20 posts tagged with "Business"

Mobile time tracking in construction and field service has risen in popularity. This is because, in this industry, it is difficult to avoid losing money. Time tracking serves as the best solution to address this challenge.

Time Doctor for Construction & Field Service​

Usually, time tracking and management apps are used in the construction industry for time tracking purposes.

Time Doctor serves as a great time tracking tool for this industry. This app has been built with such industry in consideration. The designers of this app know the pain of paper timesheets and the employee scheduling process.

Through Time Doctor, clocking-in and clocking-out of the job site are much easier and accurate than manual timesheets. The data gives useful insights into job costing and payroll. Construction businesses can now avoid losing money to time rounding and theft.

Easy and Accurate Job Costing​

Time Doctor gives much more than just time tracked. It is a great job-costing tool for your workforce. Workers select the job and task they are assigned with and you always know where they are. You can see all on electronic timesheets and make edits as required. The reports can be printed as per your construction business needs. It gives you the most accurate job costing.

Why Invest in Time Tracking App?​

If you want accurate time tracking in your construction business, turn to Time Doctor. Time Doctor’s work on both Apple and Android devices so you can use it easily. Your employees just need a smartphone in their pocket to use it. Even if the employees do not have a smartphone, the app gives the option to the supervisor to punch the clock on their workers’ behalf.

24/7 access​

Access your web dashboard from any device with internet connectivity. Irrespective of your location, be updated on time schedules and workers' productivity.

Simple Scheduling​

Scheduling phone calls, emails, and text messages are hectic. Employee scheduling in Time Doctor is as easy as taking a job or employee onto the calendar. You can set the schedule very quickly and easily. You can always change the schedule. How? Just drag and drop the change, then inform everyone concerned just with a click of a single button. Selected employees will get an instant notification on their phones. Moreover, they will remain updated on their schedule changes.

Embedded with GPS​

Time Doctor is a GPS Time Tracking app highly useful for construction and field services. This mobile app is location-aware, so you will get location data with time punches. The GPS feature sends you location information while employees are on the clock. With this feature, use the power of geofence time tracking. By putting a geofence around a job site, your employees can be reminded right from their phone to clock in or out when they enter or leave.

Time Tracking, Payroll, and Accounting – All Together​

If you use Accounting & payroll software like QuickBooks, Sage, etc. you would have more value from Time Doctor. Time Doctor integrates with accounting software. Time punches from Time Doctor are entered into your accounting software with the click of a button. All of your data is right where you need it without having to enter it again. Payroll and job costing have never been this much easier before.

Time is passing fast, even if you do not do anything it passes. Hence, spend time wisely and avoid wasting it since it will not come back. How can you spend your time in the right way? You can do it by tracking it!

What is a time tracking?​

Time tracking is all about observing and noting down your daily tasks and their deadlines. Professionally, you can do it as an employee to track your working hours and tasks completions; you can do it for billing purposes, being a freelancer, for instance. Traditionally, employee time tracking used to be done via swipe cards, clock-in & clock-out, and geo-location tracking methods. Now, time tracking apps like Time Doctor have replaced those. Using such apps, time can be tracked either via a timesheet or via a timer.

Timesheets​

In this method, you add your tasks and time spent on them at the end of the day, or a week or a month. Daily tracking is recommended. It is a simple method and is free from stress given by a timer.

Timer​

The timer is started with the start of your work and ended when you are done with your task. It more precisely records working hours while in timesheets approximate times are added.

Importance of time tracking​

• Tracking makes billing and payroll processing easier and efficient.

It means you can know billable and non-billable hours. If you are a small or medium-scale business and have a strict budget, time tracking keeps you organized and under budget. This data can also help you determine your product or service's price.

Freelancers and clients need accurate billing and time tracking helps to calculate both hourly and fixed rates for projects.

For the hiring manager, it gives insight into where the money is going.

• Gives useful data

When you enter data every day, you end up with a lot of data – in this case, with useful information you can utilize in various ways. Firstly, you will see how much your team is working and what they are working on, as well as the amount of time it usually takes to complete a task. The data entered every day gives useful insights like how productive your team is and how much time they take to complete a task. This helps to make improvements.

• Improves productivity

Time tracking prevents you from procrastination since it keeps you focused and avoids wasting time.

• Tracking time is the best solution

Time tracking helps you avoid wasting time on social media as you can constantly see your daily activities being tracked. It makes you more accountable and keeps you away from distractions. It helps improve your productivity.

• Great for students

Students having exam season coming can make the most of their time via time tracking. They can be free from the sudden change in routine and keep motivated to complete their preparations.

• prevents multitasking

It keeps you away from unnecessary multitasking especially when you are at work. If you are doing a task that needs your 100% focus, and you are doing another task too, then you will have both incomplete and end up frustrated. Doing one task at a time is more efficient.

Users’ Feedback for using time tracking software​

Laura Vanderkam, the writer of the books 168 Hours and I Know How She Does It, says "If you want to lose weight, you need to write down what you eat. It same thing with time. If you want to spend time better, you need to figure out where it is going. Maybe something you thought was a problem is not. Maybe something you never even considered is taking a lot more time than you thought.”

Her Freelance Experience​

According to Laura, the time tracking apps enhanced her quality of life, since it allowed her to do her job instead of:

• being concern about the payment from her client
• feeling guilty for not working enough
• easting time
• procrastinating She could see her idle time that helped her in making changes in her daily work life.

She was able to set clear priorities and kept her on track, avoiding a need for extra hour’s work that helped her mental health too.

Exact time tracking also benefit the clients​

Laura’s clients were happy as they could see clear progress through reports that also made communication easier.

Here are some other users’ feedback:

"As a graphic designer, it is important for me to provide my clients with the accurate amount of work that I did, broken down into tasks and projects so that they can see what they are paying for. With Clockify this has become less of a burden for me and allows me to invest more of my time into what I do best rather than paperwork or counting hours.” – Elijah D, Graphic designer

“Time Doctor is very easy to use & very quickly anybody can pick it up – useful when onboarding a new employee. Enables effective management of housekeeping tasks for team leads & managers – like attendance, timesheets, etc. Easy tool to bill the hours worked & review time taken on projects and tasks through reports. There is a mobile app as well which enables you to track time spent on calls as well – especially when you are a consultant or advisory services provider and spend a lot of time on the phone. You can set up time tracking for specific clients, projects, tasks and assign it to specific employees – this is very granular and comprehensive.” – Subash B, Co-founder of a marketing and advertising company.

Can time tracking be a bad idea?​

It can be, sometimes. Time tracking may not be useful for all jobs and all tasks. For instance, a freelancer who is good at time management and is paid per project and not per hour may not need time tracking. Here are some situations where time tracking can be a bad idea:

If you feel bad with a sense of being monitored or your privacy violated Some employees may take time tracking as being watched with no concern of their privacy, which may affect the working environment as well as their performance.

What to do?​

Develop trust with your employees and a culture where all feel being valued. Explain to them the benefits of using the new software.

• If it’s stressful

Time tracking may sound boring and should not make you tensed by adding extra workload.

What to do?​

The employer should provide clear guidelines for using the software. Start with audit entries every 2 or 3 weeks to ensure all information is being entered and tracked properly. It also helps to fix the errors sooner than later to avoid any extra stress in the future.

While selecting a time tracking app for your company, go for the one having an intuitive interface, is fast and simple to use. Freelancers should also select based on these factors.

Since doing a job is often hard and tensed enough, the goal of the time tracking apps is to simplify people's lives and not complicate them more.

“In terms of feel and use, Time Doctor has many integrations and has a simple, sleek, and intuitive interface regardless of what supported device or browser you decide to use it on. This is especially true for its user-friendly, easy-to-navigate web app which can be accessed from anywhere for viewing of your and your current team’s progress.” – DeskTime.

Also, think of this question:

• is there any positive reinforcement for someone being efficient and doing their job well, or only negative consequences for the lack of productivity?

