How to Conduct a Time Analysis of Your Employees

One of the biggest expenses that a business has is payroll. Payroll costs include everything from wages and taxes to recruiting and training costs. In a tight economy it is important to make sure that every penny that a company spends has its benefits maximized.

Payroll Problems that Cost Money

There are many issues that relate to payroll that can cost a company money. Some of these issues relate to how payroll is processes while others relate to how employees are using their time. Fortunately, most of the issues related to payroll cost efficiency can be identified by conducting a very simple time analysis.

Employee Time Use Problems

An employee time analysis is basically just a review of how your employees are spending their time. The goal of this analysis is to identify workload situations that are costing you money. In particular employers will be looking for employees that are overwhelmed with their workload and employees that have a lot of unused time on their hands.

Employees that are overwhelmed with work cost companies money for two reasons. First of all they are more prone to job dissatisfaction, absenteeism and turnover. Secondly they are more likely to be less productive because they have to multitask in order to handle the work that they are given. This can lead to errors and to missed deadlines.

On the other hand, employees that do not have enough work to do also cost companies money. Money is lost because employees are being paid for time that is not used to contribute to the company's productivity or profitability. Money can also be lost to the distractions caused by employees that have nothing to do and who socialize with other employees who do have something to do.

Employee Time Analysis

In order to solve the problems associated with employees that have either too much time or not enough time work load issues and solutions need to be identified. For example, job descriptions can be evaluated to see how overloaded positions can be relieved by transferring responsibilities to other positions.

The first step in conducting a time analysis is to print out a copy of the job descriptions for the company. Then each employee needs to be monitored during a typical work week discretely so that the manager can see if the employee is getting their job done, how well they are completing each task and how much time is spent on non-work related projects. The manager will need to determine how much time is spend on each task or responsibility found in the job description and how much time is being spent on socializing and non-work relate activities. The manger can then determine if the employee's time is being used effectively. If it is not then a solution can be found.