Digital time tracking tools are becoming increasingly important in the Corona pandemic and the associated home office regulations of companies. They are being integrated more and more into the “new work”. What are the prejudices and thoughts employees have about time tracking and what opportunities does timetracking offer for employers as well as for employees?
Controlled by the boss
Of course, most employees who have been used to trust-based working hours in the company think of a restriction and control by the employers. Employees think they are getting controlled even more. Writing down the times can put them under increasing pressure to fulfill eight hours of documented working time. Control by the boss can lead to a loss of trust within the team and a deterioration of the working atmosphere. But is it control and the missing trust, that leads companies to use time tracking tools or are there other reasons?
Transparency during work
The “control” that is seen as a disadvantage can also be an advantage for employees and companies. What happens by recording the working hours of each employee? People create transparency by showing their working hours, recorded by the time recording software. Especially in times of home office, employees can better measure, what they are working on. This is helpful if you are currently working on projects with multiple employees. Each person is able see what you’re busy with, which task you’re currently spending the most time on. Simultaneously, the company gets an overview of how the project is going or where there are difficulties.
Efficiency
For both employees and companies, project time tracking offers advantages in efficiency. If the employees record their hours, both the employees and the company have data available about the time required in the respective project. This enables both parties to check the duration of the project and thus also offers advantages in the calculation at the end of the project. Companies save money and at the same time employees can check for themselves how much time was spent on which tasks. Consequently, this can also increase the productivity of the projects, as it can be decided whether the tasks and the time spent on them are useful for the successful completion of the project.
Overview instead of paperwork
Who still knows this? The annoying, confusing paperwork that was used to record employees’ working hours. In the past, hours were recorded manually on slips of paper and handed in at different times, resulting in total chaos in payroll accounting. On the one hand, because of the many slips of paper handed in, and on the other hand, of course, because of the different times at which they were submitted. With today’s time recording tools, the hours can be clearly displayed for each employee.
The timeghost Dashboard
To get a clear view, we developed the timeghost Dashboard, which clearly shows you how much and what you and your team members are working on in a project. This allows team members to update each other and share tasks. If you want to find out more about how the timeghost Dashboard looks like, watch the Video below.
Healthy work-life balance
The Corona pandemic has given many employees the opportunity to work from home. On one hand, a more convenient, easier solution to work. On the other hand, work-life balance is compromised, and personal life and work are sometimes no longer separated. You usually finish work, but another mail arrives in your inbox, which you then answer outside of your working hours. Illnesses such as burnouts and other mental diseases can result from this missing separation. A time tracking software can circumvent this problem, by checking exactly how much you already worked. Recording your working hours can protect you from overload and meanwhile supports you to have a healthy work-life-balance, especially when working from home office.
Consideration of the law
Most digital time tracking tools consider current laws, regulations, and agreements. In 2019, the EuGH stated that employers are required to maintain a reliable system where working hours can be tracked. This means documenting and recording the start and end of the workday, as well as breaks.
Try it yourself
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