If your time tracking routine involves trying to remember what you did 3 days ago, then it is probably not effective. Human memory is not the most reliable narrator you can possibly have.

What to do?​

Set an alarm that will go off every weekday at a certain time to remind you to either start recording time or to track all your tasks in the timesheet. Time Doctor also gives an option to set a reminder to start the timer.

Final Thoughts​

Time tracking, if done regularly and via the best time tracking app like Time Doctor, helps improve productivity especially for frustrating tasks like billing and project costing. It gives useful insights for improving your business or project management. To use the time in a wise and the best way, know how you are spending it and keep it in the right way. The great thing is that with time tracking apps like Time Doctor, time tracking has become much simpler and easier to do.

For a sound business growth characterized by high-quality service provision, and employee productivity is a must. One of the obstacles to this way though is employee burnout that arises due to long-term workplace stress and leads to huge costs incurred by the businesses globally. Here we highlight different means to avoid it or at least minimize it to the least level. The article discusses employee burnout’s seven key causes as well as measures to control it.

The Employee Burnout​

This psychological condition, related to employee physical and mental exhaustion arises due to the workplace's chronic stress. Being so prevalent nowadays, it had been categorized as an occupational phenomenon in 2019 by WHO (World Health Organization).

Some professions that are more vulnerable to burnout include sales personnel, remote teams, warehouse staff, and the workforce in time-sensitive positions.

However, the warning signs are the same in other roles too, some of which include:

• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Sadness
• Anger
• Irritability
• Loss of motivation
• Lack of enthusiasm for the job
• Decreased productivity
• More negative outlook.
• More time off and absenteeism

As per Flexjobs’ survey, 75% of respondents reported burnout symptoms while 40% mentioned Covid-19 as the period of their suffering from this condition. High burnout rates are alarming for the bottom line and thus, should be taken seriously.

The best remedy to avoid a high burnout rate is to reduce or remove the factors that cause it.

Some of the factors are discussed below.

The Top Seven (07) Employee Burnout Causes / Reasons​

https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-mha-mental-health-workplace-pandemic/

These are the key reasons that cause employee burnout.

1. Excessive Workload​

Overburdened employees tend to feel excessive stress and eventually experience burnout. Statista Survey found excessive workload as the key reason for 39% of employees’ workplace stress that led to burnout.

Some of the key causes of excessive workload are:

1. Less number of employees: Having short of employees can have more workload on the team that causes stress.

2. Overburdening experienced employees: Experienced and skilled employees are often given more work due to quality. This can, in turn, cause burnout and affect their productivity.

3. Relying on software: Management may consider software as an ultimate solution to reduce employee burden; however, software often has limitations due to which employees might end up doing more work, which Management overlooks to consider.

2. High Expectations​

Setting high targets for the workforce without giving them time and space to develop required skills leads to stress and eventually burnout. This is because even after working hard, they fail to achieve what is expected from them due to a lack of skills. It causes demotivation and increases the stress level. Moreover, frequently changing targets and deadlines make them unable to set their priorities.

3. Unfair Treatment​

Unfair treatment leads to a negative relationship between managers and employees and disengages employees from their job.

Some unfair treatments examples are:

• Biasness: giving priority to a specific employee or group
• Mistreatment: Having a negative or cruel behavior with a specific employee or group
• Unfair policies: discrimination based policies
• Low compensation: Giving less than market-based compensation

These factors lead to employee dissatisfaction, high turnover rate, and eventually burnout.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/315848/employee-stress-sources-at-work-in-north-america/

4. Harsh Attendance Policies​

An attendance policy that does not give space to employees’ life leads to burnout.

For instance, being on time is an attendance policy that if implemented without exceptions can urge the employees to rush to work without taking their safety or health into consideration.

In addition, if it does not consider sick leaves, it can affect employees' health and increase the potential for burnout.

It means that attendance policies if not consistent with employees' wellbeing can lead to a high turnover rate.

5. Negative Work Environment​

A supportive and collaborative working environment among managers and employees can help find solutions to unproductivity. If the managers are confrontational, the employees do not like to discuss, as they feel afraid and unsafe. It leads to stress and the possibility of burnout.

Though such environments can be balanced with family and friends' support yet not many people have that support to overcome the same.

6. Poor Activities Management​

Through training, formal and informal meetings, team gatherings, and other events should be organized but they should not be poorly managed to ensure they do not affect employee productivity.

For instance, even a training session about client interaction, which is good for employees and company growth, should not be conducted at peak working hours.

Inconvenient and inflexible timings can decrease productivity. Giving employees some freedom about their way of work empowers them and prevents a sense of helplessness.

7. Big Decision-Making Chain​

Having more people in decision-making, often end up employees attending unnecessary meetings and calls that affect their work. This leads to mismanagement of time and employees feel stressed, which leads to burnout.

For instance, a team leader forwarding the leave application for approval to HR can be distracting for the HR personnel since this approval needs to be approved by the team leader.

Top Seven (07) Ways to Prevent/Control Employee Burnout​

Avoiding burnout completely is not possible since it affects both personal and professional life. However, there are ways to control its effects and reduce their intensity in the long term. Here are the top 07 ways to control burnout.

1. Know Performance Issues​

Know about the burned-out employees by assessing their performance. Such employees usually have a sudden performance decline. After identifying such employees, organize a personal meeting to discuss the causes, show your support and help them address their workplace stressors.

2. Ensure Autonomy​

Give employees freedom and autonomy to do their work the way they can do better. For instance, setting deadlines with their consultation can prevent the burnout that could have arisen due to unrealistic deadlines.

3. Appreciate​

Acknowledgment and appreciation as a part of the company's culture make employees feel esteemed and lead to a higher retention rate.

You can appreciate with:

• Awards
• Bonuses
• Free lunch vouchers
• Discounted vacation vouchers
• More paid leaves.
• More days of remote work.
• Appreciation letter
• Verbal appreciation

Appreciated employees experience more emotional strength to bear work and time pressures, which in turn, decreases burnout possibility.

4. Maximize the Usage of Workflow Management Software​

The optimal software can greatly streamline business processes. Good software should be able to simplify tasks and enhance employee productivity. Some recommended software include:

• Workforce Management Software (WFM)
• Payroll Software
• Accounting Software

5. Encourage Informal Activities​

Informal activities like walking, napping, watching TV give employees a break from work and make them feel rejuvenated. Informal gatherings, office trips, and night outs can make them relax and reduce their stress levels.

Moreover, urge them to adopt healthy lifestyles like yoga, breathing exercises, and other well-being activities.

6. Develop a Mental Health Friendly Environment​

The organization's culture should consider employees’ mental health and employee wellness.

Such an atmosphere help employees facing emotional issues feel accepted and understood which reduces stress and avoids worker burnout.

You can do it in the following ways:

• Create a wellness program like EAP (Employee Assistance Program).
• Discuss with employees about their stress in their professional and personal life.
• Educate them on signs of burnout and causes for the same
• Develop sound workplace absence policy, mobile phone policy
• Encourage vacations on time to help them maintain a work-life balance.
• Redistribute devastating workload

7. Utilize Productivity Management Software​

Productivity management tools can help you determine on time if employees are overworked and approaching the burnout stage. A productivity management software like Time Doctor is helpful for employees to work efficiently. They don’t need to have piled-up tasks under strict deadlines.

About Time Doctor?

Both small and big businesses use Time Doctor; an employee productivity and performance management software. The tool keeps track of employees' time spent on tasks and gives insights to both managers and employees about work productivity.

It also tracks and monitors employee breaks times and lets managers schedule breaks into the employees’ timetable who are overworking to maintain their well-being. Moreover, Time Doctor has a Work-Life Balance Widget that can help managers and employers detect and prevent employee burnout before it happens.

