How to Get Employees to Track Time & Finally Submit Hours Without Annoying Them?

How to get anybody to do anything? Only by making them want to do it because there’s something in it for them.

When it comes to tracking time and filling out timesheets as employees, there’s nothing in it for them (as opposed to freelancers who track time to get paid). Tracking work hours is perceived as a waste of time at best and a micromanagement tactic at worst.

The result is that most project time tracking is useless. Bad compliance, bad data, and bad decisions all around.

If only there was a way to get employees to submit timesheets on time and provide accurate, reliable data that powers on-time project delivery…

There is a way, and it boils down to building incentives for people to take time tracking seriously. This article is all about that.

You’ll learn:

Why most project time tracking is useless

Most project time tracking is not only useless, it’s detrimental to project health.

How do you know if your time tracking is useless? Look out for these signs.

1. You get “perfect” data

If you consistently see your team log 40 out of 40 hours, you might want to reconsider your billable utilization targets.

If you set your utilization target too high (80%+), you’ll have people submit “perfect” timesheets resulting in near 100% utilization. Meanwhile, realistic billable utilization is anywhere between 40% and 80%, which accounts for internal work and breaks.

If you look at your team’s timesheets and see 100% utilization, they are either severely overworked or underworked. So you end up making decisions that undermine your projects.

2. Some people never track time

Most organizations will have a few people who never track time regardless of how much they’re pressured by PMs. And because you need complete hours from everybody on the team, you can’t have these blind spots in aggregated data.

The reason some people never track time is because it’s either too complicated (think setting a timer for every task) or feels unnecessary and intrusive. Most employees have a bad experience with time tracking, which is habitually weaponized against them and used for employee monitoring.

Simply put, there’s nothing in it for them.

The importance of submitting timesheets on time

Why do PMs chase employees for timesheets? Why can’t they wait for everybody to log project hours on their own terms?

Well, in addition to being very detail-oriented people in charge of resource planning, project managers might be onto something related to the fundamental nature of human memory.

Think about it. Most teams are expected to submit their timesheets once a week on Friday. Meanwhile, this is how much of our time usage we remember the more time passes.

• 67% by the end of the day.
• 55% by next day.
• 36% by the end of the week.

See the problem here? If your team waits even 1 day to log project hours, you end up with half-accurate timesheets and half-usable project insights.

The result is that you make decisions based on bad data, which doesn’t help your projects at best and harms them at worst. Not to mention you’ve wasted your employees’ time doing non-billable, overwhelmingly manual admin like timekeeping.

What’s the best way to keep track of employee time?

We’ve established that in order to make project time tracking make sense, it needs to be timely, accurate, and endorsed by the team.

Let’s review the most common ways to track time, and whether they contribute to a good time tracking culture.

1. Running timers

Start/stop timers may seem like a great idea, especially seeing how the absolute majority of time tracking tools built into project software are stopwatch-based.

The wishful thinking behind running timers is that you can track your work down to the second as you move from one task to another. The reality of start/stop timers is a bit different.

• People forget about the stopwatch as soon as they focus on the task.
• Starting and stopping a timer for every task is a massive interruption.
• It takes about 20 minutes to regain focus after an interruption.
• Time tracking turns into a part-time job that is unpaid and unrewarding.

The worst part of using timers for work time tracking is that employees hate it. And they have every reason to do so.

2. Manual timesheets

Another way to keep track of hours worked is by filling out a timesheet at the end of the week. We’ve established what the problem with retroactive time entries is earlier in this article. Our memory is simply not good enough to remember project hours correctly.

If only 30% is remembered by the end of the week, you risk losing up to 70% billable hours or, if you don’t bill by the hour, project and utilization insights.

Imagine thinking that your team is “not that busy” and giving them more work, only to be faced with backlash because people are already overworked. They just can’t translate that into timesheet data because they can’t remember most of their work for the week.

3. Automatic time tracking

Automatic time tracking aka activity tracking combines the benefits of real-time and retroactive time tracking. It’s a way to track employee hours in the background while they work.

