8 ways to improve quality
Are you tired of nagging employees to register hours? You're certainly not alone. Time is literally money in companies that bill hours for a living, which is why it's important to ensure that all hours worked are registered correctly and on time.
Creating systems that facilitate accurate timekeeping is at the heart of what we do at Milient. We've seen what practices improve the quality of time tracking among project members, and we want to share those insights with you.
Here are some practical tips on how you can get your employees to register their hours more accurately - and improve the overall quality of the timekeeping in your business.
Ensure that everyone understands the significance
While everyone working on projects is aware that they need to register the hours they work, it's important that they understand why this is so crucial. Accurate timekeeping has a direct impact on business profitability, budgets, resource allocation, and future capacity planning. This needs to be communicated to everyone working in the business, in a language they understand.
Punctual registration of hours: When hours are registered is essential
Timekeeping accuracy is not just about the right number of hours, but also about when those hours are registered. It's no secret that the more time that passes between the work being done and the hours being registered, the lower the quality of timekeeping.
You should therefore have a policy in place to ensure that time registrations take place within a certain time frame. For example, this could be before the end of the working day. This helps to reduce errors and ensure that the hours reflect the actual work performed.
A great tool is half the battle
A willingness to register time accurately is all well and good, but without good systems, it will be difficult to achieve in practice. If your time tracking system is complicated or time-consuming to use, employees will be less likely to register their hours accurately. That's why you should invest in an easy-to-use timekeeping system (and of course, that does not mean using Excel).
Choose a system with a convenient interface and features such as automatic reminders, mobile access, and integration with other tools you already use.
See how to register hours in Milient's project system Moment
Facilitate time registration on the go
As mentioned, it's essential to make it easy to register hours so that it can be done as quickly as possible after the work has been completed. A simple way of facilitating this is to have a mobile app for registering hours. This allows employees to register their hours wherever they are - in customer meetings, at the construction site, or on the bus home.
Read more about Milient's mobile app for project management.
Timekeeping templates save time
When working on projects, it's common to perform tasks repetitively. This opens up the possibility of creating templates for time registration so that much of the information is already filled in. Employees just need to select the template, make any adjustments, and voila - the timesheet is ready. This saves time and usually contributes to more accurate time registrations.
Automatic notifications
Time tracking isn't the most exciting topic to think about for any of us. After all, there are other qualities that get people hired. So sometimes people need a little extra help to remember to get it done. But assigning an employee to send out reminders to keep track of hours is an unnecessary use of resources when this task can be done automatically.
Set up automatic alerts to be sent out to employees who haven't registered their hours on time. This helps ensure that all hours are registered accurately and on time, without anyone having to spend unnecessary time reminding them.
Retrieve activities from the calendar
Not all timekeeping has to start in your head - some of the activities you work on can also be found in your calendar. In Milient, we have created an ingenious feature that allows you to import activities from the calendar and turn them into time registrations.
See how it works:
Create a clear timekeeping policy
A time tracking instruction provides clear guidelines for how hours should be registered. With clear instructions, you ensure that everyone registers hours in the same way and that everyone is treated equally. Time sheets often contain rules for registering overtime, breaks, absence, and holidays.
Are you planning to create timekeeping guidelines for your company? Then this blog post on how to write a timekeeping policy is perfect for you.
