Do you use Timesheets or not in your company?
There are 2 philosophies of Resource Management in Service organizations; either to manage employee time with Timesheets or not.
The choice is clear for certain types of organizations that bill hours to their clients such as law firms and consultants.
However, in many other sectors, such as companies that place or subcontract resources with their clients, they can bill by the week or month for the total number of resources placed. One can also imagine the same case for companies that develop software that they sell under license; for which the need to compile the hours of employees is less obvious or not necessary.
Why compile hours worked on a Timesheet?
There is a significant aspect behind this management choice; namely, that performance management implicitly requires measuring a ratio of deliverables to hours. In a sense, the manager wants to be able to measure the time used by his employees (and therefore the profitability) for specific tasks, deliverables, projects, etc.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the compilation of hours worked is not in itself a coercive measure; if the time is compiled, then the employee and the employer can clearly agree on the compensation or rate for overtime.
And let’s not forget the rumors that the philosophy of some large tech companies not to clock in and out under the guise of flextime also sometimes resulted in the calling of shifts that stretch and stretch and stretch into the night and on weekends. Anyway…
Project Management
In our opinion, those who are thinking of using Timesheets to control their employees are in the wrong.
Our philosophy is that timesheets are a pillar of profitability for projects of all kinds. Timesheets allow you to know exactly how much your projects are costing you compared to what you planned and therefore, how profitable they are.
Also, if you follow your timesheets assiduously or with the help of a business intelligence software, you will be able to identify certain performance metrics and define criticality thresholds.
For example, with Timesheets, you can compare the hours worked with the hours planned in the Project and be aware immediately of problems and drifts in progress or to come. In short, you will be able to prevent the storm… and save yourself painful discussions with your clients.
There are countless horror stories about government projects, construction projects, software implementations, etc. There is no doubt that the knowledge of appropriate metrics could have saved the day in many cases!
In a word, the TimeSheet is the best friend of the Manager, the Employee… and of the Client.
Timesheets Benefit to the Client
The benefit of Timesheets for the Client is also to know the precise number of hours spent on each project or service he has purchased; thus, the Client is able to calculate his project or service cost and consequently, make better investment and better supplier decisions.
Every client should require their suppliers to use Timesheets for both Project Tracking and Billing.
This would be a win-win situation, in our opinion.
Have you ever considered using timesheets in a telecommuting environment or if you were hiring external resources?
And now, imagine that you have at hand such a timesheet and expense management software to help you better manage your employees in any context or better manage your external resources?
Food for Thoughts.
Leave a Reply