As Scoro makes the transition to a 4-day work week, we’re bringing seven key focus areas under the microscope to optimize our existing process and pave the way for a smooth rollout. In this post, we’re taking a closer look at Time Management.
Having a direct impact on performance and productivity, time management is a key focus area that will help us make the shift to a 4 day work week. That’s why we’ve developed a new framework that will strengthen our team’s time management skills and enable them to remain as efficient as possible.
Optimizing time management for enhanced productivity
Research shows that many employees feel that their work is never under control, proving just how vital a solid time management system is in the workplace. And for those shifting to a 4-day workweek – such as Scoro – the need for optimal time management is even more crucial. Scaling down from 40 hours per week to 32, our team has a limited amount of time to get work done. Our main objective is to be efficient and deliver the same level of outputs – if not more – as we did previously.
Setting our team up with the tools and resources needed to organize their time intelligently will help us make a shift to a 4-day work week.
Outlining our objectives
To ensure we are bringing in initiatives that make a meaningful difference to our employees’ work life, we consulted with the team and sought their input when creating objectives for our ‘time management’ squad. Based on employee feedback, our objectives are to:
- Develop clear principles when it comes to time-tracking (i.e., when do we track employees and how do we utilize the data collected?)
- Increase the team’s knowledge of time management techniques
- Improve existing processes in other key areas – particularly focus, meetings, and communication – to support the implementation and improvement of our new time management initiatives
Our roadmap to success
To help us meet our time management objectives, we have outlined our roadmap to success. This includes:
- Educating the team on time management: Delivering time management training to employees and hosting workshops and seminars to increase the team’s confidence and knowledge of time management best practices.
- Creating a summary of time management best practices: Creating an overview that employees can consult and add to over time to support them in their time management training and general day-to-day work life.
- Leveraging work-management software (WMS) tools: Using our very own WMS tools – time-trackers, shared calendars, and time-sheets – to log time spent on projects and enable our team to get a better understanding of their overall time-use.
- Developing a framework for resource planning: Introducing a solid framework for resource planning that will enable us to maximize efficiency, monitor progress, and get a bird’s eye view of our team’s capacity and utilization.
Measuring progress
To capitalize on the benefits that the 4-day work week will bring and maximize our chances of success, we will need to continually measure the outputs of our ‘time management’ squad. We will do this through:
- Staff surveys: Gathering feedback from the team via surveys on what they think about the new initiatives, areas of improvement, and whether they have seen a noticeable difference in the way they manage their time.
- Time-sheets and time-trackers: Regularly analyzing data from time-sheets and time-trackers to gauge how much time employees are spending on projects.
- Customer feedback: Feedback from clients – positive or negative – will reflect the effectiveness of our time management initiatives and how well employees are grasping the new frameworks.
- Utilization charts and planners: Regularly analyzing data from utilization charts and planners to track whether employees are meeting deadlines and completing high-priority tasks on time, but at the same time ensure that no one is working over time.
Preparing for challenges
Efficiency and time management are core pillars here at Scoro – after all, it’s the foundation that our work management software is built on and it’s what we aim to deliver to our clients. It’s also one of the reasons we’re making the shift to a 4-day work week; to live up to these values. Although we anticipate a few challenges, particularly around the adoption of new time management frameworks, we’re confident we’ll be able to combat problems by educating employees and giving them the tools needed (including our own WMS) to facilitate increased productivity.
We will continue to share updates on the progress of our time management squad as we transition into a 4-day work week. In the meantime, check out our recent blogpost on time management for handy tips and advice.