Every manager struggles with this at one point during her career: How do you manage employee productivity without micromanaging? New managers find it especially tempting to peer over the shoulders of their employees, but they soon find that their workers are disgruntled, and bad attitudes are affecting the morale of the entire company. Micromanaging doesn’t work. So, what does?
Organization is the real key to managing employee productivity. In order for employees to do their jobs well, they need clear direction. The need to know what they’re supposed to be doing and when they should be doing it. That’s where the time cards come in.
Here are three ways that time cards will help keep you organized enough to manage employee productivity without micromanaging.
- With time cards, you always know which employees are punctual. You can even see who is putting in extra hours to get the job done. At a glance, you can see which employees are dedicated to their jobs and which are just trying to slide by at the bare minimum (or worse).
- Managing lunch breaks is easy with time cards. Some slackers are easy to spot, while others have it down to an art form. They know you’ll be keeping an eye on who shows up to the job on time and who leaves early. It’s pretty standard protocol. But if they aren’t checking in and out for lunch, who will notice if they take a two hours instead of one? If they are using time cards, you don’t have to call them at their work stations every time they’re due back from lunch (that would be micromanaging). Instead, you’ll see who is doing the right thing, right away.
- You can even manage work with time cards. Time cards used to just be for checking in and out when your employees leave the premises, or when they’re off-duty, but with the advent of online time and attendance systems, you can now use them to clock time spent on a certain job. All you have to do is designate job codes for your employees to use. Again, this is a case where organization comes from the top. You must devise a clear plan, so they know when to use which code. Otherwise, tracking would be a nightmare. But all it takes is just a little advance planning, and online time and attendance systems will make managing your employees’ workload an easy task.
In the old days, when time cards meant physically punching in to work, time tracking devices were limited. Sure, they did help keep track of time, but they did nothing to help manage your employees or their workload. Thank goodness we now have access to online timesheets that can track employees regardless of where they are or what they’re doing (as long as it’s work). There’s simply no reason to micromanage employees when you have tools that will report on their status for you.
How to Manage Employee Productivity with Time Cards,
