Producing great work is the name of the game – but without knowing exactly how long that work is taking, you could be inaccurately billing clients, and ultimately letting profit slip out of your grasp. Unfortunately, it’s also true that most employees aren’t exactly filled with joy at the prospect of completing their timesheets. In fact, they probably hate it – and you, for breathing down their neck when the time to submit their working hours comes around. 

What you need are some more… creative ways of motivating your staff to get those timesheets properly completed and logged. Metis brings you our five tips for bringing about timesheet harmony, so that if your staff still resent filling them out, they can hate us, and not you.

1. We’re in the money

It may be obvious to you that amassing more billable hours results in a better bottom line for the business, but your consultants may not equate the tedious task of time submission with the bigger picture of booming profits and good times. Point out that the process of completing timesheets helps to speed up the billing cycle, and increases cash flow, allowing the business to take on even more projects – a situation where all members of the team prosper, with a selection of interesting work, greater profits and increased job security. Make it clear that the grass really is greener on the side where employees complete their timesheets. 

2. Resort to bribery 

Not actual bribery, obviously – that’s illegal. But rewarding your staff for tracking their time to the appropriate standard is a huge incentive for getting the job done, without the complaints. Whether you opt for foosball Friday, or free cakes for all, giving your consultants a pat on the back (figurative or literal) will encourage them to keep up the good behaviour to claim their next timesheet related prize, and lap up the positive reinforcement. 

We’ve even heard of the JWT agency in Brazil, who installed a beer fridge stocked with free drink that, you guessed it, only opened when everyone’s timesheets were completed. Nobody in that business wanted to be the one standing between their colleagues and a Friday afternoon beer. 

3. You say, we pay 

Some companies decide that the simplest, and most direct course of action is to link timesheet completion with pay. As much as your consultants love you, they don’t turn up to work for free, so it’s sound logic to assume that linking time recording to the release of expenses payments (staff) or invoice payments (freelancers) is going to spur everyone on to get those timesheets completed, no matter what. We’ve heard of some firms extending this idea to paying staff salaries too, but it’s not something we would advocate. 

4. Make it easy on yourself 

The best way to encourage timesheet completion is to keep the process as simple as possible, and to provide enabling tools to support the task. Providing a range of easy and accessible options means that workers won’t view the assignment as a chore, or as a daunting addition to their already busy schedules – and will give them less excuses for getting out of doing it! Advanced business management software such as Metis (other systems are available!) allows convenient time inputting online or via an app, ensuring that everyone can get their timesheets done, whenever they have a minute to spare. The usability and convenience benefits of specialist software vs spreadsheets are very significant. 

5. Appraise it 

Almost every firm will do appraisals at least once a year and assess staff against a range of criteria. We recommend making timesheet discipline one of the things you measure your staff on – maybe 5-10% of the whole score. Their target for completion rates should be 100% across the board - missed timesheets are unacceptable. But you could also look at targets for getting timesheets in on time. For example, a target of 94% completion on time would allow staff to be late with timesheets just 3 times a year. Again, this is much easier to track if you have dedicated software rather than spreadsheets to collect time. 

It’s time to take timesheets in hand with Metis

Metis was built by a small team of entrepreneurs who have founded, grown and sold companies like yours. We know what it’s like to manage all stages - from when there are just two of you, to when you’re dealing with hundreds of people in multiple teams. Metis is the distillation of the lessons we have learned along the way, and our mission is to make businesses like yours more successful. If you’d like to hear more about how we can help, get in touch.