6 Reasons Time Tracking Is Essential In Post-Pandemic World

The pandemic experience ignited the development of new business management trends, in particular, deploying time tracking practices. We explore 6 reasons allowing to forecast that the strong presence of time tracking will keep on and become essential in the post-pandemic.

time tracking

Brief ⚡

Due to the pandemic experience, businesses face big transformations: one of them relates to exploring the tools capable of creating the best remote work environment.

a symbol of time tracking trend on the rise

Trends that will shape the post-pandemic job market include a strong presence of remote work and a global expansion of remote job offers from companies of all sizes.

According to Gartner research,

48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19.  

It requires a demonstration of a new level of operational efficiency by businesses that have to provide not only effective leadership but means of employee wellbeing.

Otherwise, remote work hurdles like insufficient equipment provoking a lack of employees' visibility and linking with a decline in employee performance might cause a business productivity decrease.

alarm clock and text demand for time tracking is big

In particular, companies turned to digitalized solutions for unobtrusive and efficient time tracking as the capable means of accountability for employees and employees.

But since advanced time tracking systems like TMetric have lots to offer, the benefits of time tracking in post-pandemic exceed the accuracy of work time calculations.  

Below, there are the top 6 reasons behind the growing popularity of time tracking as the trend allowing us to feel post-pandemic optimism.  

Reason #1: Limiting Interruptions ⏱️️

a drawing of a girl is listening to words from the loudspeaker

Problem: Interruptions are killing our productivity. We had a serious productivity problem due to a growing number of interruptions before the pandemic, and in the post-pandemic it’s only getting worse.

Indeed, what we are facing now is interruption overload (notifications from multiple communication channels, often widely dispersed), and it’s the reason we can't get things done and accomplished. That is where time tracking offers a straightforward and easy solution.

Solution for Increased Productivity by Feature

Timeline visualizing workday, its start and end, and activity bars, which allows us to pick time slots and create an interruption-free environment by practicing timeboxed performance of specific tasks.

Getting a comprehensive view of worktime will help take control of most on-screen stimuli and temptations by setting time restrictions for overused apps.

Benefit: Time tracking software eliminates employees' duplicate labor and saves time and money. Most importantly, it allows navigating the day with confidence by avoiding interruptions and falling into traps of overwork, or decreased productivity.

Reason #2: Building Trust 👨🏿👩‍🦱👱‍♀️👨‍🦰

a drawing of a team of two people are climbing up to get a prize

Problem: With imprecise work time calculations, there is no sense of work completion, and setting boundaries on work to achieve work life balance gets much more challenging.

The issue amplifies for remote workers: 22% of remote workers state unplugging after work as the major problem.

Promise: Time tracking reports can walk you through the actual workflow and show:

  • your most productive hours and overall activity
  • apps and services you use most.

Read more on changes in the distribution of productivity peaks during the pandemic.

Getting insights from the collected data will be helpful if you want to:

  • improve your time and energy management
  • reduce anxiety about the evaluation of performance
  • arm yourself with time metrics for a deeper dive into your productivity.  

Additionally, syncing time tracking data will also help create a more productive work environment making a positive impact not only on the domain of efficiency but on employee wellbeing as well.

Solution for Building Trust by Features

Time tracking reports. Synchronization across any platform and device.  

Benefit: Secure storage of time tracking data and full visibility of work processes not only onsite but in remote and hybrid work mode, cultivating habits essential for building a healthy work environment (accountability and collaboration based on trust).  

Important Note: People are more likely to say 'no' to tracking of any kind if they don't know how and when it is being carried out, or if they don't feel trusted at work.

HR managers and employers need to develop clear policies of time tracking, or employees may resist monitoring irrespective of its purpose.

Reason #3: Reducing Stress 🙆🏿🙆‍♂️

a drwaing of a girl who is doing yoga

Problem: Pour your energy into work while you are working and leave work behind once your workday is over. It is known as an effective measure against long-term stress and burnout. But in lots of cases, it sounds easier said than done.

Indeed, employees tracking their time manually waste a considerable amount of time and mental energy. But if they try time tracking that makes the start and the end of a workday literally visible on the timeline of the time tracker, setting boundaries on work will be accomplished automatically.  

