In a previous post, we discussed the benefits to employees of implementing some form of daily tracking system for themselves. These benefits include personal analysis, priority adjustments, and ease in reporting progress to management.
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In addition to the benefits to employees of more effectively reporting on their activities and achievements to management, there are many benefits to the managers themselves of having their employees maintain daily time tracking data. Time tracking can be a key input for employee development.
Tracking Priorities
Managers are often not—and generally shouldn’t be—monitoring every minute of their employees’ work. That’s redundancy that is unnecessary and far too expensive. Yet, managers do need to be aware of how employees are spending their time to ensure staff resources are being used effectively.
For instance, reviewing a time log may help managers stay abreast of how much time is being dedicated to some activities relative to others. Maybe an employee is spending several hours per week compiling reports that the manager and his or her leaders don’t find value in. That’s a task that can be eliminated.
Conversely, time logs can help managers identify areas where employees aren’t focused but should be. Without this kind of data, these issues will be overlooked.
Reporting Up
Just as a time tracking process helps employees report up to their managers, it also helps managers report up the chain to their own superiors to help show what their team has been working on.
Time logs can be used to help show where additional resources are needed or where process changes would be appropriate, for instance. They provide tangible evidence as opposed to “personal opinion,” which can be very impactful when making requests for resources.
Historical Review
When employees keep records of their activities on a daily basis, these records can be searched and reviewed to examine the history of a project or customer interaction. These historical records may be useful for documenting discussions or other activities that may need to be accessed at a later date.
Daily time tracking is not only useful for employees. It can also be quite beneficial to the managers of those employees. In a follow-up post, we’ll discuss some best practices for implementing an efficient and not overly burdensome time tracking process.