Expanding your offering to current clients and taking on new clients is the lifeblood of business growth. Without business growth, you are faced with two options in that either your business will stagnate or decline. Clearly, growth is the preferable option of the three. But how can we be certain that we are doing everything in our power to align ourselves with business growth?
For a start, you may want to pay attention to the types of clients on your books. Why? Because your portfolio speaks volumes about who you are as a business. If all you have to show for yourself is some sketchy on-off work for a few local companies that trade in less than wholesome markets, your company is going to look guilty by association. Second, when you do have big clients signing up to your services, you are missing a trick if you choose not to time track your projects.
Why Track Time?
Time tracking is the fastest way to gain insight into how your staffing resources are currently deployed (check out software options from freshbooks.com).
Time tracking comes down to one word – profitability. How do you know if your staffing resources are deployed in the best way? Perhaps you have too many resources dedicated to a single task. This could mean that you are paying too much in exchange for income that is less than profitable. Conversely, you could also find that your staffing resources are being stretched to breaking-point in order to meet deadlines.
Where you are unaware that staff cannot cope with the tasks being asked of them, you may be inadvertently driving employees to search for other employment opportunities. With time tracking, you can easily spot where too many hours are being spent on task completion.
From either the point of view that you could be under or over resourcing certain tasks, time tracking can help to resolve issues as they emerge before deeper problems over profitability and staffing have the chance to develop.
Communicate with Your Staff about Time Tracking
Time tracking can be a shock to the system for some staff members. It’s not easy to go from working in your usual manner to being told that you have to keep detailed notes over how you spend your working minutes.
Some staff may see it as an imposition, or as if you are asking them to spy on themselves to contribute to your reasons for firing them where time tracking shows a lack of work. To this end, many staff will start to ramp up their work schedules and put in extra hours in an attempt to appear indisposable (see how to help staff feel valued).
Remember, time tracking is a useful tool for business owners and false time tracking is no use to anybody. Not to you. Not to your staff. And not your clients. Take the time to communicate with your staff. Explain the reasons for the introduction of the new time tracking measures. Nobody likes to feel watched at work, so ensure your staff understand how time tracking can help to protect them from being overworked.
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