Through Time Doctor Widget, it is easier for managers to determine:

• Excessive hours a day.
• Additional shifts frequently.
• Late hours.
• On weekends. With Time Doctor, you can:
• Track idle time and let the employee be focused
• Help employees to be on their schedules
• Determine unproductive times via reports
• Determine absenteeism
• Reduce accounting team’s load via payroll feature

Final Thoughts​

Factors such as excessive workload, inhumane policies, and a negative work atmosphere can make employees prone to stress. Hence, ensure they do not face burnout. If you know the causes behind burnout, you can find solutions to prevent it. Using the tips given in this article, you can control the burnout rate.

To start, deploy an employee-oriented software like Time Doctor and start monitoring your employees’ potential burnout rate.

Are you facing a hard time managing your remote team? Are you noticing a disinterest among your employees since the pandemic? Well, this is something every other organization is experiencing these days. Remote work allows freedom, but sometimes, it can be boring and uninspiring.

However, this can pose a threat to your organization's productivity, efficiency, and success. Fortunately, we have compiled a list of effective tips to engage your employees. The below tips are acted upon and work. So, if you're interested, let's begin.

Why is it important to keep your remote employees engaged, inspired, and motivated?​

Here's why:

They simply need it.​

Remote employees usually don't interact much. And as a result, they might feel lonely, demotivated, and uninspired at times. After all, working from home or a distant place all alone is not pleasing, right? So, make sure to engage with them as much as you can.

More productive and efficient​

Will you be able to work actively if you're demotivated or sad? No, right? The same goes for your employees too. If you regularly interact with them, you can improve the productivity and efficiency of your employees. As a result, your company/organization will benefit from it.

Better retention​

A poor work environment is one of the major reasons why employees make a switch. And if your employees are demotivated or stressed because of the environment, you must do something soon.

11 Tips to keep your remote team engaged, inspired, and productive​

1. Communicate more effectively.​

What if your friend hosts a party without you? You'll feel bad, right? The same goes for remote workers too. If you're not informing your remote employees of activities in the organization, they're going to feel left out.

Remote workers are as important as regular ones. So, they should know about everything happening in the organization. And this can only happen if you communicate effectively. There are several tools that you can use:

• Zoom
• Skype
• Google Hangouts

The above tools can help you enhance your communication. You can send emails, but video calls have a better impact. Inform them of the necessary updates and ask them about their projects and life. This will make them feel as if they're a part of a bigger picture.

2. Make sure that your remote workers are happy.​

A happy employee is a productive one. The HR professionals know this well. Keeping your employee happy is not hard. You need to ask them a few questions like:

• What do they need?
• Is there something they don’t like about the company?
• Is there any problem they're facing?

Based on what answers they give; you must offer them solutions. Sometimes, it may be the hardware, environment, schedule, or lack of training that makes them feel stressed. In such cases, you should extend your helping hand. As a result, you'll notice more engagement and productivity.

3. Recognize the hard work​

Let's face it. We all like to be recognized for what we do and so do your remote workers. Maybe your remote employees have already proven their skills. However, they might not have received the recognition. This can sometimes demotivate or un-inspired the employees. And it's the last thing you would want to happen.

So, make sure to recognize your employees time and again. But do not stop there. You need to make sure to recognize them in the presence of other employees. This will give your employees a sense of pride and happiness. Also, it'll motivate other employees to work as hard.

Visit this link to find what tools you can use to recognize your remote employees.

4. Set clear goals​

Are your remote employees aware of their short-term and long-term goals? Are they delivering what's expected from them? If not, you need to act right now. You need to understand that remote employees are like the regular ones. Without proper goals and directions, no one can achieve perfection.

So, try to set goals/expectations which are mutually agreed upon. It will help your remote employees achieve better.

5. Host regular meetings​

How frequently do you interact with your employees? Maybe once a week or even worse, once a month. If it's true, the lack of regular interaction could be the reason behind uninspired and demotivated employees.

You must host regular meetings or interactive sessions with your employees. It could be about anything like:

• Planning for the new project
• Status of the present project
• Discussion of formal problems
• Discussion of informal issues
• & More

When you host regular meetings, your employees become more familiar with you. Also, it allows you to know your employees and their problems. And this is something quite essential for managing a remote team.

6. "All hands" Meetings​

Maybe you're hosting regular meetings. But are all of the attendants contributing? Or is the topic of the meeting relevant to all? If not, you need to focus more on "All hands" meetings. Such meetings involve discussion on a subject common to all.

"All hands" meetings often help employees to open up. Everyone will get a chance to speak. And as a result, you'll be able to build a strong relationship.

7. Lay stress on culture​

Now, corporate culture is not a new thing for regular employees. As employees visit the company, work, and interact, automatically a culture is built. However, most managers never think that remote employees will need culture too.

An article as per the Harvard Business Review recently emphasized the importance of culture in remote teams. Although managing culture can be hard virtually, it's quite essential. As per the article, you need to first bring remote teams together to improve the bond. And you can do that by following these activities.

Once you have more remote teams interacting regularly, you'll observe a beautiful culture being developed. And as a result, your remote employees will be able to engage more.

8. Help your team manage time.​

Time management is important for everyone, especially for employees working remotely. Maybe, remote employees have kids to drop to school or other household chores to complete. And if that's the case, time management becomes even more important.

Help your employees with training, tools, and tips that'll help them manage time. This will show how much management cares about its employees. Also, the employees who manage their time well are productive for the company as well.

9. Focus more on the work done, not how or when it's done​

Some managers behave bossily with the remote teams. They want the team to work according to their time zones. But this is something you should prohibit from doing. If your remote team has employees from different time zones, respect their time.

Share the deadlines, take follow-ups, and communicate well. If they're getting the work done before the deadline, you shouldn't worry. It will help them work comfortably and productively both at the same time.

10. Don't waste your employees' time.​

Yes, you need to host meetings. But you need to make sure that you’re not wasting anyone’s time. If you think your remote employees aren't required, don't unnecessarily schedule meetings. Unnecessary meetings might disengage your employees instead of engaging. So, keep unnecessary meetings at bay.

11. Offer the necessary training.​

Sometimes new remote employees aren't familiar with the tools that your organization uses. So, you should offer a brief training to them. Otherwise, it can be hard for them to cope up. Also, they may never ask you on their own. So, make sure that you ask this upfront.

What tools can you use for engaging and inspiring your remote employees?

Slack​

Slack is a perfect tool for managing remote teams easily. You can create different teams and easily delegate tasks using Slack. Also, the employees can check the tasks that are assigned to them with a click. Moreover, you can set up meetings within seconds. The one-on-one meeting feature helps significantly if you want to discuss something personally. So, if you have a large remote team to manage, Slack can be a great tool.

Google Meet​

When it comes to hosting video meetings, what's better than Google Meet. If you and the participants have a Gmail account, you can host a meeting within seconds. If required, you can allow over one hundred participants on one call, which is quite amazing.

Google Meet also comes in handy when you want to share presentations. It's because of the screen sharing feature it comes with. With a click of a button, your team can view your screen. This can help in effective communication, which will keep your employees engaged.

Wrapping up​

Your employees, including the remote ones, are an asset to your company. If your employees aren't motivated or engaged, your company cannot succeed. It's the reason major companies working with remote workers are opting for the above-listed tips.

Here's a little summary of the above tips:

• Communicate more effectively: Keep them informed and listen to them.
• Make sure that your remote workers are happy: Ensure their happiness.
• Recognize the hard work: Praise them for good work.
• Set clear goals: Focus on mutually agreed expectations.
• Host regular meetings: Interact frequently.
• "All hands" Meetings: Discuss a topic common for all.
• Lay stress on culture: Focus on building a positive culture.
• Help your team manage time: use time management tools and training.
• Focus more on the work done, not how or when it's done: Focus on results.
• Don't waste your employees' time: Value your employees' time.

If you follow and implement these, you'll witness an improvement in:

• Productivity
• Efficiency
• Behavior
• And Growth

So, what are you waiting for? Start communicating now.