The idea is simple: your time in all programs is recorded for you by a desktop app running in the background 24/7. It never interrupts your day or prompts you to set timers.

How can automated time tracking be private? Take the example of Memtime – it’s an app for desktop that passively records your time in all programs and keeps this data offline on your computer. You’re welcome to try Memtime as a team, the first 14 days are on us!

Every employee can see a detailed activity log that is private to them. Based on this log, they can create time entries and submit project hours at any point during the week. Instead of relying on memory, they have their activity log to remind them of everything they worked on.

How to get employees to submit timesheets on time?

Now that we know what the best way to track employee hours is, we can move on to building a culture of time tracking compliance. Simply put, getting everybody to submit their hours on time.

Explain why you do it

It may seem obvious to you but most employees don’t understand why they need to track time, especially if you don’t bill clients for the number of hours you’ve worked on a project.

Sit down with your team and show them how you use their time tracking data. Explain that it’s to analyze projects and not people. It’s to see where you’re working profitably and where you’re overservicing clients. Ultimately, it’s to make sure nobody is over- or underworked.

Good time tracking data informs good planning. It directly impacts profitability and the work-life balance in your organization. When employees understand that, their perspective on time tracking changes and they become your allies.

Make it easy for everybody

The second part of your job as a manager is to give your employees the tools they need to easily record their work and submit timesheets on time.

If time tracking feels like more work, employees won’t do it even if they understand how important it is. This is where automation comes in.

By automating the time tracking process for your employees, you make sure they:

1. Always have accurate data for timesheets.
2. Can log hours easily whenever required.

With an automatic time tracker like Memtime, it takes just 1 minute a day or 5 minutes a week to check the activity log and create time entries mapped to projects. So easy it’s more work to NOT do it!

4 proven strategies for lasting timekeeping compliance

It’s not enough to figure out your time tracking process. You also need to make sure it sticks.

Use these strategies to foster a good culture of timekeeping compliance that lasts.

1. Block time for time tracking

Even if it takes your employees as little as 5 minutes a week to log project hours, show that you prioritize this task and make time for it across your organization.

Block 10 minutes in everyone’s calendars every Friday if you track time weekly or 5 minutes every day if you do it daily. Make sure no one is stuck in a meeting creep. By simply making time for time tracking, you make a big step to getting people to submit timesheets on time.

2. Gamify the experience

If you can, make time tracking fun. You know how you set fitness challenges for your team to encourage good habits through competitiveness? Do the same with timekeeping.

Award bonus points for submitting hours on time, come up with milestones to reach and celebrate, and turn time tracking into a game. No matter how vital, time tracking is still admin and admin is no fun unless you make it fun.

3. Reward good time tracking

Following up on the previous tactic, awarding bonus points to the employees who submit their timesheets on time is a great way to create incentives. “No one has been promoted for good time tracking”, so make sure you celebrate people who make an effort to do it well.

If you’re feeling edgy, introduce a KPI tied to timesheet compliance. But first make sure you’ve given your employees the tools to track time automatically while protecting their privacy.

4. Lead by example

The best you can do as a manager to foster a culture of timekeeping compliance is lead by example. It’s a good start to block time in everybody’s calendars to log project hours. Be the first to log your hours, demonstrating that it’s a team effort and you’re doing your share.

If you’re just getting started with a new time tracking tool, record a short message to everybody explaining how it works and inviting questions. Get involved as much as you can – this investment will pay off in the long run.

Final thoughts

If there’s one thing to learn from this article, it’s this: you can’t make employees love time tracking, but you can make it easy, safe, and even fun for them.

Building a good time tracking culture starts with explaining why you do it and debunking common myths around time tracking as a micromanagement tactic.

Once you’re past that stage, you can move on to creating an easy, automated workflow that your team will embrace because they understand what’s in it for them.

I hope this article gives you the tools to take your project time tracking to the next level while also making peace with your employees. Remember: when you’re on the same side of the table as them, you can accomplish your productivity and profitability goals much easier and faster.