Implementing a Time Tracker? Here’s What You Should Do

If you’re just jumping on the time tracker bandwagon, you’ve come to the right place! The time tracking and employee monitoring craze hasn’t been easy on anyone, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop anytime soon.

Implementation of the software itself is quite easy, the installation is seamless, as well as its usage. But, before you jump in and start installing the software on everyone’s computers there are certain steps you should take to make this implementation as smooth as possible.

Do Your Research

We can’t stress this enough – do the research about the software before you make a purchase. The number of tools available is quite high, and you should be aware of all the possible features they offer.

If you don’t want to get overwhelmed by this, start the process by writing down the goals you want to achieve with a time tracker. This will help you come up with a set of features you’ll actually use on a daily basis.

From there, we recommend you create a table with the tools that are peaking your interest and combine it with the features you need, prices, deployment options, and so on.

Your next step would be to test all the tools that interest you. To make the process quicker, different team members or teams in your company should use different tools. Let them note down anything they notice, any bugs, ease of use or other important bits of information.

After you’re all done sit down and find what is the best time tracker for you – it’s even easier than it sounds.

Communicate Values to Your Team

Your company will certainly benefit a lot from a time tracker. It’ll be easier to organize workload, manage projects, increase productivity, etc. But, if you go to your employees and tell them this all they can hear is “This is how the company benefits”. 

Therefore, when talking to your team, you should focus on how the time tracking software will benefit them. For starters, if they’re hourly workers, they won’t have to worry about miscalculated payments anymore. Next up, since you’ll always have a clear overview of everyone’s duties, employees won’t be swamped in tasks.

Additionally, the data you’re collecting can be a part of regular employee reviews, effectively helping them when it comes to proving their worth and getting promotions.

In the end, it helps introduce more flexibility in the workplace.

Focus on Improvement

Once you install the software you should use it the right way to avoid any issues. What we mean by that is that you should focus on improving what’s wrong, rather than reprimanding what’s wrong.

A time tracker will show you bottlenecks in the workflow, so you’ll probably see that some employees are slacking, or having issues prioritizing their tasks. Use the data you have to start up a conversation with employees regarding these issues. They might not be aware of some of the things you can see through the data, and it will help them improve. Work with them on potential improvement strategies.

When the evaluation time comes around, don’t rely only on the data from the software. Take it into account, but don’t let the time tracker be the only source of information. Use the data you see to create tangible, specific goals for the next time period.

Final Thoughts

A time tracker software is only as good as you use it, so make sure you follow everything we listed here to get the most out of it and your team.

If you do follow our tips, it’s likely you’ll see no blowback from the implementation of this software, and that your employees will in the end be thankful for its use.