With so many exclusive project management methodologies and approaches available, choosing the right one for the business is challenging for many organizations. Though project managers complete project management certifications yet only a few learn the real techniques and tools to lead the project till it reaches the finish line. This article reveals the most widely used project management methodologies, project management tools, a method for remote project handling, and more. Also, learn about how to choose the best one for your future projects.

About the Project Management Methodology​

The project management methodology is the set of practices that let you manage and deliver the project successfully. It defines how to lead and execute the project with step-by-step instructions for finishing it. It turns the project life cycle into rightly structured steps.

What Does a Project Manager Do?​

Project managers are responsible for planning, pitching, managing, leading, and monitoring a project’s life cycle and its outcomes’ quality. A project manager’s responsibilities include:

Phase 1: Initiation​

• Know the stakeholders related to the project (like clients, the team involved in the execution of the project, the management, etc.).
• Make a project charter defining objectives, the methodology, etc.

Phase 2: Planning​

• Make a project management plan
• Establish the scope of the project, know the project requirements from the clients, and make a work breakdown structure (WBS).
• Schedule every project activity.
• Deciding the budget and project an estimated project cost
• Know the quality requirements
• Mae the best team for the project.
• Select the mode of communication and hierarchy for the project team.
• Conduct a risk analysis and keep the clients and team informed of the same
• Advice for the procurement matters of the project.
• Do an orientation session with project stakeholders and the team.

Phase 3: Project Execution​

• Convey the changes taken from the clients to the team.
• Help the team to communicate the technical problems with the management.
• Evaluate the team performance
• Manage the stakeholders’ expectations.

Phase 4: Monitoring the project functions​

• Direct the team to make changes if required.
• Communicating the project status to the clients.
• Monitoring if the steps of the project are going ahead chronologically and correctly.
• Control the costs and budget of every project activity

Phase 5: Closing the project​

• Take last-minute updates and get the clients’ approval for the same
• Hand over the project to the clients.
• Talk to the team about the project’s success.

Factors to Think About While Choosing the Project Management Methodology​

• Project timeline – The project submission time cited by the team must be in line with the client’s timeline. If not, it should be conveyed and sorted out in the primary phases.

• Industry-based – It is vital to accept the project that is within your business and industry’s scope. This is required as the expertise of the business taking over the project is crucial for the client’s business.

• Project budget – You should meet the client’s budget. If not, discuss with the managing director of the business taking over the project.

• The project complexity– Accept the projects only if your team can handle them. If not, pass it.

• Resources Availability– You must have the tools and resources to manage the project. If not, politely drop the offer.

• Communication – If the client doesn’t share the details of the project vividly, try to extract every detail yourself as much as possible and record it for your future reference during the project.

Widely Used Project Management Methodologies Adopted by Businesses

1. Waterfall​

It is also called Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) method for convenience. The construction of the waterfall is minimal but effective. It consists of meticulous planning and implementation – step-by-step. The project manager leading the project must strictly monitor the money allocated, the time, the value of the task, and carry it forward to the next task.

Advantages: Highly estimable budget, timeline, and other factors involved in the project Use a visual chart for the steps and moving from one department to another.

Disadvantages: Less scope for the project manager to fix the plan and rectify the errors. It is problematic for the testers to go back and catch the apt place to modify things to make it up and running effortlessly.

2. Agile​

It is primarily not a methodology but a collection of principles used to develop software. There are 4 important values for the agile methodology.

• Individuals and interactions over tools and processes.
• Working software over inclusive documentation.
• Customer partnership over contract negotiation.
• Responding to all changes over following a rigid plan.

Advantages:

It is ideal to monitor the project's vision statement, progress, roadmaps, backlogs, etc. Adapting it requires intense collaboration, flexibility, and open communication which brings high-quality outcomes.

Disadvantages:

Less communication may lead to serious chaos in the project. The absence of a systematic plan makes it hard for the team to cope with the challenging tasks.

3. Scrum​

This method is specifically used for accurate delivery purposes. The scrum-based project team possesses 5 core values:

• Commitment.
• Courage.
• Focus.
• Openness.
• Respect.

The team must be collaborative and accountable for their ups and downs. Following scrum events should be considered while opting for this methodology:

• Sprint: The journey planned must be as per the timeline and must attain the goals discussed in the development process.
• Sprint planning: The scrum team discusses every sprint from the start to as per the timeline.
• Daily Scrum: Adequate time is taken to talk about the whereabouts, challenges, and other problems while facing the task.
• Sprint review: The stakeholders must be informed about the ups and downs of the project. An informal meeting is conducted by the scrum team at the end of every sprint to show their feedback.
• Sprint retrospective: This meeting is led to establishing the developments to be done after the sprint review involving the stakeholders.

4. Lean​

The lean method focuses on customer satisfaction and preventing wastage. This method determines three kinds of waste (time, money, and resources).

Muda

Get rid of the waste immediately – the intangible wastes include time and the tangible wastes include resources. Following original wastes should be avoided:

• Overproduction.
• Transportation.
• Over-processing.
• Transfer of people and machinery from one place to another.
• Waiting for the process.
• No appropriate inventory management.
• Faulty goods and services.

Mura:​

The workflow process should be scheduled as per the decided schedule. The operational process must be even and smooth while moving from one department to another.

Muri:​

Avoid giving much stress to the employees. The value stream mapping must be up and active.

5. Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)​

The CCPM is the latest version of project methodologies adopted by the organizations. In this method, the team works backward towards the goal. It is typically used in small-scale or mid-scale projects to boost the success percentage.

Advantages:​

It lets the project team staying more focused towards the project end To avoid resources being wasted or over/underutilized.

Disadvantages:​

Losing the track of time Not suitable for big and multinational projects

6. Critical Path Method (CPM)​

It is one of the most reliable methods for project management, where the project tasks can be rearranged based on these four methods:

• Finish to Start (FS)
• Finish to Finish (FF)
• Start to Start (SS)
• Start to Finish (SF)

Why are these methods used separately? To decrease the interdependency between the team members and project tasks. Each task is taken as an individual project and eventually brought together to determine the output.

7. Prince2​

The Prince2 is prescribed by the UK government. Following basic principles to follow while choosing Prince2.

• Steady business justification.
• Experience-based learning.
• Roles and tasks are well defined.
• Stages management.
• Exception cases-based administration.
• Focus on the products.
• Fit the process as per project environment.

Advantages:

• Historical data gives a clear picture for future projections
• The heavy documentation guides are available

Disadvantages:

• Not suitable for the extensive documentation.
• Resource reorganization and surpassing the timeline are very common.

Choosing an Ideal Project Management Methodology for Your Team​

1. Timespan

It is vital to look at the timeline appropriate for the particular project.

2. Flexibility

The project management method should have room for changes across all stages.

3. Team Size

The size of the team must be as per the specifications in the method to execute the project without any risks.

4. Risk-taking Capacity

The methodology must also have space for the teams to take a risk in executing new and ground-breaking ideas within the project.

5. Budget and Cost

The chosen project method should be able to help you spend the cost planned for the project.

Remote Project Management​

To maximize your team’s productivity and speed up the project turnaround time, choose the project management method ideal for remote work.

• Kanban Method

If your team is already using the agile methodology – it’s going to be very simple.
The Kanban method is based on dividing the tasks into smaller sub-tasks and planning out the stages (till the final stage). Tools for Kanban

1. Project Management Tools like Trello and Asana, Favro, Basecamp.
2. Communication Tools like Slack, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet.
3. Time Management Tools like Clockbook, TickTick, focus booster.
4. Documentation Tools like Google Drive, Notion.

Managing a Productive Remote Project Team – Some Tips​

• Make a personal checklist to ensure each day is well planned.
• Use communication portal effectively
• Give a correct update to each other
• Hold an internal team meeting before any stakeholder meetings.
• Help the team in crisis to ensure they are on the work schedule.
• Be clear about the feedback
• Be clear about the expectations of the project.
• The goals of the project team must be as per the client's expectations.
• Use remote project management tools
• Develop a mutual trust environment for the delegation of work.

