Time tracking is one of the best ways to enhance a business’s productivity… until implemented incorrectly. While there’s a lot of hype around time tracking, many businesses counter-benefit from it and end up overwhelming their employees with a series of micromanagement.
But wait, a poorly integrated time tracking system not only can time tracking negatively impact the employees’ morale, but it also brings the productivity level down.
So, in this blog, we will explore the top 8 reasons why time tracking is bad and how you can fix it.
Why is Time Tracking Bad?
Time tracking can be harmful to businesses in some cases. While it promotes better productivity, accountability, working environment, it can also cause damage to the company.
After COVID, we live in a world where freedom and flexibility are considered everything.
Hence, when companies enforce time tracking systems ruthlessly, the employees think they’re being monitored and micro-managed 24/7.
The problem isn’t the concept of time-tracking but how it’s implemented.
Most companies tend to go aggressive and introduce time tracking systems, making the employees feel like they’re being held captive to their work.
Some other reasons why time tracking is bad include less productive outcomes, rushed outcomes, intimidation of the employees, lack of focus, and stress & burnout.
But thankfully, every single problem with time tracking is fixable, and that’s where you, as a business/freelancer/startup, must make some amendments.
Below, we’ve tackled the top 8 reasons why time tracking can be bad and their fixes.
1. Time Tracking Can Cause Less Productivity
Time tracking software and techniques can sometimes lead to decreased productivity even though the big picture is to improve efficiency.
While the intention is pure and future-proof, the approach is often wrong, leading to employee anxiety, company mismanagement, and a lot more.
When employees constantly fear delivering work on time, their stress levels increase. Since everyone reacts differently to stress, some people might get less productive using these tools, especially when there’s a constant fear of messing up.
Wrongly implemented time tracking tools can also make your employees work harder, often increasing their work than making it efficient.
But what is the solution to decreased productivity?
Fixing Less Productivity
Regarding your employees’ constant fear, you should include incentives and make their work feel like play. Your employees are the reason why your company works.
Businesses should care more about their employees, giving them breaks and offering incentives if they do their jobs properly.
And regarding the company’s side of things, you should choose an automated time tracking tool like Time Analytics to minimize the admin work so your business can focus on the most important tasks.
2. Time Tracking Takes Too Much Time
Generally, time tracking is known to save time so businesses can work on important tasks. But many companies and freelancers wonder why their precious time gets even shorter than it was.
Well, when we look at things like implementing and maintaining systems, it requires time and effort.
But these are just one-time processes you’ll have to go through, and you should start getting a positive ROI soon; however, if you’re using a manual time tracker where you need to add every bit of detail to the software, that will take all of your time.
Many time tracking software has the manual process of categorizing, assigning, adding information, and more. Instead of taking time away from your management team, it makes their job more tedious.
So let’s talk about the solution.
Choosing the Right Time Tracking Tool
Manual time-tracking software suffers from a risk of errors, more time consumption, and a lack of efficiency.
However, that doesn’t mean they’re ineffective as a whole. But in my opinion, a good time tracker in this era of speed should be automated and still offer manual time entry in case anything needs to be changed.
That’s where Time Analytics comes in. It provides an automated time tracking that tracks the employee’s time, automatically calculates billable hours and time consumption per activity, and shows you beautiful reports.
3. Time Tracking Systems Take Time to be Integrated
Integration is one of the tedious tasks in an organization’s workflow when transitioning towards time-tracking solutions. This is especially true if they use an offline tracking tool requiring little flexibility.
In other words, time must be allocated to calculate costs, gather data, collaborate between IT, HR, and management departments, and integrate the current company’s data into the software.
Cloud-Based Time Tracking Systems
A cloud-based time-tracking system is one of the best ways to eliminate many headaches like installation of offline software in all the systems, lack of integration options, and explanation of the tool.
Many cloud-based systems don’t need to be installed on the management or employees’ systems as they can be accessed on the cloud from their computers, tabs, and even mobile phones.
4. Time Tracking and Micromanagement
Let’s face it. Every employee hates micromanagement. The thought of getting their actions tracked every second just makes them nervous. While certain managers fantasize about micromanagement, it’s not the case.
