Do you have to complete timesheets in your work?  It’s not much fun, is it? But it can be valuable especially when we are navigating in challenging times and want to make sure we are spending time on what really matters.

Recently, Dianne Lee, Jonathan Betts, Elisabeth Mortimer-Cassen, and Jackie MacRitchie and I shared our experiences of completing time sheets in organizations, as small as one person to large global organizations, and questioned the value that timesheets bring.

One common feeling on leaving organizations which had particularly onerous time sheet systems was that “thank goodness we will never have to do this again” but then ending up being the leader responsible for introducing them later in our careers!

When are time sheets valuable?

  1. Operationally they are the core of how consulting / service businesses work. You record time and bill it.  Even if you charge clients per project, there is still a need to understand where time is being spent so you can identify profitability.
  2. When you bid for new projects, knowing what similar projects took to complete and the breakdown from initiation through to completion is valuable.
  3. If you want to improve your processes, then timesheets are one measure of the impact of your improvements.
  4. Cross site / cross functional resource sharing can also be tracked ensuring that duplication of effort is not occurring
  5. Strategically, knowing where your most valuable resources are spending their time is critical as you make decisions about where to add or reduce resources.
  6. They can be used to understand workload and whether staff are spending more hours than there are in the day working, (watch out – people don’t always record overtime)

How can we get the most out of time sheets and make this chore as painless as possible?

  • Keep them simple to get compliance. Billable hours are a key performance indicator.  On the other hand, breaking down various business development activities and recording time against each activity may lead to complex and inaccurate timesheets.  It may be more effective to have other performance indicators such as number of touch points with customers.  Have limited codes so that it is easy to assign time
  • Use effective time capture systems. Linking to your calendar, having an app that collects data are worth exploring.
  • Share what has been done with the information collected. Continue to engage the organization on why data is being collected and what is happening to the information.  Show the criticality of accurate consolidated data.  This information can be shared across the business and avoid the load on middle managers.  If we see the benefit of capturing information, it feels worthwhile to take the time to complete
  • Use consolidated time sheet information to make decisions. Like any other measure they must drive decision making / actions and shouldn’t be collected for the sake of it.
  • Consider snapshots of time spent rather than formalized timesheets. For example, time spent on strategy vs operations within Leadership teams can often change behaviour.  Another example used at a university was estimating the time spent in research, teaching and admin at an individual and departmental level which led them to make conscious decisions on where to spend time.  Neither of these measures warrant ongoing capture and dissemination.

Do you have any good tips for using timesheets?  Any insights on whether stopping using them made any difference to business performance?  Or what has worked if you have decided to start using them?