Final Thoughts​

Businesses must discover and use the new project management methodologies as these help them to control quality standards, cost, and bring many other benefits. Your project team should learn the latest methodologies to help you gain a leading edge in the industry.

For a decade we have been encountering experts and researchers discussing freelance work schedules as a future trend. The mode of work is changing and most of the knowledge workers don't consider an 8-hour workday beneficial. However, many workers still can't stick to 3 or 5-hour workdays. The 9-to-5 work structure seems to work for most people.

The article discusses the pros of the 9-to-5 workday and how users can make their 8-hour workday schedule that ensures freedom and flexibility at the same time.

The Popularity of Flexible Work Hours​

Though there are many fans both to 9-to-5 and flexible hours, the flexible hours usually taken as more attractive due to these reasons:

• You can make your workday schedule
• There is no productivity rush for 8-hours straight
• Workday appears shorter
• You enjoy full control over your time

Despite these benefits, we cannot deny the importance of traditional work hours. Flexible work is more suitable for people who master the art of time management. The 9-to-5 workday accommodates those needing to balance their life and work and cannot be relied solely on self-motivation.

In Support of the “9-to-5”​

Here we talk about the case for those finding a 9-to-5 workday is better than a flexible workday. The traditional 8-hours work schedule provides the following benefits:

1. Consistent Focus​

Usually, people find it hard to work 4 hours straight, then take a break for an hour, do other tasks, and get back to the desk for the rest of the workday. Trying to adopt a flexible schedule being a freelancer reminded me of the time when I was a teacher. My day consisted of 5 hours of teaching, breaks when students were busy in other classes, but filled with grading tests, admin work, lesson plan preparation, etc. What would typically happen is that I would get just 25% done grading tests when I was required to go into class and shift to the teaching mode. It implied focusing on a quite different type of task and ensuring I didn’t bumble about as I shifted to the zone. And after those teaching sessions, I was back in my lounge with a head buzzing from the students’ questions, textbook examples, and impressions, and trying to focus on the grading papers again. It would badly affect my speed, and I would usually end up taking my work to home.

It means I was changing the contexts upon going to that zone. And with each new task, the focus needs to be regained as these tasks are different. Thus, I preferred taking all my classes one by one, with a lunch break, and then shifting to other work or going home.

8-hour workday to help context switching​

With this big-time block, you have the time all together to finish your tasks of the day. There is no anticipation of when to stop working, going to the bank, going for grocery or making lunch. Going back to the desk after finishing such errands would cost the time needed for refocusing. Note: Switching the work context is the reality and sometimes cannot be avoided; for example, going to the bank during working hours as the bank has the same work timings. Having a flexible schedule, on the other hand, lets you shift to a new task any time of the day. However, shifting to a new task would mean focusing on a new context.

2. Clearer Boundaries​

Having regular working hours, people tend to feel relaxed and are eager for the time to pass and hit 5 or 6 on the clock. People would know that work time is over and their brain starts moving to the personal life mode. A flexible work schedule means you never really get free time as the person would be involved in the tasks for most of the day matching their energy levels. Though it is good for productivity, it makes it hard to balance work and personal life. A person cannot be relaxed fully.

3. Fixed Timing to Reach You​

Based on your workday schedule, your availability to other people is determined. With a flexible schedule, you can't tell people any fixed time when they should not reach you to ensure uninterrupted work time. You may be free multiple times a week but not at the same time and to inform your friends, family, and clients on such a frequent basis would need more planning and effort. An 8-hour workday is free from outside distraction as people know about your availability hours. Just set your status as busy or away, turn off mobile notifications, put signage on the door, etc. until you are done with the work.

4. Less overtime​

Inflexible work, the context-switching means loss of some time. It typically takes a person almost 20 minutes to go into a zone with a particular task. And the more times they switch, the longer they take to refocus.

This lost time is counted at the end of the day, making a person potentially fall behind with schedule. Or, a lax schedule where overtime seems less taxing.

5. Better work-life balance​

The global work-life balance consists of many different factors; especially the work-cutoff time. Naturally, in the presence of less overtime and clearer boundaries, it is easier to maintain a balance between work and life.

• An 8-hour workday means a clear cut-off time
• No alert throughout the day, waiting for the next block of work time;
• Fewer chances of other tasks interrupting your work time With work hours marked throughout the day, you don’t have real boundaries. You can finish your tasks after dinner or after the gym. Activities typically reserved for relaxation time. By dividing the work time, you also divide your rest time, and the two become knotted, no matter how much you try to balance them. I prefer starting my work within 15 minutes once I get up (as I work remotely), so I can complete everything by 3 PM. The feeling when seeing the time as 3:01, and knowing the workday is over, is something the most refreshing thing. Let’s discover how to make an 8-hour workday full of productivity, and not a hike to go through.

Making a Functional 8-Hour Schedule​

Find optimal work hours If you can, select the time for your 8-hour work time– whether in the morning or the afternoon. Identify your distractions and address them Handling the distractions that come your way will be easier knowing exactly what is bothering you the most.

The way to address interruption is based:

• Its type either personal or professional
• Duration of its distraction
• Time to regain focus
• If you can handle it with an app (like a Phone-locking app for focus).

3. Maintain a time card or a timesheet​

Maintaining a healthy 9-to-5 is accountable to yourself. To gain all the pros of an 8-hour workday, know when your day begins and when ends. This can be done in the following two ways:

• Maintaining a timecard

Timecards are a mode for tracking time. You just log the time when the work hours start and log again once you end. Handle the rest of the schedule through a calendar app, a to-do list, a project management platform, etc. Timecard notes the start and end of the 8-hour workday, as well as overtime if any, you have. It helps to calculate how much you earn per week. Clockbook has an embedded calculator in its browser version that further eases this calculation with no need to download separate software for earning calculation.

• Maintaining a timesheet

If you want to have more control over your schedule, use a detailed timesheet. The handiest tool is a digital timesheet, as it is easy to use, gives the way to autofill, creates templates, and usually saves time. For example, Clockbook lets you create your 8-hour work schedule in many ways: If doing it directly from the app itself, make a timesheet based on how much time you spend on each project every day. This is ideal for projects spanning across more than a week or so, and you do not need a strict hourly schedule.

• For a more detailed framework, go for Clockbook’s Google Calendar integration as noting your schedule here make the schedule precise, and the colorful blocks clearly show how your day flows – which tasks persist, or when you take the breaks, for

example.

The above image shows an 8-hour schedule, even when the tasks are different enough to warrant a productive day, with sensible context switching. Additionally, with the Clockbook timer in the calendar, it is easy to accurately fix each task on the calendar. Time cards and timesheets are great for self-accountability and ensuring being productive. It also makes future scheduling decisions easier.

This Clockbook integration for Google Calendar is great for those using Google app suites. It uses Zapier and is compatible with a mobile device, desktop, or browser. Lastly, many people like to use the “old ways” of pen and paper. You can thus simply fill in a physical calendar while being at your desk, or create a journal calendar yourself. The easiest way to track time with a physical schedule is using pre-made templates. There are many sources to choose from based on the type of schedule you want:

• Monthly
• Biweekly
• Weekly
• Daily
• Hourly Download and print these in Word, Excel, Google Docs, Sheets, and .pdf format.

Tracking your time should be your habit​

By noting when and how you get distracted, what are your peak hours, and when you use the breaks, you gather data essential for optimizing your 8-hours workflow.

Take breaks unapologetically​

If you are having an 8-hour workday, it’s suggested to take a 5-minute break after every 25 minutes of work, or a 10-minute one after every 50 minutes (we call it a Pomodoro method). Try on different work/break methods, and decide which one works best for you.

Don’t squeeze yourself for each minute of those 8 hours It’s important to know when to stop working, and the 8-hour work schedule is a great place to practice that. To optimize your productivity during this framework, embrace the structure and enjoy the time off also when you finish early.

