As a boss or leader, helping the team do some of their very best work is one of the primary obligations. Suppose this means encouraging them to prioritize their jobs, helping them to maximize their regular schedule, or providing services to improve quality work time. Time management is vital in any company because a lot of stress and emphasis is put on reaching the bottom lines, hitting targets, and sales. However, the workers you ask to contribute to these goals do they have enough time to do what you ask for? Understanding it is your role as a boss or business owner. When the workers do not handle their time efficiently, build a plan to support them.
Ways to Improve Employees Time Management
- Time management training
There are plenty of excellent training programs which can help employees develop their skills in time management; you use IMonitor experience and reviews to learn from other successful company, how they used their time effectively. Companies should set standards on how workers handle their work time. Setting this goal may be as easy as learning about time management in the context of new hires and exploring cultural approaches to time management. Communicate the strategy the company takes to organizing successful meetings or how it manages the internal culture in managing time.
- Help employees discover where their work goes with a work audit
Most people would believe they have to do their core job 7–8 hours a day. Unfortunately, according to some research, the bulk of our working day goes to other activities such as email, IM, meetings, and administration. Understanding that is the case, being able to show the team where their time goes every day can be an immensely useful tool. One way to do so is through what is called a time audit. It means writing down the team’s goals and values about how they spend their time, and then actually observing how they function. In most situations, there will be a staggering disparity between thoughts and behavior.
- Teach the team how to schedule and better predict their time
No matter how quickly you think you can complete a mission, it will take you longer than you expect. Psychologists consider this Planning Fallacy when you schedule how long a task or project (which is generally a best-case scenario) will take, and then presume that the result will obey your expectations, even though you know better. I am sure you fall into this pit. Yet for the team members, who have the additional burden not to fail or disappoint you, it is much worse.
While a time audit helps your team understand what is going to get in the way during the working day, you also need to help them spend more wisely what time they do.
- Reduces distractions
The truth is some people get distracted more quickly than others. Take some time to recognize controllable distractions, which can hinder the ability of an employee to be efficient. For example, if the office has canned music, make sure it is productivity-friendly music and not distracting, of course.
You might want to consider configuring the office and where various departments are housed. For example, you may not want to place the accounting office on the main corridor, which gets lots of conversations about foot traffic and passage. Assessing levels of noise will go a long way in mitigating subtle disturbances that might not be obvious.
- Determine whether the processes benefit or harm efficiency
You may think that other structures or procedures simplify things, but you may disagree with your workers. Employees can use more of those programs than they do. There is always a learning curve, so be sure to change goals and workloads accordingly. Ask for the feedback of the team members about whether the systems improve or harm their efficiency.