clock and making up 15-minute excuses here and there, don’t demand minute-by-minute timesheets.
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Keep the number of time tracking items to a minimum?
Limit the number of buckets you track if you don’t want your reports to become nightmares. Internal meetings, product training, and conference calls should all be categorized as “Internal.” It will make it easy for staff to log their time and streamline their reports.
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Make time tracking more automated
As many manual processes as possible should be eliminated. It will save the employee countless hours of timesheet-related administrative labor, as well as eliminate the risk of human error in each submission, saving the approver time.
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Automated Reminders are a great way to stay on track.
You can collect timesheets on time and limit the number of late submissions by using a system that automatically notifies employees when their timesheets are due.
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Don’t punish someone for being truthful.
It’s pretty easy to get timesheet software on project time, but it’s far more challenging to get them to report on non-project time (consistently and without fear). Rather than punishing employees for engaging in other activities, turn the information into an opportunity to discover and resolve the problem. You can come across an actual internal item that has to be tracked, such as morning meetings or training.