TeamTrace
Idle time, a term often heard, might appear like a harmless pause, but is it actually harmless? Delays in projects, machines sliding into idle mode, and employees loitering around are any organization’s worst nightmares. Whether the reasons are intentional or forced, idle time can sometimes cause a massive disruption in employee productivity.
Hence, you should care about how to reduce idle time at work, what causes it, and what is the best employee monitoring software to track idle time! Hear what industry experts have to say about it and how you can change wasted hours into the most productive ones in simple steps.
Also commonly referred to as waiting time, idle time is hours spent by employees when they should be “ideally” working. These hours are often called wasted or unproductive hours as they fail to contribute to any goal or value generation. There can be endless causes of idle time, including:
Various organizations automate workflows to reduce idle time and boost productive hours. Productive time is the number of hours an employee dedicates to activities that have a purpose and can generate value.
Before diving into the technicalities, it is crucial to understand what are the common types of idle time. Generally, there are two types- intended and unintended idle time.
The intended type of idle time refers to an intentional break from the workflow. It usually takes place when the device or the employee takes a deliberate pause for a specific reason.
Intended idle time often includes:
As the name implies, unplanned idle time refers to unexpected concerns that might arise suddenly. These are more than just an inconvenience and can impact productivity, output, and resource management.
No matter what the industry specializes in, the causes of idle time remain the same. Let’s have a look at the most common causes of idle time in a workplace:
A common reason for inefficient idle time is poor decision-making or planning. Sometimes, delays can also happen due to the misallocation of tasks or overstaffing. Lack of clarity on roles and principles, along with delays in task delegations, are among other causes of idle time.
Solution: Real-time productivity tracking can significantly help in keeping poor administration at bay. Employers, managers, and decision-makers can set clear expectations for each role. They can also use tools like TeamTrace that keep a tab on employees’ productive hours and alert managers when the idle time is exceeded.
Industries might also face idle time when there are complexities related to the end process. For instance, if the code is ready but is stuck in code review or testing, delivery can be delayed. Bugs from other teams’ block deployment can also hamper productivity for a particular team and result in idle time.
Solution:
Suppose there is a new entrant in the market who is doing better than your enterprise. Analyzing their pattern and behavior might also result in idle time. In such cases, any organization is bound to scale down its production as consumer demand goes down. Cyclical fluctuations, economic challenges, and employee strikes are among other causes of idle time.
Solution:
Focus on better project management with streamlined tools like TeamTrace
In a 2021 study by Acronis, 76% of enterprises suffered downtime as well as data loss, which hampered productivity. The terms “Idle Time” and “Downtime” are often used interchangeably, but the difference is enormous. Suppose a software is already tested but not run; that is the case of idle time. But when software delivery comes to a halt due to an unexpected breakdown, it is called downtime.
In the case of idle time, the effects of productivity are in the form of underutilized talent, reduced morale, and delays in projects. On the other hand, downtime causes the project to stop all at once, creating deadline risks and customer dissatisfaction. While the impact of idle time on revenue is direct, downtime mainly impacts consumer satisfaction.
Production efficiency can be increased only if idle time is minimized. Not many industry leaders know this Idle Time formula that can save them from having unproductive employees at work. Let’s jump into the formula and discover what a productive shift would look like:
Idle Time = (Total Time/Idle Time) * 100
Let’s understand this with an example. If an employee has logged in for his 8-hour shift but is proactively engaged in tasks only for 6 hours, then his idle time will be 8-6= 2 hours.
Going by the formula,
His idle time = (8/2) hours * 100 = 25%
Hence, 25% becomes his idle time percentage, defining that 25% of his total work hours were idle and were spent on non-productive tasks.
Now that we are well aware of how to calculate idle time, let’s dive into strategies to minimize unproductive hours at work.
One of the primary reasons why idle time takes place among the workforce is due to a lack of clear priorities and goals. When every team member understands what they need to accomplish, they can focus their time and energy on significant tasks.
To set realistic goals for your business, you can use a project management tool. Its interactive boards will let you:
This helps the team to move in the same direction and reduce operational costs with workforce management.
Bigger firms follow the time-blocking technique, where they dedicate specific time blocks for different tasks or activities. Less distraction and more focus help to reduce idle time in the workplace.
By assigning a set time for projects or activities, you can help yourself and your employees to:
Leveraging the time-blocking technique ensures that all significant tasks receive adequate time, attention, and resources.
Tedious tasks are everybody’s fear. Automating them not only saves valuable time but also provides hands-on experience with the technology. Automation primarily requires workforce management software that can multitask on your employees’ behalf.
Hence, no more scope for idle time in the name of completing manual tasks. With automated workforce monitoring software, you can streamline:
Automation helps in the reduction of manual efforts and errors while also providing free time to dedicate to strategic and value-added activities.
Ongoing projects are a part of every organization’s pipeline. Constant upgrades and feedback from the client make the development and testing team sit for hours and work on the same thing. This can sometimes build a feeling of unproductiveness among them, thus increasing the chances of idle time.
Therefore, it is crucial to de-clutter tasks that have been on the To-Do list for months. In this regard, a dedicated Kanban and Scrum dashboard can give you detailed insights. Monitor the data for the past 6 months and:
Along with constant monitoring, it is important to make changes to your workflow to enhance productivity.
The key to optimizing productivity and reducing idle time in the workplace is effective collaboration. You can facilitate communication among teams with interactive dashboards and collaborative platforms.
Collaboration tools not only enable seamless communication but also help team members to share updates and gain real-time feedback. Effective collaboration helps in:
Idle time is directly proportionate to an employee’s productivity. The greater the productivity, the less idle time!
Regular monitoring of unproductive hours can reduce idle time at work. However, monitoring the entire workforce seems like an impossible task. This is where your organization needs a robust Idle Time tracking software that keeps a tab on employees when you can’t!
TeamTrace is a versatile employee monitoring software that tracks employees’ idle time. Not only does it provide an in-depth report on internet usage but also has features like task and project management that keeps idle hours at bay. So, how can you use it to track and manage idle time in a remote team?
TeamTrace fetches employee activity and attendance reports, reducing the requirements for manual tracking. Uninterrupted monitoring gives you a clear picture of your employees’ work.
The Activity Summary report lets you take a deeper look into specific tasks, projects, and activities an employee is working on. With this data, you can automate workflows and hold them accountable wherever necessary to reduce idle time.
With TeamTrace, you can access the employee’s screen as the app provides screenshots every 5-10 minutes. Keep track of whether your employees are genuinely working or stuck on the same window for the last hour.
TeamTrace monitors the apps and URLs your workforce visited or used, ensuring working hours are dedicated only to useful apps. No more worries of checking whether your employees are working or simply binge-watching their favourite shows and spending time shopping on e-commerce sites.
Waiting periods, machine downtime, and intended long breaks- the causes of idle time can be varied. However, it is on us to comprehend what idle time costs a business and strategies to reduce it. The tips shared in this article can help your organization minimize idle hours and utilize them to boost productivity in employees.
Leveraging the latest technology can help you in managing your workforce and delegating tasks without biases. TeamTrace is undoubtedly the best employee monitoring software to track idle time. Features like a dedicated dashboard, application tracking, and real-time screen monitoring help you to monitor productive hours and work toward the unproductive ones.
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