If you’re a manager, you know that time is worth its weight in gold and that the name of every game in business is time management. Time theft occurs every day and is a serious problem in all businesses. Even the best employees are likely to engage in some sort of time theft. This is not because they are bad people, but more likely because they don’t have the proper information or boundaries or time tracking system to help them realize it. All managers should institute some sort of time sheet and time tracking to assess employee productivity; so that who is doing what with their time is as transparent as possible.

There are many different ways to practice time management so that you can track your employees’ time and what they are doing with it. One is a timesheet. With a timesheet, employees write down what they are doing with each hour of the day or in some cases just the time when they started and finished their workday. They note down when they come in, when they take breaks, and when they leave. Nowadays, most time sheets are automated by a computer and employees login rather than write down their times. Computers help to keep people honest so your employees won’t be tempted to write down inaccurate times to make themselves look better.

Time tracking is a little more complicated, but it is still a popular form of time management. With time tracking, employees write down or otherwise record what they are doing with every moment of their time. Sometimes you may want to track down to fifteen minute intervals, in the same way many professional consulting firms do. It is really up to you, the manager, to work out how closely you want your employees to track their time. The point is that they will be held accountable for every minute of the day and by being held accountable, will increase awareness of their productivity and how they are using their time. They will be less likely to engage in time theft or non productive activities if they know they will have to record their activities throughout the day.

In today’s busy and fast paced world, every moment counts. You have heard the old adage that ‘time is money’ – this has never been truer. Time management is important for serious businesses to practice in order to minimize loss and maximize returns. Being sure that your employees are tracking their time leads to greater productivity and ultimately to more profit.