Have you ever played a sport? Or participated in a group activity? Perhaps middle school flashbacks of P.E. are flooding your mind. Maybe it’s that one time you all had to learn square dancing. Was it the outfit you were required to wear or your assigned partner that was more horrifying? 

Your P.E. teacher was very clear. Everybody had to participate for it to work. You can’t do-si-do or promenade your partner with a group of seven. Each person needs a partner, and each partner needs to play their role in order for your dance to be done well.

But your group had two boys who weren’t so keen on promenading their partners, and they wouldn’t follow the steps called out by the teacher. They thought square dancing was a total waste of effort, so they decided not to put any of their efforts into the dance. 

Those two stinkers ruined the dance for the rest of their group.

That’s how it goes, right? When you have a team goal, everybody has to buy into what you’re doing, or you’ll fail before you even have a chance to get started. As the leader of that team, you’re trying to help your people stay on the same page and work together. 

So, when you get new company software that you know will make life easier for everybody, it’s rather important that your team actually uses it. Therein lies the rub. How do you get your team to buy into your new software?

You need to tell them all the ways the new software will benefit them. Instead of focusing on your business, focus on how it will improve their lives. This directly applies when you’re adding time tracking to your business.

Time tracking can sound like a pain to employees, it can seem controlling instead of freeing. That’s why you need to show them how time tracking will make their workdays run better and free up their time.  

So, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to spell out ten benefits of time tracking for your team. 

1. Get unbiased feedback in real-time


With time tracking software, it’s easier for you to provide timely and accurate feedback to your employees regarding their progress on specific tasks or performance in general. This allows for faster response times when addressing any issues or areas of improvement within your team. It gives your team an opportunity to self-assess their performance and take the necessary steps to improve accordingly.

Moreover, real-time feedback is valuable for understanding how a project is progressing and whether or not changes need to be made on the spot in order to meet deadlines. This helps create an environment of continuous learning and improvement, enabling businesses to make sure that their goals are being met in an effective and efficient manner. All of these contribute to the overall success of any business as it is able to quickly adapt to any changes within its work environment while setting a precedent for future projects or tasks.

2. Goodbye micromanagement


Micromanagement is a considerable issue that many businesses face because managers are too meticulous when tracking the work of their employees. Some managers intrude in every aspect of their team's working life, from how the tasks should be done to measuring how long something takes. 

This creates an environment with no freedom for employees, where creativity is stifled and there is usually little trust between you and your team. As a result, productivity suffers as employees feel overworked and micromanaged. Nobody likes to be under somebody’s thumb five days a week.

To help reduce this problem, time tracking software can be used to measure success without being intrusive. Time tracking helps managers understand exactly which tasks are being worked on, progress toward goals, and performance data needed for productive decision-making without physically needing to monitor each individual's activity. 

By using time tracking software, you not only get the insights you need but also grant your team the right amount of freedom they require to achieve their best results effectively. This also reduces the amount of animosity between you and your employees because it gives your fellow adults more autonomy. 

3. Tracks time for you


Companies, especially the ones that use an agile workflow system typically need to keep track of their employee’s time on various tasks. For this very reason, utilizing a reliable time tracking tool becomes 100% important.

The primary function of using a time tracking tool is to record the overall hours spent by employees on specific projects or tasks assigned to them. This helps analyze their individual performance and team performance as well. And your team doesn’t have to be responsible for manually tracking their own time on each project.

It provides useful insight related to individual and team progress, helping you evaluate time-related issues objectively, reviewing project history over time (tasks completed & total hours spent), and provides managers with data for evaluation when needed. With all these benefits, time tracking software can help save both money and improve productivity & employee morale.

4. Flexible task management

Task management flexibility is the ability to divide tasks according to the needs of a given project. Task management flexibility has become increasingly important in today’s competitive and global market where businesses need to be agile and able to react quickly in order to survive. 

Through time tracking software, it’s now much simpler to allocate tasks and time to employees in an organized way. This modern tool eliminates many tedious manual processes, allowing managers to accurately measure employee performance and productivity more easily than ever before.

With task management flexibility, you can take a proactive approach toward their goals rather than a retroactive one. They gain the capability of anticipating future demands for resources or features and organizing tasks accordingly. With this newfound freedom, managers can make phone calls, organize emails, or have impromptu meetings with members of their staff instead of spending so much time on scheduling activities. 

Flexible task management can also help identify any bottlenecks that may occur as well as plan for them in advance by scheduling additional resources or removing any unnecessary actions or activities from the workflow in order to streamline production.

5. New organizational disciplines

Having a new set of organizational disciplines allows you to build upon your current culture and work ethic. It also makes sure that your employees are transparent and accountable for their work. Implementing time tracking software is a great way to go about this. Not only does it allow you to accurately monitor employee performance, but it also helps promote a sense of discipline in the workplace. 

