Here is why your team hates filling up timesheets
The timesheet is a hated but necessary tool in the workplace. It can cause friction between managers and their teams, as it infantilize employees, and it’s just generally a pain to fill out.
But there must be a better way!
It’s a necessary task that cannot be fully automated.
If you’re a manager, it’s likely that you asked your team to fill out timesheets. Timesheets are a pain. But it’s a necessary task that cannot really be automated.
Timesheeting is a process that requires someone to calculate how much time he has spent on each task, and then add up that work over the course of their month (or even just one day). This means every time someone completes a task, it gets recorded in their timesheet — which makes sense for budget tracking and/or payroll management.
Timesheets are a pain because they’re not automated — you have to manually input every task that needs tracking, which means you can’t forget about any tasks or move them around (or worse: accidentally delete them). This can lead to errors and delays in reporting timesheets as well as other problems like payroll errors due to inaccurate data entry or missing information on reports.
Timesheets waste a lot of time
The amount of time spent filling out timesheets is ridiculous. There are so many steps involved in creating, uploading and verifying them that it’s no wonder so many people hate doing it. We’ve all been there: You’ve got a deadline fast approaching and you need to get your team working on something quickly — so what do you do? You throw together some quick forms using Excel or Google Docs (or whatever software your company uses), send them over with an email reminding everyone they need to fill out their timesheet by Monday afternoon…and then wait around until Monday afternoon rolls around before realizing that nobody actually filled them out because they forgot about it completely!
Timesheets are annoying
Timesheets are annoying to fill out.
Timesheets are annoying to track.
Timesheets are annoying to audit (and this is a big one).
Timesheets are annoying for your team members because they’re often unclear, messy, and inconsistent with the rest of their workflows . And that’s just on top of all the other reasons people hate timesheet management: it’s complicated and tedious work; it gets in the way of actual work; etc., etc., etc…
Timesheets make your team feel infatilized and resent authority.
You may think that you are creating a system that helps employee to keep track of their time, but in reality it only makes them resent authority.
Employees will resent having to fill out timesheets because they know how much more difficult it is for them to work properly when they have to do so many things at once. They may also resent having to take notes on the timesheet itself and will often complain about this process by saying things like:
“I hate filling out these stupid forms!”
This resentment can turn into frustration towards higher-ups who enforce this policy on their teams; they may begin thinking that everyone involved in the process is out of touch with reality (which isn’t true).
It’s annoying to have a new system every time you start working at a new place.
Our fellow consultants will agree : when you start working at a new company, they will have their own system that they use. It can be either an HR suite, or an home made tool. This can be frustrating because it means that you have to learn the process all over again and then adapt to their way of doing things. It is also hard for contractors and freelancers that sometimes have to fill in timesheets TWICE. In two different tools, one for the customer company, and one for the consultancy firm. This really is something bothering for everyone.
There’s gotta be a better way!
You may be wondering if there’s a better way to track work time. There are plenty of great tools out there, but they still need to be validated and made available in your company culture.
A new solution to timesheet management
With a digital solution like Digitime, you can get rid of paper timesheets and spend less time filling them in. The system will automatically generate reports based on your employees’ performance, allowing you to see the real-time results of their work so that you can allocate resources appropriately.
Furthermore, with automated timesheets, no one needs to waste time thinking about what they should be doing next — the system takes care of that for them! With real-time insights into your employees’ productivity levels and allocated budgets, there’s no need for any further discussion among team members about how best to use those funds. Furthermore, since everything is done digitally through an app or website like Digitime, it’s easier for everyone involved (including for managers) because there aren’t any mistakes made during reporting periods due to manual errors caused by paperwork like writing down numbers incorrectly onto separate pieces of paper.
Wrapping up
It is no surprise that the team hates filling in timesheets. It can be a tedious process and if you have to complete it every week or month, then it becomes even more of a chore.
It is therefore important for your employees to understand what the purpose of the timesheet is, how it works and why they should fill them out every week/month.
Using Digitime, you can set up a system where employees can update their worktime using their mobile phones so that they don’t have to carry around paper copies of their time sheets, or log in to their specific work system. As well, plugging in their worktools will automatically fill up their timesheet.
This way, you and your team will significantly reduce the pain of timesheet management at the end of the month, and have more time to focus on what’s the most important : keeping on doing your job right.