Final Thoughts​

A 9-to-5 gives a structure, reliability, discipline, and expectancy to your work schedule. Here we tend to normalize the option of having an 8-hour workday since it has certain benefits. Just like many other factors about work productivity, this choice is also based on one’s personal preference.

Time reports bear significant importance in being a useful time tracking resource. Though most people don't like filling as it is a tedious and mundane process, know that a proper timesheet filling can save time and make you productive. This article explains how to fill time reports easily and swiftly by using a digital time tracker called Clockbook.

Determine the Kind of Timesheet Required​

You should first know the best-suited timesheet for you based on your daily tasks and the way you organize those. Some of the most common types are: Daily – It is mostly used by freelancers and employees working on an hourly basis, to track billing hours and productivity. Weekly – It is used to keep an eye on weekly work progress and to make weekly payments. Bi-weekly – It is used by businesses and employees paying and working respectively, on a bi-weekly basis. Monthly – It is used for monthly paid employees.

All these mentioned timesheets are available in template forms for those not adopting digital means. Make a printout and start taking work time.

Weekly timesheet in Clockbook

Make Tags and Categories​

Tags and categories make time tracking easier. Once putting them in place is done, you can fill in employees’ time entries with a click. Get rid of manual data entry and remembering details. The tags are based on your work, and include:

• Project-related tags
• General tags;
• Client-related tags

Tags and categories are ideal at the time of making end-of-project and client reports. Using tags, you can filter desired data to make more customized reports.

A Sample Report in Clockbook

Fix Hourly Rates for Billable Hours Tracking​

Naturally, when you’re paid by the hour and you want to have a clean, presentable report for your clients, you’ll set a specific rate. People working and paid on an hourly basis need comprehensive and swift reports to be shared with clients. These reports need a specific rate to enter as an hourly rate. By setting a currency and default rate, you can fill your time entries and generate reports instantly.

Setting Rate in Clockbook

Is it important to track non-billable hours?​

The non-billable hours usually include marketing, invoicing, preparing meetings, and making reports. Though billable hours should be more than non-billable hours, tracking these hours brings you the following benefits:

• You get to know how much non-billable take, and the ways to improve those.
• You can compare clients or projects based on the number of non-billable hours
• You can make your workflow and project management better

Track time​

There are two ways to track time:

• manually inputting the hours
• Tracking automatically

Tracking the time manually​

This is used by those who add time after the day as they have only a limited number of tasks taking most of the time. They have a more specified timetable with their time-boxes accurately planned. Hence, they can easily fill their time reports at the end of the day as they keep sticking to their plan. Additionally, they can edit time entries in case of over-or underestimation of work times.

This is how Clockbook lets you enter the time you would be spending (or have spent) working, and filing it to the time report with just a click.

Tracking the time automatically​

If you don’t set your time boxes or to-do lists, go for automatic time tracking. It is useful for those having many tasks aligned a day, Trackers like Clockbook will keep tracking your time no matter how many times you switch the app. At the end of the day, just spend 15 minutes reviewing the time entries and sort, tag, or review them in the timesheet.

Tracking and Additional Pay​

Additional pay is applicable in cases such as overtime, holiday rates, compensatory time, and on-call/emergency events.

Tracking overtime Overtime is the extra hours spent at work, because of several reasons, from strict deadlines to personal productivity problems. Legally, working more than a usual 40-hour workweek is considered overtime. And based on the day of the week and hours spent, an employer (or client) pays different rates. Usually, overtime rates are based on the country you are working in. These labor laws protect both employers and employees. Tracking compensatory time It is the time off given to employees rather than overtime pay. It is based on factors; whether you’re working in the public or private sector, salaried or hourly paid, and wage.

3. Tracking holiday rates The work hours tracking during holidays is more important since holiday rates can be different from those of regular overtime and are based on the country's labor laws. While tracking these hours, be careful to update the rates for billable hours.

4. Recording for on-call work Being on-call implies being available for work all the time whenever required. Some common examples include IT technicians, nurses, and maintenance.

On-call work may be a regular employment plan, or an occasional thing – for instance, when a business launches its new software on a Saturday and needs its developers to be ready on Sunday to address sudden or potential issues.

Tracking on-call hours are based on FLSA regulations. Decide how you will track, bill and report hours worked to keep timesheets accurate and free of misunderstandings.

Rounding time​

Time reports filing often involves the practice of rounding up hours to the closest increments. For example, if you arrive at work at 8:45 AM and leave at 4:49 PM. When calculated, that is 8hrs and 4 minutes. The 4 minutes can then be rounded down to 8 hours and 5, 10, or 15 minutes, for easier payroll calculation. Following are the most general rounding time rules:

• Rounding time entry to the closest time increment (from 7 hrs 59 mins worked to 8hrs worked)
• Rounding the clock to favor employee and the clock out to favor the employer (rounding down both time entries)
• Rounding the clock in and clock out favor of the employee

Time rounding makes payroll calculation easy and helps employers have an accurate calculation for hours worked, and ensure employees are paid fairly. The time tracking software like Clockbook, lets you round-time the entries with a simple on-off switch in the app itself.

The Timesheet Reviewing​

After filling your time entries, take the time to review them by looking at your day in a timesheet. Time trackers let you present your workday via a timesheet and edit any entry made.

Timesheet View in Clockbook

There should be an agreement with your employer or client for editing the timesheet itself. As trust is a major factor in positive business relationships, the time entry changes must be justified to avoid conflicts or misunderstandings.

Tips for Time Tracking​

Clockbook, based on the feedback from the users, helps users understand what time tracking challenges they have, and how they can beat those using the Clockbook app. Here are some tips that you might be needing.

• List the reasons for time tracking

• Filling the time reports gives clarity in case of client dispute, or even if you just want to see if you are wasting your time.

• Stick to those reasons while tracking

• No need to track absolutely everything like making a coffee or answering a call; activities under 10 minutes.

• Tracking every minor thing would lead to the following:

  • Hating time tracking
  • Wasting time on minor details
  • Frustration from being so time-focused
  • The focus would suffer.
  • Log only important data time entries

Final Thoughts​

Though time tracking consists of many elements, you can still do filling easily. Your time tracker like Clockbook can do all the complicated parts and you just have to log the hours. Time tracking is further made easier with tags, categories, descriptions, and templates available for each new project.

The technique of making a timetable is important to know because it helps you to break down your work into small segments and organize your day so you can achieve your goals by being more focused and concentrated on your work. Here is a guide to break down your daily tasks, obligations, and priorities, and it also highlights how it influences your daily life.

Decide On Daily Priorities:​

Not each assignment is an urgent one. Before the beginning of each day, break down your to-do list and know the most critical ones. These are mostly few so you can easily identify them.

Now, all you need is to break down your work into smaller portions. We’ll take a look at a plan below for a minute to know how you can attempt to memorize your work habits and move forward each day. Here is a thing you should follow to manage your time and organize yourself:

Need For Priority List:​

A priority list would help you find your most important task and to do that effectively and by doing so you will be able to set work according to your wish or workload. Some people like to do complex tasks first while others like to do simple ones first. Now it’s your choice how to prioritize your work.

Make “Before Work” Segment:​

Now, get ready with the things that you should do each day. You can do so by making a to-do list or by deciding your weekly tasks. Then make a list of your work according to your priority of that day or the things you need to do that day. It varies from person to person because everyone has their priorities, and it also varies according to your work manner.

IMPORTANCE OF THE "BEFORE WORK" SECTION:​

It is better to start your day with an easy task as it will make you feel fresh and will also boost your energy level and you will be mentally prepared for the next challenging task.

Make A “During Work” Section:​

Now the next and most important task is to break your most challenging tasks into small segments. This will make the work easier and convenient for you and by doing this, a hard task would feel like nothing and would be completed within your decided time frame. You can easily do this by making an hour-to-hour work breakdown and also sorting your priorities. This way, you will not feel exhausted or overpowered. It is better to break down your segment into two sub-segments—one that is before the meal and the other one after the meal. It’s critical to recognize how energetic you are after you’ve had a great lunch at work. Food plays a very crucial role in our daily life but most people neglect it. However, it is one of the most important things to take care of. If we don’t do so, we would not be able to work properly or efficiently.

