As more companies hire remote employees, time tracking is becoming more important. Its goal is to help firms ensure high productivity levels for their teams. If your company uses remote time tracking, you may have wondered how it achieves this. In this article, we’ll explore remote time tracking and learn about how it works.
What is remote time tracking?
Before we get to our main topic, let’s cover the basics. Remote time tracking is a strategy used to boost the productivity of remote employees. It usually involves the use of time tracking software which can be installed on many platforms. Remote worker time tracking is very simple to implement, which has made it quite popular. You even can use time tracking if your company doesn’t offer remote work arrangements. This is because it is excellent for boosting the productivity of in-office employees as well.
Why should your company use time tracking?
Remote time tracking offers many benefits for companies. This makes the strategy a no-brainer for lots of firms. Let’s now explore why you should start using time tracking software today.
Boost productivity
One of the primary reasons for implementing remote time tracking is to boost productivity. Time tracking apps can help professionals avoid distractions and allocate their time efficiently. They do this with various features that have become standard for high-quality time trackers. We’ll explore some of these a bit later in this article.
Prevent burnout
Tying into our last point, burnout is a major reason for low productivity. Burnt-out professionals will not only perform worse but they’re also more likely to leave their jobs. This issue stems from overworking, which is easy to prevent with remote time tracking. All you will need to do is track the working hours of your staff to ensure they don’t have unhealthy habits. You’re able to set up reminders or even make the remote time tracker automatically stop tracking once a team member has worked too much.
Pay staff accurately
Remote time tracking can help you pay your team members accurately. By tracking how long your staff work, you’ll be able to pay them an hourly rate. This is especially useful if you have freelance employees, or offer flexible work schedules. In the long term, this can help you reduce payroll expenses. Moreover, having more confidence in your freelance employees will enable you to hire more of them. You can then use this to improve the performance of your company.
How do remote time trackers work?
Remote time trackers are very simple. They are typically multi-platform software solutions with interfaces. To start tracking time, your employees will have to click a button when they start working. Once they’re done with their tasks, they’ll need to stop the tracker. While this is easy, some remote time trackers simplify the process with automation. Quality time trackers can start tracking time automatically when your team members turn on their work devices. Of course, this will work only if you give your remote team dedicated work computers.
Another way remote time trackers can begin tracking automatically is with location. This feature is mainly used for field workers who need to travel between job sites. But, you can allow your remote employees to use it as well. Simply set up the remote time tracker to start when your staff arrive at their favorite places of work. This can include cafes, parks, or even coworking spaces. When they leave, the time tracker can automatically pause tracking. This will allow you to automatically track employee breaks as well.
On a related note, time tracking can allow you to integrate automatic pausing during breaks with activity tracking. When an employee leaves their device unattended, the tracking app will detect this as inactive time. This time will then not be added to the total working hours of your team members.
Remote time tracking apps are typically used on desktop devices. But, certain ones, like WebWork Time Tracker, offer mobile and browser trackers as well. The latter’s browser and mobile apps are useful if you don’t want to use its advanced features. Speaking of which, let’s go over a few features of quality time tracking solutions next.
Extra features of remote time trackers
High-quality remote time trackers offer many features in addition to time tracking. They have evolved from simple apps to full-fledged productivity tools. Let’s explore some of the most popular of these features now.
Activity monitoring
Activity monitoring can enable you to track the activity of your remote employees. You may use this to ensure they’re being productive. Activity monitoring is also useful to detect distractions. These will lead to low activity levels, which will help you in adjusting tracked time. In turn, your time tracking data will be more accurate with activity monitoring.
Screenshots
Many popular remote time trackers offer features that take screenshots periodically. You can use these to ensure your remote workers’ productivity. Like activity monitoring, screenshots are also excellent if you want to identify distractions. This data can help your employees stay focused. In turn, this will boost your team’s performance.
App and website usage tracking
Both activity monitoring and screenshots help you track how your team spends their time. But, app and website tracking can give you the most in-depth data in this regard. High-quality remote time trackers even allow you to set different sites and apps as productive or non-productive. With this, you are able to set up automatic alerts that remind your staff to spend their time effectively.
Conclusion
Remote time trackers are important tools if you have off-site workers. They can help you boost the productivity of your team. You can also use them to help your employees avoid distractions. For this, you will need a remote time tracker that offers advanced features. This includes activity monitoring, periodic screenshots, and more. In the long run, a feature-rich time tracker will be a worthwhile investment for your company.
