Why Employee Timesheets is a Sound Investment?

It’s not easy being a business owner, and it comes with a lot of challenges and responsibilities. To top it all, people think of you as evil most of the time, and as a result, you’ll always be torn between enforcing your commands to get the job done, and backing off so you don’t frustrate your team. Confrontations about employee work ethics –– who’s working and who’s not –– are bound to happen sooner or later, and they can be a pain. This is where employee timesheets come in, and they provide a very good solution to that never-ending problem. Here’s why it is a sound investment for your business.

Improved productivity

A timesheet simply gives you the tool to measure how much time an employee spent at work, when they arrived, and what they’re currently working on. This gives you the chance to quantify and measure things like tasks completed, hours spent on projects, attendance, and many others. When you have access to that sort of data, running a business becomes a much easier and smoother task. You can better keep track of your people and what they’re doing, and that results in much-improved productivity.

You will no longer have to linger at the entrance to find out who came on time and who’s late, nor will you be forced to keep asking each employee what they’re working on and what the status of their progress is. All that information will be readily available for you, which means a much smoother work process, and you’ll be more focused on getting your job done rather than focusing on your team’s work.

A healthier work environment

One of the biggest reasons why employees leave their jobs is being in an unhealthy environment. It can be anything from too much gossip to office romance gone wrong, but the main reason why the tension arises in the workplace is accountability. When the employer doesn’t know which members of his team are working on a certain phase of a project, they won’t know who to hold accountable when something goes wrong. People start blaming each other, and a result the entire office becomes tense. An employee timesheet will spare you all that trouble. You’ll have a crystal clear idea who’s doing what at exactly what time. That way you can hold people accountable for their actions, and you won’t get into that vicious cycle of pointing fingers.

When you have solid proof of an employee’s performance, it’s hard for them to argue. People will start paying attention to their jobs because they know you will be able to figure out who made the right and wrong decisions.

Knowledge equals better leadership

It’s very important that you learn and understand the inner workings of your office, and that knowledge will ultimately make you a better leader. You’ll start making more informed decisions based on the information you get from these helpful sheets, and there are even ready templates online to save you the trouble of coming up with one. When you know exactly what your employees are doing throughout the day, you can improve your decision-making process in a way that will ultimately prove quite beneficial for your business. You’ll know when to postpone the deadline of a project when you see that your employee is doing their best, but they could use an extension. And you’ll be able to better estimate future deadlines based on past performance in similar projects, which will make your team’s life much easier and they’ll come to appreciate your leadership a lot more.

Controlling costs

You might think that it’s a pointless investment to get an employee timesheet, but believe it or not, it can actually save you a lot of money in the long run. The last thing a business owner wants is to misallocate their resources, and a timesheet will help you avoid that from happening. You can easily gauge what resources your next project needs, based on previous knowledge you collected from timesheets. This is how you can specify exactly how many employees need to work on the next assignment, and for how many hours. As a result, you make perfect use of your resources, and you save costs as all your people are actually working on projects that need them.

Employee appreciation

Want to know the secret to getting the best out of your employees? Make them feel appreciated, and be genuine about it. You’ll find that employees that feel appreciated pour their hearts into their work, and they see that every task is done in the best way possible. The best way to make them feel that is using a timesheet. It’s quite easy to lose track of who’s doing which work in the bustle of it all, but a timesheet will help you understand which of your team went beyond the call of duty to see their task done. Then you can reward those employees who do a little extra, and in turn, two things will happen. Those hard-working employees will feel loved and appreciated, so they’ll continue to do their best for the job, and more importantly, you’ll create a spirit of healthy competition in your team. Other coworkers will want to be honored as well, so they’ll go the extra mile to get the same recognition their coworkers did.

Project control

As a business owner, you need to be able to predict problems before they happen and a timesheet can help you do just that. You’ll find that problems are recurring for the most part, and sometimes you get a drop in a certain phase of each project you’re working on. An employee timesheet lets you identify that problem, and you’ll be able to stop it from happening ever again in future endeavors.

An employee timesheet will not solve all your problems, and it won’t make your business earn millions. But it can save you some money, and it can enhance your business operations if you regularly keep using it. More importantly, the timesheet will help you create a healthier work environment, which alone justifies how good of an investment this is. 

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