How to Encourage your teams to use time sheets?

Use of time sheets in business:- Loss of time, fear of being watched, inappropriate input method. There are many reasons why your team does not want to adopt the timesheet. Yet, today, the need to use this tool is obvious because managing its time is paramount in project management. Moreover, the use of time sheets is greatly facilitated by the different software available. Here are some tips and tricks to help you convince your team to use time sheets.

Importance of time sheets for Business

Do you want your team to adopt timesheets? Begin by explaining to them why you want to use this tool and what its different benefits are in managing your project:

• Obtain accurate information about the time required to complete each task, which will allow you to better plan your future projects.
• Track the progress of your team on the various tasks of the project.
• Have a better visibility of the time management of your project, in order to adjust your schedule if necessary.
• Know the workload of each member of the team and thus better distribute it.
• Estimate the cost of the project.

Reassure your team: time sheets are not a micro-management tool to spy on their work, nor a way to lecture them because they do not do enough hours. The success of your project is measured by the results obtained, not by the number of hours spent sitting behind an office. Your employees will therefore remain autonomous and free to manage their tasks and day of work as they wish. Most importantly the achievement of the final objectives and the fulfillment of the deadlines

Encourage your team to use time sheets

Talk about the timesheets at a meeting with the entire team, and answer all of their questions with precision.

Show the Ease of the Process

Above all, choose easy and intuitive software for the input of your timesheets. You do not have to try to convince your employees to do it in paper format, on an Excel spreadsheet or on complicated software that you do not understand yourself. Prove to them that this can be a simple and quick task by demonstrating the software you have chosen.

Form and Support your team

Once the idea of ​​using the time sheets accepted and the software selected, you must now train your team. If you already use project management software that integrates the timesheet functionality, it’s even easier. Generally, use is intuitive and training is virtually unnecessary.

In the beginning, you will often need to remember the interest and benefits of using time sheets for the success of your project. During the first week of the implementation of the tool, it is essential that you support each member of your team:

• Send them reminders to think about filling out their timesheet;
• Tell them that you are there to assist them in the process if necessary;
• Suggest checking their timesheet before they submit it;
• Remind them that you are not using this tool to monitor them.

The most difficult thing is to turn the use of time sheets into a habit so that your team automatically informs their hours at the end of the day.

Share the Results

Gather the results from the timesheets and share them with your team. Help your employees understand the usefulness of the data collected by this tool: anticipate delays, better distribute workload, or correctly estimate the time required to complete a task.

Your employees will be reassured to see that the timesheets have a real utility and do not consist of spying on them or forcing them to work more.

Name a time Keeper

Instruct one of your co-workers to be the keeper of time and remind other team members to complete their timesheet. Every week or every two weeks, assign this role to a different member of the team. By assuming this responsibility, team members will realize for themselves the importance of completing their time sheets on a daily basis.

Start a Brainstorming Session with your team

Your employees are full of good ideas. Collect these ideas by organizing a brainstorming session with your team. Ask them what would make them use the timesheets and how to make this task less painful or even enjoyable.

Turn time into Money

Show your team that time is money. At your follow-up meeting, take the amount of time your team has already spent on the project and turn it into a sum of money using the hourly rate of each. Compare the amount so obtained to the projected budget of the project and you will quickly see if your project is profitable or if you lose money. This is a good way to show the usefulness of timesheets to your collaborators. Generally when it comes to money, people are immediately more receptive and feel more concerned.

In Conclusion

Time management is essential in project management. For the success of your project, it is important to encourage your team members to use time sheets. For this, do not hesitate, as much as possible, to relate the different successes of the project with the data of the time sheets, such as the delay caught on an activity or a task finished in advance. Show your collaborators that when they complete their timesheet, they contribute to the smooth running of the project.