It ensures that everyone is working at an optimum level by properly timing all tasks and activities, resulting in timely completion and efficient output for your business. Having a structured system in place encourages employees to stay disciplined when tackling their projects and tasks because they know their performance is being tracked accordingly.

Creating an atmosphere of discipline and accountability in the office can provide a sense of purpose and focus among employees, thus furthering productivity within your business. Discipline should be seen as something that enhances rather than restricts the working environment. With discipline, teams can become more organized by setting clear goals and expectations as well as developing better communication between departments or individuals. 

This produces higher efficiency which leads to greater outputs from each individual, hence allowing your business to fully optimize its potential while ensuring quality output delivery within given timelines. Needless to say, having a strong organizational discipline provides key advantages that help move your business in a more successful direction.

6. Efficiency is improved

Time tracking can help improve the overall efficiency of any startup because it allows managers and employees alike to gain insights into how much time is spent on certain tasks and how they can be improved. This helps identify any inefficiencies or areas of improvement that may arise, allowing teams to work together to optimize the workflow and production process.

Additionally, it allows managers to better allocate resources and plan task assignments accordingly. With a comprehensive view of their team’s performance, they are able to assign tasks based on skill sets or abilities, as well as monitor each individual’s progress to ensure that projects are completed on time. 

This helps optimize the workflow, resulting in increased efficiency and quicker completion of tasks for the business as a whole. For team members who feel overwhelmed by manually tracking, adding time tracking software is especially practical.

7. Increased work transparency

Time tracking software also enables businesses to have higher levels of transparency within their teams. By monitoring employee performance and activity, managers can easily spot any issues or concerns that may arise in order to quickly address them. This helps create a culture of openness and trust amongst teams, enabling them to work together more effectively and efficiently.

Moreover, having an organized system allows managers and employees to keep track of their time as well as the progress they have made on certain tasks or projects. This not only allows for greater insight into the performance but also encourages your team to be more accountable for their actions. Providing an organized platform to monitor performance promotes a sense of ownership and responsibility among your team while ensuring that tasks are completed on time.

8. Better decision-making skills

Time tracking data also provides you with valuable insights into how tasks are being completed and which areas can be further optimized for increased efficiency. This helps managers make more informed decisions about the workflow processes as well as resource allocation. 

It allows teams to share ideas and collaborate in order to come up with more effective solutions for any issues that may arise. It’s automated, so you don’t have to schedule meetings to discuss.

9. More motivation

Motivating employees to keep up the good work is essential for any business’s success. One way to ensure this is to employ a time tracking software that monitors and records employee activity. This software will present detailed, real-time information in numbers and data regarding exactly how much time each employee has put into their tasks, as well as how productive they have been.

Seeing the activity versus non-activity ratio displayed by time tracking software can be quite inspiring for workers. By knowing exactly where they stand at every given moment, employees can work toward continuously growing their efficiency levels instead of getting stagnant or lazy as the day goes on. 

The novelty of these statistics will excite them to not only stay on task but take initiative with new projects and complete tasks above and beyond expectations if possible. It’s kind of like a sticker reward chart for adults. 

10. Overall performance review

Having the most advanced time tracking software can be quite beneficial for you to get a proper review of your employees’ working hours. This provides a regular check-in point for you to assess performance and gain insight into the overall efficiency of your workforce. 

Keeping track of your team’s time logs will help you to determine how much they need to put in additional effort and plan accordingly. The timesheet reports provide a complete overview including employee attendance, leaves, overtime work, and any other details that are significant for resource monitoring and management.

Overall performance reviews give business owners a bird's eye view of the organization and its productivity level. Having an overall measure of your organization makes decision-making easier since you don't have to rely on fitful moments or guesswork. A comprehensive overview of the organization helps you identify areas that need improvement, so you can plan actions accordingly without any major discrepancies or misjudgments. 

With this type of review strategy, there is minimal risk management involved as well as it helps keep executive boards on their toes until an issue is resolved effectively. Everybody is in the same boat!

What does it all mean?

While time tracking can appear to just be an employer or manager tool, it is most certainly meant to help the boots-on–the-ground employees. Time tracking apps don’t have feelings, so the work they do is completely objective. 

Having a tool that is objectively tracking time for your people means they’re just getting the facts. There are no feelings or human biases involved. It takes some of the defensiveness out of issues that are pointed out through the tracking. 

For your team members who are not naturally organized and don’t think sequentially, a time tracking tool can take the worry out of time management. That in itself is worth its weight in gold because less stress means better productivity and happier team members.

If you’re having trouble choosing time tracking software, reach out to us. We would be happy to connect with you and listen to your concerns, your goals, and your needs. And then, we can tell you how Harvest could be a solution to your time management struggles.