How To Leverage Time As Your Greatest Business Asset

In case you haven’t noticed lately, people are rethinking work. About 15.5 million U.S. workers quit their jobs between April and October 2021 alone, almost a sure signal that the Great Resignation isn’t slowing any time soon.

At its onset, the pandemic forced an unprecedented number of people to make significant changes to the way they live and work. No one was sure how long we’d have to live with those changes, but it catalyzed a journey of reflection on a massive scale.

Now, two years later, the pandemic continues to take a toll on the world and to force us to rethink how we live and work. At the core of this reflection? Time.

When you think about a business and its most essential operations and functions, time is a central consideration—but it’s often misunderstood and underutilized as an asset to the organization. The adage “time is money” has been inaccurately interpreted by many businesses as “more time equals more money,” fueling unhealthy and often actively harmful work environments across industries.

Americans have long lived to work, but a record-breaking number of them have stopped settling for the bare minimum in support from their employers. The Great Resignation is worrisome for many business leaders, but the ones that operate under the assumption that their employees’ time is their business’s greatest asset will come out on top.

More Time Doesn’t Necessarily Equal More Money

A firm with 500 full-time employees has about a million hours at its disposal. However, when employees spend more time on nonbillable tasks versus billable tasks, firms miss out on opportunities that bring in more money. Without comprehensive visibility into how employees spend their time, business leaders have no way to turn time into money. Although your employees may seem busy all the time, they may not be productive.

One way to help leaders understand, use and deploy time as an asset is to use a time intelligence platform that can connect time spent to outcomes produced. With advanced dashboards and reports showing how employees spend their billable time, managers can identify opportunities for increasing productivity and reducing time spent on administrative tasks.

Results, Not Face Time, Translate To Money

Covid-19-induced remote work has settled the debate on flexibility versus face time. According to survey results, 1 in 3 people reported an increase in their overall performance and quality of work while working at home. In fact, in November 2021, 54% of workers in Manhattan remained fully remote. Equating face time with productivity, especially after the success of remote work, indicates misplaced values.

Of course, this calls for new business models in which outcomes matter more than the appearance of effort. By relying on legacy time-tracking systems that may not provide complete information, organizations could miss the bigger picture and sacrifice the quality of results.

Automated time-tracking solutions can help map the employee effort while providing real-time insights to ensure projects are on track and enable course corrections. A cloud-based time-tracking solution can also allow users to track their time from anywhere and at any time while giving managers real-time updates on activities. Managers can leverage these insights and recommendations to make smarter decisions faster.

Happy Workplaces Nurture Healthy Businesses

As more employees continue to prioritize work-life balance, businesses will want to continue hybrid and remote work models to attract and retain talent. Many employees simply don’t want to work in an office—at least not full time. In fact, 81% of survey respondents said they preferred a hybrid work schedule or not to go back to the office at all.

To meet evolving business needs and improve the employee experience, business leaders should consider reimagining and reinventing their business workflows in a digitally native form. Because employee time tracking is core to other business-critical functions such as project costing, client billing and payroll, you’ll want to ensure that you choose the right time-tracking software for your company.

For example, global businesses will want a solution that can break down data silos to provide a single source of truth for time management. A unified platform that integrates with the larger tech ecosystem can help unify the data coming in across multiple departments to create a connected employee experience and potentially drive better business outcomes.

Time Is Your Most Valuable Asset

In the age of disruption, forward-looking business leaders in high-growth firms leverage time data to minimize costs and maximize profits. Businesses investing in cloud-based time tracking software could potentially gain a competitive edge and improve employee experience—a win-win to thrive in a hybrid digital workplace.

Original Source: Forbes