Does your team use timetracking tools?
Eugene Lorenc
6 replies
If so, does it boost team's discipline?
It is well known that timetracking suppose to help users of a timetracking tools to improve their productivity.
But in team scale productivity of the team is not the sum of each developer/team member productivities. Mostly because team's productivity relies on team discipline and synchronization of each member schedule. So, the problem is
1 how to sync team member's schedule?
And
2 is it helpful to use timetracking tool for team's discipline improvement?
Replies
Julie Chabin@syswarren
Productivity isn't the number of hours someone works on something; it's the result of the work done.
A time tracker doesn't help with discipline which, by the way, means training people using punishment. It's useful if you're invoicing or paying people by the hour.
Instead of tools, I'd recommend implementing a methodology:
- Create a routine with regular syncs between teammates at appropriate times.
- Do weekly planning to make sure the workflow isn't interrupted
- Invite your teammates to share ongoing progress to address any blocker as soon as possible
- Protect uninterrupted work time (2 to 4 hours of work when someone doesn't have meetings and can focus)
In my opinion, tracking hours and minutes won't make people more productive. It'll make them stressed and work more at first before they quit or burn out.
I used to work for a company where my manager insisted I track my time. I was paid down to the exact minute of work. That was the most unpleasant and demotivating experience.
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@syswarren thank you for such a detailed answer!
Indeed, timetracking may produce many stresses for team members and eventually decrease overall productivity.
Alas, we still need timetracking tools especially for remote teams because of lack of trust of managers to remote employees.
@eugenelorenc I'm in a fully remote team and we don't use time trackers. Why do you think managers do not trust their colleagues?
@syswarren wow, amazing experience!
Do you measure any KPI of your team in general and KPI of each team member?
And how the credibility process works in your team?
@syswarren @eugenelorenc we have KPIs for projects and we operate on a basis of trust and credibility. We only hire people we know we can rely on so we don't really have issues trusting each other to do their work.
Time tracking does only one thing - helps to track time. Whether it is a productive time or not is a completely different thing. The quality and quantity of work one can get done can't be assessed just by looking at some tables or graphs in a report.
Time tracking is also a very bad way to "keep" people productive or even motivated. It only creates stressful atmosphere where one can assume that if she is not working around the clock whole day she is seen as unproductive. This results in toxic environment and high turnover.
If you want to increase the team morale and productivity try this:
1) Set a daily stand-up, either at the beginning of the day or the end: everyone will share what they are working on, if they need any help and if there is anything blocking their progress.
2) Once a week have a meeting where you outline the tasks and plan for the following week.
3) Establish clear communication channels. Make sure everyone can communicate with everyone else on the team.
4) Give everyone space to work without any interruption. Let them turn of slack or any communication apps and focus solely on their work. They will get done much more.
5) Give everyone full autonomy to do their work and the way they think is the best. Let them be creative and act on their own. As Daniel Pink says in his book Drive, the biggest motivators in work are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.
So,
1) Answered by 1), 2) and 3) above.
2) No it is not.