Time Tracking in the 21st Century – Part I

(the screenshots and terminals in this article come from the BODET systems that we distribute)

Nowadays, many applications help employers keep an efficient record of working time – from the simplest “time clocks” to complex systems. In this article, I do not intend to compare or evaluate them. Rather, I would like to share a few thoughts on the evolution of time tracking.

Initially, companies clearly needed help only with registering the working time of their employees, mainly where there were many employees working in several shifts. The automatic monitoring of breaks is also a great help, and today it is a basic expectation that these systems are also connected to payroll.

But if we are already monitoring working time, breaks, absences, etc., why not use the system to examine the composition of the employee's working time as well – that is, what tasks they spent their X hours of working time on? This is already time analytics.

What does this mean in practice?

When planning, there are two approaches:

1. We assign the employees to the tasks to be performed
2. We distribute the tasks among the employees

In the first case, we start from the number of employees available that day and assign everyone to a task. In the second case, the task is the starting point, and we try to distribute all the tasks among the employees available that day.

After planning comes the evaluation of the time spent working. The data arriving from the terminals provides the attendance time for this purpose. (Of course, the data can also be entered manually.)

It is also possible for the employee to choose themselves which task they start working on at any given moment.

Modern time tracking software is also capable of automatic allocation – that is, assigning an employee to the activity or activities they perform most frequently. After that, it only needs to be modified if someone does work that differs from this. For example, an employee usually packs at the production line, but because they have a forklift licence, if they are needed for 2 hours of forklift driving to serve increased demand, it is enough to indicate those 2 hours in the software.

Data can be collected from terminals in two ways:

1. There is no separate time tracking and task recording terminal. In this case, the employee indicates the start and end of their working time on the same terminal where they record their tasks. In such cases, the start of a task coincides with the start of the working time or with the completion of another task.
2. Separate time tracking and task recording terminals. This is most useful where the place of work is far from the place of arrival, e.g. in larger plants where the changing rooms or entrances are several tens – or even more than 100 – metres away. In this case, the terminal used for time tracking can be placed near the changing rooms or the entrance, while the task recording terminals are close to the place of work.

Instead of task recording terminals, barcode reader devices can be used in both cases. In this case, a barcode represents a task, and scanning it records the start of the given task.

The task recording terminal can also be a so-called smart terminal. Here we not only identify ourselves, but can also select the task with the help of a symbol displayed on the touchscreen, and the system records it. When using such terminals, there is no need for a separate device at the location of each task – it is enough to place the smart terminal in a central but easily accessible spot. We recommend it for places where the tasks within the plant are not tied to a specific location, e.g. loading, forklift driving, packaging, cleaning, etc.

A more advanced solution for recording tasks (and even working time) is when the employee uses their own smartphone. On the so-called Self-Service interface, the task can be selected in the same way as from a terminal. This way not only tasks, but also the start and end of the working time or even the breaks can be recorded. This function works very well in cases where the employees move around within a plant and the tasks can be carried out in several halls or even at several sites. But the Self-Service interface is also an excellent help for working from home, or for colleagues who spend a lot of time on the road, e.g. goods delivery, travelling salespeople, purchasing officers, etc.

Of course, we can track not only how the working time is distributed among tasks – a multi-level analysis is also possible, e.g. which cost centre and which client the given working time was spent for. This can be a huge help for companies that, for example, re-bill the working time “spent” on a given task and a given client.

These additional pieces of information can also be entered on a smart terminal or on the Self-Service interface.

The results can be evaluated with the help of the software – displayed graphically, or simply queried as a list.