Making changes to your company culture can be a challenge. If you want to be met with the least resistance, the best strategy is to show people why this change is actually for their benefit. Assume that everyone — from employees to management to leadership — is going to be asking: “What’s in it for me?” If you’ve made the decision to implement time tracking, here are a few ways to get your team members on board with the change.
Create a shared vision
It all comes back to clear communication. Start by understanding common objections, then look for ways to overcome them by sharing the overall goals of the change. For example, some employees may push back on the idea of time tracking because they see it as a form of micromanagement. By sharing what your organization wants to accomplish with time tracking, highlighting how it will also benefit employees, you can help them become more receptive to the change.
Tracking your employees’ time doesn’t mean you don’t trust them. It means you want to see where their time is going so you can gather accurate data regarding how long certain tasks actually take. This leads to better project estimation and reducing the risk that employees will be assigned too much or too little work. The sooner you can help your employees see it this way, the easier they’ll be able to accept time tracking.
Improve project estimation
Accurate time tracking will also impact project sequencing and prioritization. With historical data readily available, the leadership team will be able to see exactly how much work can be completed in a certain period of time. They will also have visibility into whether high priority projects are getting the time they deserve or if lower priority projects are sucking up everyone’s time.
Setting realistic expectations before project sequencing prevents employees from being stuck with unreasonable deadlines or overallocation. It also means the leadership team can feel confident about their project portfolio. It’s a win-win for all sides. At the end of the day, data is the key to strategy execution, and time tracking is an integral part of that data.
Put the user first
The final piece of the change management puzzle is how easily your users can adopt and implement the change. Whether it’s a new process, feature, software, or platform, you want it to be as intuitive and user-friendly as possible.
Tempus timesheets were designed to make time tracking a breeze. For example, whether your company uses hours, FTE, FTE%, or man days, employees can enter time in the way that makes the most sense for them. They can also choose whether to track at the task or project level, so there’s freedom to stay high-level or to get in the weeds when necessary. Users can even prepopulate timesheets based on data from past weeks to save time. At Tempus, we firmly believe that timesheets don’t have to be a chore.
Humans are naturally resistant to change. But as long as you can show team members why the change is actually a good thing for them while making the process as smooth as possible, you’ll face less resistance and see much faster adoption. A powerful time tracking tool like Tempus Timesheets that minimizes the learning curve and delivers value immediately will make implementing time tracking as painless as possible.
To learn more about time tracking, download a free copy of the Tempus Timesheet Deep Dive Feature Overview. You can also contact us or schedule a demo to learn more!
