Tracking employee hours has long been considered something bosses do. Businesses want to know how long their employees work to figure out hourly wages and bring transparency into the work process. Yet as remote work becomes a staple of our modern workforce, tracking work hours could become a task for employees. Employees may benefit more from the practice too.
By 2025, just over 1 in 5 employees will be remote workers. Working from home will be more common in some industries than others, but about half of businesses agree it’s here to stay. Remote work is popular among those able to do it. Surveys show remote employees as feeling happier and more productive at their jobs.
At the same time, remote work presents its own set of challenges. When your office is at home, when do you truly leave work? Stress and burnout are common among remote workers. 37% of remote workers say they work longer hours than they did in an office job. 22% find it difficult to unplug from their jobs, even just to eat lunch. While stepping away from your computer to eat lunch reduces stress for 90% of people, too few employees actually do it.
Giving remote employees the tools to track their work hours can fend off feelings of burnout. When workers see where they’re time is being spent, they can reallocate time to prioritize what matters to them. Logging hours also makes it possible for workers to take the breaks they need.
One thing to remember: time tracking is only useful if it’s done right. If logging hours become one more unproductive task forced onto workers, its benefits are lost. Right now, the benefits of automatic tracking technology like facial recognition are being weighed against privacy concerns. Other solutions like GPS raise similar concerns.
