You Really Need Timesheets for Salaried Employees. Here’s Why!

You Really Need Timesheets for Salaried Employees. Here’s Why!

Salaried employees get paid the same regardless of whether or not their time is tracked, so is there any need for time tracking at all? Surely it’s just a waste of time and something that’s only likely to irritate rather than encourage productivity. So why use a time tracker for salaried employees at all?
There are several reasons why time management for salaried employees is a rather good idea, some of which are below.

Prevent Employee Burnout

Managers watch employee times

Managers track employee time

Employee burnout is an issue that any company should be mindful of. It’s not just that we should have our employee’s best interests in mind (although that would be nice), but burnout can negatively affect a company as well.

A burned-out employee is likely to offer less productivity than otherwise. Not only will their performance levels drop but you might end up losing them altogether. Timesheets will help you to identify employees who probably need to take a break, or at least spend more of their day doing things other than working.

Improve Productivity

Time tracking products like the PK4 TimeTracker are not necessarily about snooping on employees (although they can be if you feel some people are not pulling their weight). In most cases, asking salaried staff to complete timesheets is more about understanding which tasks are time-consuming and where time management can be improved. Employees spend around 4 hours a week on unproductive tasks, and knowing where time is spent will help to identify where their time could be put to better use. If your employees are spending a lot of time on menial tasks that could be automated, for example, then you’d know that investing in the right technology could bring a considerable boost to productivity.

Billing Customers

Some companies will charge their clients on an hourly basis for their services. So, even if an employee’s pay is not affected by the hours they work, a time tracker is still very useful when it comes to billing customers. Not only does time tracking let companies know what to charge when invoicing, but they can also provide a breakdown of the work that has been done. Considering around 10% of billable hours can be lost if time is not recorded by the end of the day, it’s easy to see how time tracking will be beneficial.

Calculate Overtime

Ok, we’ve not been entirely honest above when we say salaried employees are always paid the same – there is overtime to take into account.

Employees that are legible for overtime would no doubt be quite keen to be paid for additional worked hours. After all, they’re probably not doing it because they just love to be in the office. On the flip-side, employers are not usually in the habit of paying people for nothing, and time tracking can come in handy here as well.

Although not all employees are eligible for overtime, time tracking is somewhat of a no-brainer for many of those that are and quite necessary for payroll to be accurate.

Project Management

Complex project management can be difficult, with time management being one of the most difficult challenges. If something is taking longer than expected then it’s best to know as soon as possible because an issue in the pipeline can affect everything else that comes afterwards. With time tracking, project management becomes a lot easier because you know just how much time is being spent and whether or not the task is on target to meet deadlines.

Measuring Costs

Costs are one of the most important metrics that determine whether or not a business is a success or a failure, and time tracking is an effective way of helping you to manage your costs. With a timesheet, you can see where your employees are spending time on tasks that are not cost-effective, enabling you to make changes that will allow you to manage your costs better.

Above are just a few reasons why time management is a good idea for salaried staff. A timesheet can help you to know how much payroll should be paying your employees and how much you should be invoicing your clients. They can provide you with a breakdown of a working day that will help you identify areas for improvement where costs and productivity are concerned, while time tracking will also help you manage the well-being of your valued employees better.

It is also very easy to use time tracking, with modern options offering greater functionality such as reporting in addition to simply keeping a record of time worked.

5 Tips For Measuring Your Employees’ Time And Productivity Levels

5 Tips For Measuring Your Employees’ Time And Productivity Levels

We all want to be productive, but productivity isn’t something you can enforce on others. The productivity of your employees will depend on many factors that you won’t be able to control – like their health, motivation, unforeseen events, etc.

Some things you do have control over, though. You can help your employees stay productive by paying attention to their work environment and putting effective workflows and systems in place. And you can measure their output to see what needs improving.

Measuring time and productivity can get tricky since every employee has a unique personality and working style. It takes a skilled manager who’s objective and insightful to decide if a team member is effective, struggling, or overly thorough.

Here are a few individual productivity guidelines to get you inspired:

1. Track your employees’ time

If you’re not already tracking your employees’ time, you really should. Not necessarily to question their choices, but rather to understand how your employees respond to tasks and challenges.

A significant part of workplace management is tracking your employees’ work and break time, as well as diving deeper into how much time they logged for each project and task.

You can also look into how many breaks your employees are taking, paid time off or sick leave, as well as absenteeism or whether your employees get to work on time.

You can easily accomplish this with a Time Tracker, where you have the option to approve your employee’s time entries and have a bird’s eye view of how your team is performing.

2. Track tasks and set clear objectives

Evaluating your employees on the number of hours worked may seem straightforward, but it’s not the best indicator for productivity. You also need to check how well they’ve performed on the tasks you’ve assigned them.

Did they understand the goals? Did some of them fail to meet deadlines or do you have employees who regularly overdeliver? What tasks took most of their time and why? Keep task difficulty in mind when deciding if your employee was effective.

Time Tracker also has the option of creating tasks and projects where your employees can check in, so you can easily correlate the difficulty of a task with the time spent on it.

3. Evaluate client satisfaction

You may have superstar employees who seem to blaze through assignments faster than most of their coworkers. Before you congratulate them, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little suspicious of their performance. They may be fast, but are they really doing a stellar job?

What better way to find out than ask the end recipient of their work – your client? You can send a quick survey, email, or call your clients to make sure they’re satisfied. Ask them to rate your employee’s services, handling time, etc., and see how they respond.

Any negative feedback should be cause for alarm and a clear sign that your employees value quantity over quality. This brings us to our next point:

4. Place value on work quality

An employee’s ability to get things done depends largely on their ability to focus and take their time with the task at hand. Unfortunately, many workers confess to being burnt out and perpetually behind at work. Taking their time is often not an option.

As a leader, you need to ask yourself – is the company culture sending the right message? Do you push your workers to meet impossible quotas, and are they perhaps working at an unsustainable rhythm?

Or are some employees simply struggling because they’re not a good fit for the job? Managers should put their detective cap on and investigate all the possible reasons why the quality of a product or service may suffer and address them immediately.

It may be that your employees need to get better at time management, or that you should set better work priorities – or both. Whatever the reason, there’s always room for improvement.

5. Set a good example

Lastly, don’t just measure your employee’s time and productivity. Start with measuring your own. All the decisions you make throughout a workday as a manager can have ripple effects on your team’s work.

Can you improve your work environment? Are you good at delegating tasks you struggle with? What about self-care and taking time off? The more you investigate your own productivity dips, the more you’ll have an idea about what your team members are dealing with. 

So track and measure as many of these factors as you can, and do it frequently. Only then will you have a clear idea of how to improve, and how to appreciate the people who are a great asset to your company.