One of the most popular elements of Worksection is the time tracker. In this article, you’ll learn how Ukrainian companies use time-tracking software to calculate the cost of work, the other purposes of this system, and whether it’s necessary to implement time control in your company.
Why Is a Time-Tracking System Needed?
A time-tracking system is needed to:
- Estimate how much time and money you will spend on a task. For example, Dmytro Barsukov, CEO of Y&R Ukraine, realized after implementing a time tracker that the same task could take one person ten hours and another just two.
- Make the company’s pricing more transparent for the client.
- Use time-spent reports during retrospectives in Scrum sprints.
- Understand how heavily the team is loaded and the work pace of each employee.
- Plan tasks for the next time period (sprint) based on the time required to complete them.
- Work with the SMART goal-setting system. Time tracking is used to predict how much time and money will be spent on a task (Achievable).
- HR – Checks how employees log time in Worksection using a frequency diagram. During the implementation stage, reminders were needed for those who forgot to start the timer at the beginning of their work.
- Finance – Analyzes time-spent reports by projects and clients. This data helps the finance department determine the profitability of projects and clients. Together with HR, they also assess the efficiency of teams and individual employees.
The company has a strict rule: “If a task is not in Worksection, it doesn’t need to be done, because the time spent on it won’t be recorded”. Employees log their time in the task manager. Using task labels, it’s easy to see where the project time is going, make adjustments, or add new tasks.
At the effective internet marketing agency Roman.ua, the time tracker is used to understand how long different tasks take, such as training, development, building business processes, and sales. Planning work is based on the time needed to complete these tasks.
How Is the Time Tracker Used to Calculate the Cost of Work?
Eugene Kudriavchenko, Co-founder of the Vintage studio, explains that the cost of work depends on the employee’s level: junior, middle, or senior. “To determine these levels, we introduced time tracking through Worksection to understand how much time employees spend on typical tasks. If an employee spends less time on a task, they have the potential to move up to the next level. The payment system for top managers depends not on level, but on the KPI of their departments”.
The advertising agency Y&R Ukraine chose a classic hourly payment scheme. Managing Director Dmytro Barsukov believes that time tracking in advertising agencies will become a national standard derived from international practice: “The advertising business sells the time of its specialists. That’s why we initially used a system that emphasizes time tracking”.
Meanwhile, the video performance agency One2 does not use the time tracker to calculate salaries. The team knows that employees will receive their paychecks once a month, regardless of the client’s performance. One2 marketing consultant Vitaliy Tsymbaliuk claims that this approach makes the team strive to work better — not out of compulsion, but because they genuinely want to.
Why Should a Client Know How Much Time Employees Spent on Tasks?
In the cases we analyzed, most companies do not bring the client into the CRM system. VoltaOne project manager Roman Slipchenko explains that this is due to the nature of their work: “In our case, the account manager communicates everything the client needs.”
We deliberately chose a minimalist design for Worksection to lower the entry threshold for those who have never worked with this system — and may not work with it regularly. Therefore, we like the case of Y&R Ukraine, which added several clients to the system. This is an ideal situation, as the client can monitor the work volume at any time. Unfortunately, according to CEO Dmytro Barsukov, there are few such clients because few are interested in the “behind-the-scenes” of an advertising project.
Roman Rybalchenko, founder of Roman.ua, believes that a good alternative to bringing the client into the system is using a reporting system: “We work transparently, and the service allows us to communicate this transparency to the client. With the reporting system, the client sees how much time (literally down to the minute) we spent, and they have no questions.” Roman.ua uses reports in two cases:
- External – To show the client what has been done.
- Internal – To calculate employee compensation based on the time worked and the projects handled.
Is It Necessary to Track Employees’ Working Hours?
Implementing a time-tracking system is optional. For example, Anastasiia Sylenok, CEO of 1991 Civic Tech Center, does not use the Worksection time tracker because she works in a multitasking mode and quickly switches between tasks. However, center employees use the time tracker for long-term tasks, such as writing an article.VoltaOne project manager Roman Slipchenko rightly notes that while the agency barely uses time tracking, for many companies, time control is issue #1. Plus, freelancers who want to interact with clients in Worksection often want to log time spent on tasks.
The agency Y&R Ukraine had to introduce a time-tracking system due to the company’s complex structure. It consists of departments, and the departments include units that handle specific tasks. Up to a dozen projects can be in progress simultaneously.
However, the video performance agency One2 does not track working hours. “For us, it’s taboo to calculate how many hours a person worked during the week and then say, ‘You’re not taking on enough tasks.’ We consider the focus factor of each team: some are more productive, others less,” says One2 marketing consultant Vitaliy Tsymbaliuk.