The whole point of using a time tracker is to let it calculate the hours and the efficiency; after that, the managers can supervise their work without getting nitpicky or interfering. The problem here isn’t time tracking but the mindset and common misconceptions managers and employees have.
Teaching Time Tracking 101
Holding a webinar or a meeting where you teach your employees and management about time tracking is the solution. Before implementing the change, you should create attractive presentations and explain the purpose of time tracking to your employees so they can understand everything.
You should be 100% transparent about the following questions to your employees:
- What is time tracking?
- How does it work?
- What activities, applications, and websites will it track?
- What are you going to do with the collected data?
- Which time-tracking software will you use?
5. Time Tracking Costs
Time tracking cost is one of the biggest concerns of an organization. Moreover, the more complex their systems are, the more expensive they will get. There are different types of costs associated with time-tracking systems. Here’s the list:
- Time-tracking tool costs
- Implementation and setup costs
- Training and support
- Maintenance and upgrade
Businesses should consider all these things before implementing time-tracking tools and systems in their organizations.
Choosing the Right Tool
Scalable solutions are the best to start if you have a few employees. Consider the cost and pricing of a tool based on your budget and the number of employees you have. Moreover, a tool like Time Analytics offers no credit card 14-day trial so that you can test out the time tracker to its fullest.
6. Time Tracking with Lack of Project Management
Time tracking with lacking project management is one of the biggest reasons why time tracking is back. Good management allows you to break down complex tasks and allot time for each employee. It also helps you in project completion and calculates estimates on when it will be delivered.
But without a lack of project management, your organization won’t make the best use of time-tracking data to make important decisions. For example, the employees may work unbillable hours, face difficulties in meeting deadlines, and you can potentially overcharge or undercharge your clients.
Project Management Features
Choosing the time tracking with project management features will help you calculate resources and the estimated time required to complete those projects. Time Analytics provides actionable projects and client insights, giving you the right metrics to bring profitability.
One of Time Analytics’ clients got up to 20% profitability by using their project management features.
7. Time Tracking Doesn’t Provide Customers any Value
Your clients and customers don’t care about how many hours you’ve worked or how much time you worked on a project. I’d go as far as to say that most customers aren’t even interested in your final rate. They have a project they need to be done and just demand the final results.
Many companies have this stigma that it will instantly give them a positive ROI once they start using time-tracking tools.
However, time tracking is just a way to measure your employees and optimize your company so you can get work done most efficiently.
Time Tracking is Indeed the Answer
While time tracking tool might not provide direct value to your customer, it provides value to your business. With time tracking, your sole focus should be to optimize your company regarding what’s good for your customers.
So, setting hours rates, getting reports, and then using those reports to make important decisions will be how you can make the most out of time tracking.
8. Time Tracking Distracts Startups
Time tracking is one of the best tools for managers to keep their employees in check, but there might be better tools for growing a startup. A startup is all about speed and trust. The smaller the startup, the more trust-based it is.
Hence, if the employees have to provide consistent evidence of their work all day, it feels like they’re being spied on. Moreover, time tracking can encourage nonimportant tasks over important ones, leading to procrastination and other common issues.
The Right Use of Time Tracking
Using time tracking correctly is to educate your team members that you’re using it for the right purpose. It includes noting everyone’s time so the company can thrive. Moreover, picking the right time-tracking tool incorporating automation will make them feel unburdened since most of the work will automatically be calculated.
Choosing Time Analytics as a Solution
To avoid all the issues above, you can use time tracking looks like Time Analytics. It allows companies to track their time easily, effortlessly, and stress-free. Most of the things are automated, and it makes management easier for companies so they progress as a whole.
The software provides Time Tracking, Time and Project Reporting, Team Performance Tracking, Online Timesheets, and Client Time Billing. After using the time tracker, you won’t consistently need to micromanage your customer, not create billings manually, taking up much management work.
Lastly, Time Analytics also offers 14 days trial with no credit card required so businesses can test their software and see if it caters to their needs.
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