Time tracking is a common practice in businesses. This is true, especially in those that pay their employees hourly. It’s also common for companies that have teams working on various projects. Also, those that want to measure employee productivity need to track employee hours. At first glance, employee time tracking seems pretty straightforward.

Workers simply denote the hours they have worked on a timesheet. Alternatively, they can punch a time clock and turn their cards in at the end of the day, week, or month. But what could go wrong? Many things can actually go the wrong way.

One of the most vital tasks a company undertakes is the ability to track employee hours accurately. Time cards and timesheets provide invaluable information to your company concerning how resourcefully you use employee time, your labor expenses, and areas that need improvement.

For big, small, and medium-sized businesses alike, finding the perfect ways to make your employee time tracking easier for workers and managers is vital to:

• Bidding projects accurately
• Improving margins
• Operating a more successful business

Understand that Traditional Employee Time Tracking isn’t Effective

Businesses have long relied on manual time cards to track employee working hours. Workers either are responsible for reporting and recording the number of hours they’ve worked and when, or clock in and clock out. The manual aspect of these techniques makes them vulnerable to mistakes, miscalculations, and estimates.

Approximately 44% of businesses, in most cases, struggle with timesheet mistakes. About 92% of these mistakes are caused by the users. The biggest problem was employees forgetting to record their time. It was followed closely by workers recording their time incorrectly or to the wrong project or task.

Luckily, you can implement these time-tracking best practices to make your employee time-tracking process straightforward and boost the accuracy of your labor costs while, at the same time, increasing productivity and profits.

Automate Your Time Tracking Process

The first secret and best practice is to eliminate manual clocking in with time cards and timesheets. You’ll enjoy a host of benefits when you automate your employee time-tracking process.

From streamlining record-keeping for your Human Resources department to making it straightforward for workers to document their time to eliminating errors for accurate payments, the list of benefits is massive.

High-end employee time tracking systems allow companies to automate their processes. Workers find it easier to document when they have started working. Businesses can automate lunches, breaks, and time off so that they’re accurately included in the report and even establish rules to ensure that workers work the time they are required, not less or more.

Get an Accurate Image of Your Employees’ Working Hours

Workers are important to any business and that is why it's crucial to track their working hours to get an accurate image of their work. You can do that through a good time-tracking system.

You’ll be able to see the amount of time your employees spend on various projects or tasks if you track their hours accurately. It’s easier to identify any areas where your workers might be overworking themselves or slacking off.

Additionally, this information will allow you to determine the amount your company is spending on monthly labor expenses. Over time, accurate employee time tracking saves both money and time for your company and workers.

Educate Workers on the Benefits of Employee Time Tracking

Your employees need to understand why you’re tracking their working hours. Show them the benefits of timekeeping and establish a company culture in which time tracking is valued. Workers have many benefits to enjoy when you automate the time-tracking process.

They no longer need to do it manually and can be sure that they’ll receive their payroll for exact working hours. The right system counts all the working hours. That means workers can view the number of hours they’ve accumulated.

Your workers will be content and glad to accept the new system. Once they discover that they'll benefit from a time-tracking system, they’ll strive to become more productive.

Create Labels to Track Projects and Tasks

Task management systems are also necessary. They help businesses to get things done effectively and in the right way. You can track the progress of your tasks and projects more accurately, allocate time limits, and evaluate the performance of employees.

The use of a time-tracking system can also be helpful in this case. Anything that tracks the time spent on a project or task will keep everything well-organized and streamlined.

Using effective project or task management tools also makes life much easier. High-end time-tracking systems usually incorporate a number of functionalities that can help businesses perform almost every task related to timekeeping.

One thing is clear: employee time tracking isn’t just a managerial task. It is a business imperative. Accurate employee timekeeping:

• Ensures payroll precision
• Boosts productivity
• Safeguards against legal problems
• Nurtures satisfaction and trust among your workers