There is a major challenge for service companies - the control of how employees spend their time. Why?

• To calculate the profitability of projects,
• To allocate the right resources at the right time,
• To add value to the work of teams,

To monitor, analyse and make the necessary corrections.Here are the 5 key points of time management to manage your employee's time.

1. Time recorded = visibility of the work

The recording of times is an important issue when it comes to the growth of a company. What is the occupation rate of my employees? Where are my margins and should I think about recruiting? Have my projects been correctly evaluated and are they profitable? Having visibility of how employees' time is spent is having control of one’s human capital, whether that means:

• the management of working time or attendance time, the management of absences,
• the management of the activity,
• the management of schedules,
• the management of requests for absence.

2. Get the team on board

The implementation of this type of tool can quickly give your staff the impression that you don't trust them and that you're trying to "spy" on them... Therefore, this is the biggest trap to be avoided.

Explain clearly to them that your prime objective is to improve working conditions by professionalising the structure. You also need to show them the advantages for them of being able to monitor the time spent on projects and so to be able to set up alerts at the right time, if needed, and get a clear vision of their own work and of the projects.

A good explanation of the need to record how time is spent is half the job of getting the concept accepted by staff.

3. Facilitate the recording process at all costs

Entering times is a bit of a bore and doesn't set the pulses racing! You need to opt for a tool that's as simple as possible. A unified system in which employees don't have to enter the information twice, or even three times, limits the "chore" aspect and so ensures that the task is actually carried out. Especially with a single management system, the advantages of entering one's times become clearer.

4. Choose the right granularity

What level of detail should be selected? There are still a few rules that need to be followed for correct time management:

• projects shouldn't be too subdivided,
• nor should different aspects be lumped together,
• your week should be planned in advance.

These methods require the involvement of and consultation with the teams in order to implement a tool that is useful for everyone, precise and where the entering of times doesn’t take up too much staff time.

5. Use a 21st century tool!

It's 2016! Give your teams a tool that adapts to their time constraints:

• A collaborative tool with an intuitive design for recording on the go...
• A tool that unites rather than divides is the secret of a project's success.

For information on the management problems of a service company: