Get Almost Passive Time Tracking in Outlook – The EASY Way
Traditional time tracking approaches can be quite a hassle for both employees and managers, creating a lot of frustration and also making the results inaccurate.
Luckily there is an approach where you can get almost passive time tracking with a few simple steps.
Read on and see how you can make the process so much easier and at the same time your employees happier.
Traditional time tracking can be a hassle
If you’re in a professionally run company or organization you know how essential time tracking is. That being said, in a lot of organizations however the chosen timesheet solution often results in the process being a hassle as well as time-consuming.
Often users will need to log in to different software programs and remember what they did and when they did it. Since it’s often done in a hurry on top of this, it often ends up with the result being inaccurate. That is, if it gets done at all.
Furthermore the focus is often just on hitting a specific target number of hours (40 per week for example) instead of reporting what has actually been done (Monday from 9 to 10 meeting with client, for example).
This is also often because employees will need to access a different tool and also learn how to navigate this, which can be frustrating and take a lot of time.
It also means having to interrupt what you are doing, that is the actually work that you should be doing, just to report your hours. This means spending a lot of time reporting time, which could otherwise have been used for actual work.
Not an ideal situation. So what can you do?
Getting almost passive time tracking with the right software
With the right software solution, you can make time reporting a really easy thing for everybody. With the right solution you can get almost passive time tracking, meaning that the process will be really easy for your employees, with no hassle at all.
If you’re using Microsoft Outlook, including the Microsoft Outlook calendar, then build on that and leverage the knowledge and infrastructure that you already have in place. Use a solution like TimeSheet Reporter, where you can easily report your hours via your Outlook calendar, by turning your calendar entries into time entries.
When creating a calendar entry you just add a few extra fields (Organization, Project and Activity) and the time tracking is done.
You can then optionally submit your hours for approval and have a supervisor approve them.
It’s really easy and requires almost nothing from your end-users, meaning that you will get almost passive time tracking in Outlook.
The result on top of this will almost always be that the time reporting will be more accurate since it builds on your calendar appointments which you are already maintaining. Furthermore your time reporting will actually get done.
Can passive time tracking software make your employees happier?
Making your employees’ daily work-life more easy will undoubtedly make them more happy. As a manager or leader, it is your job to make sure that your employees can as easily as possible focus on their actual work tasks, and not by making their life more complicated.
This is why passive time tracking software like TSR, where you make time reporting really, really easy for them, will benefit both them and your organization.
Your employees will no longer have to enter different software programs. They will no longer have to remember what they did and when they did it, and they will no longer need to interrupt their actual work to do this.
They simply report their hours almost automatically via Outlook.
When they create an appointment in Outlook the time reporting aspect is handled seamlessly, and they only need to select a few options and that’s it. Really easy, and something that will definitely make them happier about their work.
On top of this, make sure that you also show them how the solution will benefit them personally. Show them how they can easily access reports so that they can get an overview of their own time. You can here set it up, so that you can select if they should be able to see all hours reported in their organization or for example only their own hours.
Involve them in the process and let them experience how much easier this will be for them.
Also make sure that you communicate that time tracking is not for spying on them, but to help them and the organization to see how time is being spent, so that everybody can optimize accordingly.
Having all this in mind will definitely help making your employees happier.
Making your organization stronger
Having a good time reporting solution in your organization will no doubt benefit everybody, including individual employees, management as well as the organization as a whole.
Leveraging the strong reports that come with the system, you can easily get an overview over how time has been spent, and optimize accordingly.
With the right solution, your staff can also focus on their actual work tasks instead of tracking time and being interrupted by this.
Supervisor approval will also be a huge benefit, since you can then make sure that everything is as it should be before you use the numbers for management reports, payroll, invoicing, etc.
Furthermore, if you have the need for it, you should also find a solution that let’s you report expenses like hotel, mileage, etc. easily within the same solution, and also the option of having hourly rates.
Next steps
So now you know which way to go. So go to TimeSheet Reporter’s website and sign up for a free account. Implement it and see how much easier it makes life for everybody, including both employees and management.
Reap all the benefits of passive time tracking software, and get more accuracy, happier employees, better competitiveness and a much more optimized organization.
Do it now.
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