Estimating productivity takes much time as well as efforts and still one cannot be completely sure in the plausibility of results as it can be quite subjective. It also corresponds with the issue of fairness at the workplace. Therefore, it has to be objective.
Among different tools for monitoring productivity one of the simplest ways to track work hours is a time card calculator. Basically it’s a table with several columns which can be customized specifically to each department or company at large.
These columns usually include the number of working days, beginning / end of the working day, duration of breaks, lunches, etc. The tool calculates the total number of worked hours per day / week / month, etc. so that one can see how much time is spent productively and unproductively.
So basically the time card calculator converts the working hours into salaries for specific employees. The tool is most frequently used by accountants or anyone responsible for managing payrolls. By adding pay rates for certain period (per hour / day, etc.) it’s therefore simple to calculate the total amount of salary quite accurately.
Drawbacks
All time card calculators suffer from two serious drawbacks:
- 1) all data have to be entered manually so it’s time-consuming, boring and tiring;
- 2) moreover, if data are entered incorrectly all calculations are wrong which means neither the company, nor the employees are going to benefit.
So it makes sense to proceed to the next level of monitoring work hours, that is to the time tracking software.
How Does the Time Tracking Software Outstrip the Time Card Calculator?
It’s major advantage is automatization which means there’s no need to do anything manually apart from installing the software and viewing the reports it generates afterwards. The problem with manual and incorrect data entry therefore disappears.
Managers can now analyze relevant and regularly updated statistics. Employees can view the data on their productivity. What everyone in the company can benefit from is increased transparency of monitoring. So countless arguments on the number of worked hours or late arrivals won’t be taking away the work time which could otherwise be used for performing tasks and achieving common goals.
So now you know what software to choose among tools for monitoring productivity.
