How Your Time Management System Can Impact Your Profitability

Wasted time in the workplace can reduce a business’ profits –drastically.

As a business owner, you know that time is money, and if you aren’t taking every step possible to ensure that employee time is managed effectively, then your business will suffer.

The fact is; we all have about the same amount of time every day; it’s how we manage that time that counts. Distractions abound in the workplace, especially when you don’t track time. Maybe you think it’s too much of a hassle, so instead you let email, texting, and myriad other inefficiencies drain your productivity and throw off your workflow. We’re only human, we can’t automate our focus on work. The problem is when you let these distractions continue to build up, bleeding into your project costs and overall productivity.

The secret to improving productivity and profitability is having a solid time management strategy that you and your team are fully on board with. The best time management strategies provide positive motivation for workers to stay task-oriented, and give the team the tools that they need for a job well done.

If you’re looking to improve your business’ profitability, combating the issue of wasted time is a great place to start. Let’s take a look at the benefits of a good time management system, and see how it can lead to improved revenue.

Increased Employee Productivity

With a good time management system or time tracking tool, you’ll see employee productivity go up as a natural side-effect of employees being monitored

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” explains John Murray. This means that if your team has eight hours to get their work done, even if it could be completed in two hours, it can easily end up taking all day. Not to mention that hourly rates naturally encourage employees to stretch out assignments. A time management system will encourage team members to complete their work within a reasonable timeframe, preventing it from dragging on longer than it has to.

Allows You to Prioritize for Maximum Results

According to the Pareto Principle, or, the 80/20 rule, 80 percent of our results come from 20 percent of our actions.

Having a solid time management system allows you to discover where your workers’ time is going, and what tasks it’s being spent on. By tracking production, you’ll be able to see which tasks are producing the best results; showing you where your team should be spending their time. Use that time data to increase project profitability, using those metrics to streamline profits, budgets, and outcomes until you’re satisfied with the results.

Improves Accountability

There’s nothing like accountability to help keep everyone on track. A good time management system will provide accountability for time allocation, helping to discourage your team from spending time on non-work-related tasks. Ideally, you’d want to use a system that keeps time entry simple enough that employees think about it without being overly distracted.

While this doesn’t mean that you should micromanage your team every minute of the day, it does mean that providing a motivated team with tools that can help them to be self-accountable, as well as accountable to the company is your best option. Using a robust time tracking system allows you to track their hours, and introducing your workers to time management apps like Freedom, Toggl, or My Life Organized can help them to be more task-oriented, and gain control over their time.

Time management software only continues to get more effective, with integrations with many popular business software, scalable frameworks for small businesses and enterprises alike, and a focus on simplicity and accessibility (with many being available as mobile apps). If you want to get serious about real-time management, finding a time tracking software that meets the needs of your business and employees is one of the best steps you could take.

Helps Workers to Reach Their Objectives

Without clear goals and solid plans, worker motivation will dwindle. To improve your project management, you’ll need to make sure your team has clear objectives and incentives to reach them.

Time management can help to facilitate goal accomplishment, as it will help your employees to break up their tasks into smaller steps, and allow them block out time to get things done. As a side note, studies show that rewarding employees makes them more productive, and positive reinforcement is a better tactic than punishment –so keep on the lookout for ways to motivate your employees.

Time management is an important part of production, and shouldn’t be overlooked. With the right tools, your team will be able to develop a plan to maximize their time. Time management will also give you the information that you need to make decisions that will help to improve workplace conditions, and provide motivation that will encourage your workers to reach their objectives. A workforce that’s motivated, driven, and accountable will be more productive –drastically improving your business’ bottom line.