Solution for Stress Management by Feature

Automating work time calculations will bring a clear vision of the actual workload in terms of time consumption and help identify blockages in workflows and reduce stress by enabling employees to set clear boundaries on work and life.  

Benefit: Since working from home gives employees a high degree of flexibility, applying time tracking solutions that remove the burden of performing routine tasks makes a positive impact on stress management and wellbeing of employees.

Reason #4: Navigating Among Different Pay Rates ⌛💸💲

a drawing of scales with money and time as demonstration of trade off

Problem: Globally, businesses face growing challenges. Their distribution is more widespread than ever before. Adapting to new workflows and working within various workflows requires straightforward solutions. At the same time, they try to improve collaboration and scale their operations.

How can you upscale your business when its success depends on a clear vision and timely completion of multiple projects?  

Solution for Project Management by Feature

When you have employees with time-based pay rates of various kinds, you can set billable and non-billable hours as well as choose among different project rates.

Benefit: Setting rates for projects directly from your time tracker will be of great assistance for facilitating the process of estimation and planning the project, and assigning tasks to your remote team without risk of overload.

Reason #5: Calculating PTO 🌴☀️⛱️

a hat, sunglasses and words manage time off

Problem: The relationship between poor mental health and productivity, as well as the ability to do your job well, is well documented.

The option for requesting time off directly from a time tracker is a powerful means of building flexibility strategies by technology-driven companies aiming at being future-proof in the remote-first reality.  

Solution for PTO by Feature

Obviously, business profitability must not come at the expense of employees' well-being. Hence, it is essential for organizations to go with employee timekeeping software that allows them to calculate both payroll and time off, such as shown with Time Off Module.  

Benefit: Taking a break is an essential stress-relieving tactic. Thus, in cases when companies provide employees with means of time off planning, it will guarantee to benefit both employers and workers as having the effective instruments of time off management proves to increase productivity and improve business efficiency.

Reason #6: Providing Unrivaled Project And Team Management 🧑‍💻👩🏽‍💻

a drwaing of two people are discussing a project

Problem: Due to the growing complexity of projects and challenges of remote team management, project managers need new solutions that would ensure maintenance of productivity and effectiveness of teamwork irrespective of team size and type (onsite, fluid, fully remote, etc.).

Whether your team operates within Agile or Waterfall, your time tracking
should cater to the needs of remote teams and project management with features respectively addressing the main pain points of remote work (assignment of tasks, approval of time estimates, project tracking, etc.).  

Promise: As we reimagine work in the post-pandemic era, project managers consider how time tracking can help facilitate teamwork and improve communication. Since time tracking excludes assumptions and brings project management to a level of accurate estimates, it makes teamwork more secure and less fragmented.

Solution for Team Management by Features

With a host of features like recurring billing for a fixed fee projects, setting project budgets, etc., project managers get the power-ups that save time and energy for project completion on time and resources for efficient team management.  

Time tracking with the functionality of task management is capable of creating a predefined schedule and, thus, reducing the burden of admin work. Avoid burning your project budget - with the option of notifying the users of exceeding the budget, project managers can expect a higher level of control of project implementation.  

Benefit: Time tracking and project tracking functionality in one tool is a productive brew that brings visibility of all the particles constructing a workflow.

Concluding Thoughts🔖

  • As a result of the proliferation of the coronavirus, lots of employees are likely to keep on working from home on a regular basis implying that employers will be actively deploying employee monitoring and time tracking technologies to respond to the challenges of remote business management.
  • If you want to prevent work overload or avoid remote work obstacles caused by increased frequency of virtual communication, you need to plan a build a better time management strategy, and time tracking is its core component.
  • It helps avoid situations when employers and employees turn out to be at odds over trust and transparency in the remote work environment by providing the accuracy of work time calculations, ensuring their secure storage, and assisting in employee burnout prevention.  
  • That is why we created TMetric that automatically does the hard part for you when it comes to project and team management: you can easily track your time without getting in the way with web, desktop, mobile app, and Google Chrome extension.

🌟We provide the best time tracking solutions that will be time and energy-saving, especially for remote teams to ensure that projects are completed on time, every time.