Employee efficiency is an essential part of business. In order for an employee to be efficient, not only do they have to work hard, limit distractions, and complete each task, but they must do so without costing the employer too much money.
The U.S. economy loses an estimated $7.4 billion per day due to timesheet errors. That’s approximately 50 million hours of work each day that are unaccounted for.
Organizations across the U.S. and the world are beginning to take a look into the way they’re utilizing timesheets and are trying to find ways to be more efficient and save money.
The Higher Education reports that the European Union is leading the charge against billable hours by giving researchers a lump sum to carry out their projects, instead of the traditional timesheets, financial audits, and cost reporting.
“This is a very good move and long due,” said John Ioannidis, a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University. “To my knowledge, all these bureaucratic requirements have had absolutely no benefit for science.”
More and more businesses are beginning to share the same views that the scientific community has towards timesheets: that they are irksome and pointless.
“I remember filling in time sheets for me and my team,” Professor Ioannidis added. “When I work on science, I work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, [and] ideas arise even in my sleep; you continue thinking incessantly about scientific problems even when you do other things. What were we recording there? When we entered the building and when we left. It was entirely ridiculous.”
According to Tech Republic, businesses are starting to drop the conventional timesheet method and are looking towards artificial intelligence (AI).
“Whatever [business leaders] use now, no matter how good it might be right this minute, will need to adapt to changing conditions and requirements,” said Mike Fitzmaurice, vice president of workflow technology at Nintex.
Cloud-based timesheet software seems to be on its way to replacing the traditional way companies kept track of their employees’ billable hours. And, in fact, 82% of surveyed companies say they’ve saved money by moving towards cloud-based strategies.
