Strategy

Constraints in strategy implementation: Time tracking

A major constraint when implementing strategy is lack of proper metrics available for making right decisions. One such metric is, “how do employees spend their time?” This article was inspired by Reardon’s article¹. “The importance of time tracking.” Everybody has the same amount of time – 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Reardon makes some very important observations, “… really understanding how time is spent, and on what activities the time is being spent …[and] tying back to your organization’s strategy and goals.” Making sure you and your employees are investing time that further your organization’s strategy and goals is important.

I am sure we can agree that profitable customers are important for a small business. If I were to ask you to segment your customers into profitable and unprofitable segments, will you be able to do it? Most small businesses will be unable to do it since they do not track employee time. By tracking time I do mean, tracking by project or by task. Strange as it may seem, many small businesses do not track time in detail. Not having these metrics seriously hampers your ability to measure and focus on your profitable customers. Employees at not productive for the entire eight hours they are in the office. They are only productive for seven. By knowing where organizational time is spent, you can determine if they lead to organization’s strategic objectives.

I worked with a small business in the not too recent past. There was a team of four that supported legacy software solutions. This group was constantly fighting fires. We need their expertise in development too. But they were too busy putting out the fires. Hence, during one of the strategy meetings, we decided to focus on the most profitable customers while recommending the non-profitable ones to other software development shops. Great plan – with a catch. We had no clue which customer was profitable and by how much. This team of four never tracked their time. So we were unable to implement our strategy.

On the other hand, the new product development team, however, keep track of their time. We used those numbers:
1. As an parameter in pricing
2. To ensure projects were on track – and if there was slippage, they were brought back on track
3. To measure productivity: The above seven hour figure per day was the average productivity of individuals
4. To plan and assign further tasks, and more.

Tracking time is one of the important metrics that you should have as a small business leader. However, if your organization has never had time tracking in the past, you may have some resistance when you implement time tracking. This was the case with the legacy support team. We talked to the team to ensure they understood exactly why we were implementing time tracking and what its objectives were. Our primary objective was to identify profitable customers. Our secondary objective was to ensure we did not spend too much time on tasks that did not further the organization’s strategic objectives. We communicated this to the team.

In many small businesses, I find that employees are “told” rather than “communicated”. There is a distinction. Communication also involves explanation. At the mere mention of the phrase “time tracking”, we immediately sensed resistance. You could see that in their body language. But when we went on the explain the rationale behind it, they were more receptive.

There are so many tools out there in the market today. Some a free while the better ones are not. Whatever tool you choose, you need to ensure that you can consolidate the time for all employees. You need to be able to look at both the forest and the trees.

Resources:

1. The importance of time tracking by Reardon

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