It’s impossible to know where your employees are every minute of the day, and nor should you. If they know they’re constantly being watched, they will feel that they’re not being valued or trusted to do the job they were hired to do. However, if you’re looking for ways to increase productivity, knowing how their day is being utilized could help you help them to make the most of their time at work.
Employee Monitoring
There are many ways you can do this, whether it’s seeing how many tasks they can get through each day, or installing software to determine they’re not wasting screen time on social media, for instance. However, you need to consider that there are ad hoc situations that can arise which makes completing a task more difficult than usual, so allowances should be given, which your employees should be aware of.
If your business requires your employees to spend most of their day, if not all of it, using a screen, then you could consider installing software to see how they spend their day. This can be done in several ways, without disrupting anyone’s day. For a more reliable way of tracking employee time, according to workpuls.com, you could monitor how much time an employee is actually working via their computer activity. You could also look into what type of activity they’re spending time on, which means you’re able to see where they go online each day. Additionally, you could even take screenshots throughout the day as proof your employees are actually working on the tasks they say they are.
Time Tracking
With employee monitoring, you’re able to track how time is being spent. Knowing this is vital for your business operations because it helps you determine when projects can be completed. It also shows you where staff may be struggling, or require additional support. Knowing the areas where time could potentially be better utilized enables you to forward plan and help your staff. This, in turn, will let your staff see that they’re valued and the role they’re doing is important enough to warrant extra assistance, by whatever means it comes.
It could involve extra training, better systems or software, or potentially hiring more staff because the workload is constantly high. Although it’s good to have consistent work coming in, you want to ensure it can be completed in a timely manner. If your staff is constantly stressed by trying to meet deadlines, you may need to consider that it’s time to hire more people. By doing so, there’s less opportunity for error and more guarantee that customers are receiving the high quality of goods or services that they expect from your business.
Employee Involvement
Obviously, as a business owner, you’re perfectly entitled to know how your employees are spending the time you’re paying them to work. However, some may take the point of view that “big brother is watching them” and feel uncomfortable with this, which is perfectly natural. To overcome this, you need to involve them in implementing this process, providing them with some control to be able to help you.
Once employees understand the purpose behind tracking their performance, i.e. to improve the way they work, they’ll do what they can to ensure you get a true reflection of what they do on a daily basis. It’s important to keep lines of communication open during the implementation process, perhaps even providing them with a breakdown of how their department is spending their time over a three-month trial period. Give your employees the chance to make suggestions, and ask questions. They’re the ones actually working, so there may be aspects of their role that you’re unfamiliar with that can vary according to how long it takes them to do things.
It may also be a good idea for employees to write a bit about what they’ve done each day, so you get an overall picture of what they do, issues that have arisen, or achievements that have made them work faster. This way, you’re seeing beyond the statistics, and are getting an insight to each employee’s day. Adding this aspect to your employee tracking will inevitably improve workflow as you’re in a position to better understand how each employee works, and whether training issues present themselves to support this.
Tracking employee performance to improve daily workflow doesn’t necessarily mean you’re spying on your workforce. This needs to be made explicit to your employees from the start, along with explaining why you’re looking at ways to improve your business’s workflow. Involving them in this, rather than telling them, will get more cooperation from this important component in your business. Let’s be honest, if they’ve got nothing to hide, they won’t feel aggrieved about being monitored throughout the day. But having their input will pay dividends to streamline your business operations.