Why Are ‘before And After Meal Segments” Essential?​

Breakdown of work schedule into before and after meal segment could help in many ways such as: First, food affects your focus and concentration; for example, heavy food would make you sleepy and idle while lighter food would not; instead, it would help you improve your concentration and feel light and active and would also motivate you to work more. Let’s say, if someone has an important task to be done, and he or she takes a heavy meal at lunch, this will make him or her sleepy. Secondly, it will help you make a better schedule of work according to your energy level. Moving assignments around your energy levels is a good practice because it saves you from fatigue and tiredness. It may seem difficult to start, but once you do, it will have a great impact on your work. Third, it motivates you not to neglect food as an imperative portion of your day. We, as a rule, get so overwhelmed with work. Either we move our dinner times until late, or we exclude them from our schedule. This runs the risk of you getting hungry and picking a fast snack.

How To Maintain Your Energy Levels:​

Due to heavy stress or pressure of work, if you feel any change in your energy level, you must take some rest and start your work again after some time because continuous work with a tired body and mind would adversely affect your work quality. It is also essential to have some coffee or snack to divert your mind, or you can also do some other light activity to freshen your mind.

Know Your Distractions:​

It is also important for you to know most of the distractions as these may have a big impact on your work. Distractions waste your time and, most importantly, lower your energy level! To overcome this problem, you can take care of it while making your work break down. For example, you use social media for a long time and waste your time. By doing this, you will not only waste your time but also miss important tasks. By avoiding your distractions, you can save time as well as energy. By putting all of your distractions on the table, you would be able to find their solution. This will help you improve your work and achieve success in a limited time.

Incorporate A Workday Cooldown:​

A workday cools down is the period between work and free time. It includes those tasks that mean to be done at the "end of the day" just like your morning habits help you to boost your energy and make you active, so there must be some time to ease yourself from the smaller task to end your day well. After completing our work, we usually start pondering over what to do next and start to make a next day work plan. This transition is as sudden as it takes our brain to shut-off work mode.

The Need For Workday Cooldown:​

After a hectic workday, a cooldown is imperative because it will give you a sense of relief and pleasure. It'll assist you to walk away from the frustration of all your day. In making a cooldown yourself, you would like to do minor things; for example, making a to-do list for tomorrow and planning your following day’s assignment. This will give you a sense of achievement and energize you for another day's work. By utilizing this procedure, you'll discover yourself prepared for the following day's assignment with more energy.

Clockbook Workday Breakdown:​

Clockbook monitors web and app usage when working. If it identifies abundance time on YouTube, Facebook, or personal/non-work-related sites, it alarms the client with a popup. It, too, sends a reminder when the computer sits idle for as long as working hours. Distraction alerts remind you and your group to remain focused on important tasks during working hours. Clockbook helps you and your group focus on urgent things. By analyzing project reports, you'll effectively see what takes up the most time and makes changes in your effectiveness at each level.

Since the time remote working witnessed a boom, many businesses observed that is not the same as working in the office, especially when it comes to remote employee engagement as such employees have new distractions at home and feel detachment from the office. Though difficult, remote employee engagement is important. This article discusses the same and helps businesses know the ways to exploit to keep their remote team inspired.

Engaged Remote Employees – The Benefits​

Traditionally, employee engagement serves as a means to connect with the team. Now, it also involves motivation, friendship, loyalty, and fulfillment. Firstly, leverage the latest technology for remote employees’ engagement. It makes every team member feel both professionally and emotionally attached to the business, which leads to higher productivity, better results, and a healthier environment. Engaged employees are vital for keeping other employees motivated.

Keeping Your Remote Employees Engaged​

1. Conduct Weekly Monday Meetings

Provide directions and guidance to your team that just started working remotely. Conduct weekly Monday meetings to start the week and provide your team a great viewpoint of what you expect of them. Meetings are also important to know about other projects' progress. Such meetings let you delegate tasks to employees while measuring their workload. It does not just let employees connect with you but also raise any concerns they have.

Tips to run effective meetings

• Conduct Formal And Informal Meetings

Always begin your Monday meetings informally chatting and connecting. Give a few minutes to the team to inform them what they did over the weekend and whatever else is going on in their personal lives. This ensures your team is relaxed and comfortable before you start discussing the work and responsibilities. Also, make your employees more responsive. Once you break the ice between yourself and them, it will help them see you in a better light. They will count on you to help them, which helps build genuine bonds with the team.

• Do “All-Hands” Meetings

In these meetings, your whole team is gathered to talk about the topics related to them all. Such meetings remind the team of the company culture, values, direction, and planning. These meetings also engage the teams by giving members a chance to interact and know each other and form a friendly bond. This gives you a solid team with solid relationships. As per research, if people have their good friends at work, their productivity and engagement increase.
You can do these meetings at least per quarter via Google Meet.

2. Build Interpersonal Relationships​

Interpersonal relationship among your teammates is the most important factor to ensure engagement. One way to ensure this is to encourage the employees to work in smaller teams or groups or even pairs. This develops a bond among the team members. This also brings more synergy and creativity to their work. However, while ensuring your employees create the kinds of such relationships on their own, place a solid teamwork ethos on board that they should rely on.

Consider the Time Zones​

One of the advantages of working across various time zones is that you can send work to your team before you go to sleep. They work on the same and send it back to me when I wake up. This makes a kind of windmill effect, advancing the project even when other members are sleeping or offline. This means the schedule of work is never dead, and the team is working towards something as a group, bit by bit. Another benefit of remote workers is associated with cost savings. For instance, suppose you launch a blog and want to hire someone to handle it. The blog itself will be cheap to run, but the manpower cost will quickly add up. If you get the manpower remotely from less expensive markets, you can save the cost by 50% or more.

Best Software for Remote Employees Engagement

1. Slack​

Slack is one of the most commonly used software to manage remote teams. It is like a virtual office and lets managers form multiple channels for various purposes to avoid unrelated work distracting team members not relevant to that purpose. With Slack, you can make virtual calls between team members, and set up meetings. It lets employees update what they’re working on, and call each other if they need any information or help. This tool helps keep the employees engaged because it is easy to use for all kinds of team members.

2. Google Meet​

Just like Slack does voice calls, Google Meet does video calls. It has risen as the most effective video calling platform and has an easy to use interface. If you have your Gmail account, you can make a public or private call and connect to your remote teams with calls or meeting links. Switching from voice to video calls is easier in Google Meet. It has a built-in sharing feature and offers the best quality video and audio calls. The tool is lightweight and doesn’t consume much data. If your remote team is huge in number, still the voice calls will be clear.

3. Project Management Software: Asana vs. Trello​

Keeping employees engaged is not only about making them feel happy and fulfilled—it’s also about keeping them focused. A 2013 study showed that up to 70% of employees in the United States were actively disengaged in their jobs, and it’s not much better elsewhere.

Employee engagement also means keeping employees focused, and not just fulfilled and happy. One of the studies conducted in 2013 shows that 70% of the U.S, employees were disengaged. To avoid this, it is required to keep employees comfortably busy. It can be done by visualizing them working in the office. For this, take help from project management software like Trello and Asana.

Both these tools highlight tasks as per project as well as a responsible employee. Remote workers keep the status of their tasks updated and can get assigned for other tasks in real-time. Trello, though, is more functional in specific tasks while Asana focuses mainly on the complete projects.

Remote Employee Engagement: At a Glance

Keep these points for your remote team:

• Your team members are human. Though they are working from home, they still seek encouragement.
• Working remotely seems lonely for many. Talk to your team members about personal life too sometimes.
• Remote workers usually have fewer distractions. Encourage them to show more productivity.
• Keep regular check-ins with your team.
• Divide tasks into bite-size pieces, and ensure the team updates the status via project management tools like Trello or Asana.
• Conduct meetings every week to set expectations for remote employees.
• Conduct both formal and informal meetings
• Conduct meetings with your team once per quarter
• Encourage team collaboration and working together.
• Use different time zones so that remote teams can keep the ball rolling without being not restricted to a single time zone.

Eventually, the remote team’s effectiveness is vital to the organization's success. Engagement is a major element of effectiveness, though it goes wrong, it harms output in a manner that’s hard to quantify.

With this being said, you should focus on the engagement for building and engaging the remote team. In the end, engaged employees tend to work faster and better, and make a healthier working environment too.

Timesheet is one of the best tools to measure productivity since it keeps a track of employee's working hours. Timesheets not only help keep track of employee's time, but also make it easier to bill them accordingly. Nowadays, there are many apps (paid and unpaid both) available in the market to maintain timesheets, but there are very few which are at the top and Google Sheets is one of them. Looking for an app to maintain timesheets? Then you have come to the right place, as we will discuss everything here from the pros and cons and answer all “what” and “why” of timesheets. And if you are searching for something even better and more outstanding than the Google timesheet? Then just dig into the article.

What is a Timesheet?​

"A timesheet is a method for recording the amount of a worker's time spent on each job." - Wikipedia

To keep track of the employee's working hours, both time in and out of the task the employee is working on needs to be recorded and maintained in a systematic, easy to read, and analyze manner.

If you are familiar with this concept, then the first thing that may come to your mind is none other than excel or paper (in the traditional case). Indeed, a timesheet can be made on paper, as well as excel but to use advanced timesheet features than paper, google sheets is a wise choice.

Google sheets not only have advanced features with a strong community, but is also free of cost and easy to learn.

Why Google Timesheet?​

With many other options available in the market, the first question that arises is why Google sheet for Timesheet? The following reasons might answer your questions:

1. Flexibility:​

Google sheet is flexible and can be easily customized to one's needs. Google sheet can be used for multiple other purposes just like excel other than a just timesheet. In short, it is easy to create, edit and customize.

2. Crash-Proof Templates:​

There is a myriad of templates available for timesheets as well as other tasks ranging from minutes of meetings to reports and even payrolls. The best thing that makes google sheet stand out from other apps is its crash-proof templates.

3. Cross-Device Accessibility:​

Unlike Excel, Google sheets can be accessed from anywhere at any time, if you have an internet connection and account with access to that file. It is easy to share with your teammates and can be viewed on laptops, monitors, and even mobiles with no installations. This makes it easy for the employees to fill in the clock-in and clock-out timings from anywhere and at any time.

4. Compatibility:​

Google has a big and strong community, and it becomes even more evident when we talk about compatibility. Many applications (like Slack, Trello, Clockbook, etc.) support google sheets as a plug-in, which makes it easier to use in conjunction with other applications.
The data can be synchronized and shared from one app to another with simply a click of a button, and this makes google sheets even more attractive.

5. Security:​

The Google sheets are secure, and the security is easy to maintain, even when sharing the sheets with other employees. There are options to only give, read, or write access or give admin access according to your preferences. There are also options to prevent other people from downloading your sheets. All this may sound complex but is quite easy to maintain simply by a click of a button.

6. User-Friendly UI:​

Google sheet is quite easy to learn and use, it can be taught to anyone having minimal to no knowledge in a matter of minutes. Especially if someone is already familiar with Excel, then learning Google sheets will be easy for them.
Even if the employee is slow to learn, then he/she can use custom templates that already have 50% of the work done. Then while editing the template according to his/her needs he/she will be able to learn the tool even better and faster.

The Cons of Google Sheet Timesheets:​

The grass is not always greener on the other side, and the same applies here. Even though Google sheets is a cost-effective solution for most of the timesheet problems, it is not always the best choice, and below are some reasons why:

1. Manually Cumbersome:​

Google timesheets can automate the calculations, but you will have to manually type in most of the data, and that can be quite cumbersome in most situations. There is a portion of your time being wasted in only filling in the entries, and then there is also a chance of you forgetting to fill in an entry.

2. Extra Hiring:​

In a big company with 1000s of employees, these timesheets can become a real nightmare. As it is impossible to check them all at once and some extra hiring might be required to process all those timesheets and make them valuable in a brief time. Since timesheet requires post-processing which may include:

• Another template to link other tasks with timesheets (like payroll).
• Manual timesheet analysis of the failing and top employees.
• Warning the employees who fail to meet the criteria, periodically.
• Dealing with an error possibility.

Such tasks can only be done by an expert with Google sheet's advanced knowledge.

3. Post-processing and training:​

Not anyone can post-process the timesheet data, and an expert might be needed to perform all the post-processing on time. It is not easy to perform payroll calculation, progress warning, attendance tracking, etc. with a timesheet alone and requires expert knowledge. Analysis needs to be done to fish out any insincere entries, and only experienced personnel can carry these out. Similarly, employees need to be trained for complex calculations other than just simply entering clock in and clock out timings. Calculations like percentages, aggregations, medians, etc. need to be taught if required by the company.

4. Simple Features:​

You will find only the basic features which are necessary to maintain a timesheet. However, to add additional functionality, you would have to spend extra effort and time yourself. The following are some of the features that you might require but will not find in the Google timesheet:

• Automatic Productivity report.
• Distraction Alerts.
• Automatic clock-in and clock-out.
• Automatic Attendance Reports etc.

Some of these tasks may require additional templates and complex linking to be calculated, while others are simply not possible or will require a third-party plug-in only if available.

5. Prone To Human Errors:​

Wherever there is human intervention, there is a possibility of human error. The clock in and clock out timings are all manual and there is a chance of missing an entry or two. Then there is also a possibility of missing or adding an extra zero where it was not required, which can be quite dangerous.
There might be a semantic or runtime error due to errors in formulas, which makes google sheets even more vulnerable.

Not Satisfied with Google Timesheets? Use Clockbook​

Google sheets might have their own set of benefits but if their cons are something you cannot afford, especially the manual parts of it, then you need to try out Clockbook.
Clockbook is like a super updated version of Google Sheets Timesheets and can help you where google sheets cannot.

What is Clockbook?​

Clock book is an advanced timesheet software for employees. It leans more towards the automatic side as compared to google timesheets.

Clockbook may be a paid software, but it is the cheapest among its competitors with equal or even more features. It generates automatic reports without any human interference. The following are some key reasons to opt for Clockbook:

1. Easy Time Tracking:​

It has now become easier to fill in the clock-in and clock-out timing, by simply pressing a button instead of typing in and calculating yourself. Other than that, if you feel clicking a button is cumbersome, then there is also an advanced feature. This feature automatically starts tracking time once the system is turned on.

2. Automatic Reports:​

You don't have to spend effort in doing all the research on formulas and templates for generating reports as it does all the work itself automatically. Clockbook generates the following reports:

• Summary report
• Detailed report
• Weekly report
• Exporting reports
• Sharing reports
• Filtering reports
• Creating custom reports
• Viewing your employees’ hours
• Hourly rates The above reports can also be shared and downloaded in multiple formats, from CSV to PDF.

3. Tracking Productivity:**​

After some entries, the user Dashboard shows you immediately how much time you have tracked each day and where you spent most of your time.

It is still easier to keep track of individual productivity, but when it comes to team it gets harder. But with Clockbook, you can track where each team and person spend their time, analyze data, and produce improvements. These features are just like icing on the cake as there are many more amazing features available and some are to come, from which some are mentioned below:

• Lock timesheets
• Time rounding
• Time audit
• Alerts
• Hide Time and Pages
• Targets and reminders
• Add time for others.
• Project templates etc.

Conclusion:​

It has become clear now, that even creating timesheets is possible in google sheets, but since, google sheets are great generic software but are not designed specifically for timesheets. So, if you want detailed and accurate timesheets analytics, then you should opt for Clockbook.