Working hours. Photo of working time: example, sample

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Efficiency makes people successful, competitive. A great tool for researching how efficiently you use working time is working time photography, in other words it is also called timekeeping. What is this tool, how to use it and what results it brings - read in the article.

What is working time photography?

This is a research method in which a whole working day or a certain period of time is subjected to continuous measurement. Thanks to this observation, you can get information about what an employee, a group of employees or a team is doing during the working day. Supervision is carried out by a specialist, and such a study can also be carried out independently. All actions, both related to work and distractions, smoke breaks, informal communication, and so on, are totally fixed.

Among employees who are fond of time managementand realize the importance of time management, it is a popular tool. Moreover, if you are interested in the question of how to optimize working time, working time photography will be the first step. You can only manage what is measured. Often, just observing, even without making changes to the working day, already leads to an increase in efficiency.

Goals

This method serves a number of purposes. One of the most important is the identification of time losses during the working day. The next one is to determine the reasons for the loss of time and develop a system of measures that will allow you to work more efficiently. Working time photography allows you to develop time standards for work processes, learn from the organizational experience of the most successful employees and teach it to other people to achieve high results.

This kind of research becomes especially valuable when the issue of expanding or reducing staff, redistributing responsibilities is being decided.

If you want to discuss with your supervisor a raise in your pay or the search for an assistant, a self-composed individual photograph of working hours will be an excellent evidence base. You will have strong arguments, the leader will take your proposals more seriously if you prepare in this way.

Taking photographs of working time

Despite the fact that the name of the procedure contains the word "photography", nothing from photographic equipment is required. Enough paper andpens. To simplify the task, ready-made forms with filling samples have been developed. They can be found in legal systems like "Consultant". You can develop the form yourself or get by with an ordinary table.

One day is not always enough, so surveillance can take several days.

The whole process can be conditionally divided into three stages: preparatory, observation process, processing of results. At the preparatory stage, forms are compiled and filled out, at the stage of observation, records are kept, at the stage of processing the results, they calculate how long this or that type of work takes, analyze the effectiveness, and draw conclusions.

Counting results

To make it more convenient to count, operations of the same type are combined, collected in groups. The most popular groups are:

• Preparation and completion work (starting the equipment, preparing the necessary tools, turning off the equipment, cleaning the workplace).
• Organizational matters.
• Time used for direct performance of duties.
• Rest and lunch breaks.

Smaller groups can be distinguished if appropriate for a particular study. Then a coefficient is calculated showing the efficiency or inefficiency of the employee's working day.

Timing sheet

The form must have a “header” where information about the full name and speci alty is enteredemployee, the facility where the study is being conducted, the date and time of the analysis.

Then there should be a table. The first column is a serial number, then a column for the name of the work performed. The third column indicates the period of time from when and how long the work was performed. The fourth column calculates the amount of time spent on work. You can add a comment column.

Main types of research

One employee can be observed, then it will be an individual photo. They can watch a group or brigade, then it will be a group or brigade photo.

If the observation is carried out throughout the working day, then such a photograph is called a classic. You can fix not the whole day, but only its individual moments.

One more division has already been mentioned above. A specialist can observe, or you can take pictures of the working day yourself. When using an outside observer, you may encounter a negative reaction from employees. They may refuse to work under supervision, or, conversely, start working faster and more than usual, which will lead to incorrect data on time costs.

Research can be carried out with the help of video equipment. On the one hand, this allows you to get objective information, on the other hand, not every action can be clearly distinguished by observing it only from the side, without comments from the person doing the work.

Psychologicalpreparation

Research on how employees use working time - photographing working time, a technically simple but psychologically difficult way. Employees perceive such studies as an attempt to monitor them, worsen working conditions, identify shortcomings and punish.

Therefore, it is important to pay attention to preliminary explanations of the importance of such a study. The psychological climate in the team has a serious impact. If people work in an atmosphere of trust and goodwill, they will willingly do anything that will help make the organization more efficient and competitive. If, on the contrary, the team is characterized by distrust, constant punishment, then it will be extremely difficult to get reliable information that will really give results.

It is important to build a motivation system in which it would be beneficial for employees to work most efficiently.

Dissecting an example

It is not possible for every employee to make an accurate timing of the working day. The most difficult thing to do is to conduct it with employees in managerial positions, the photograph of the accountant's working time is especially difficult. It is easier with those specialists whose operations have clear boundaries and distinctive features. As a rule, these are working speci alties.

Let's look at an example. An employee is a manager in a corporate department. Here is a photo of the working time (sample):

• Beginning of the working day - 9-00.
• Preparation of the workplace(booting the computer, preparing documents) - 9-10.
• Planerka – 9-15.
• Telephone conversation with a key client - 9-30.
• Checking email - 9-42.
• Preparing a contract for a client – 9-53.
• Smoke break - 10-37.
• Preparing a presentation of a new product for a client - 10-57.
• Lunch - 14-05.
• Internship for a new employee - 14-58.
• Smoke break - 16-15.
• Calling customers - 16-30.
• End of the day (cleaning the desktop, turning off the computer) - 17-55.
• Leaving home - 18-00.

Now you need to calculate how long each action took, distribute the types of work into groups, calculate the manager's efficiency ratio. This work time photo (example) will help you make your own.

Who needs this information?

First of all, the stakeholders are the managers and owners of the company who want to understand how optimally the staff is loaded, whether the company's labor resources are used efficiently.

Employees of the HR department, HR departments also need similar studies in order to draw up feasible job descriptions, select exactly the number of employees that the organization needs, and conduct research work.

Responsible employees themselves are interested in the fact that the working day is used efficiently, without downtime and emergency work, there are no situations with overtime or work takenhome.

Now you are familiar with a technique that allows you to assess whether working time is being used effectively (photo of working time). Try to put the method into practice, you will find a large number of reserves, you will see how to work optimally. Thanks to this approach, you can turn into one of the most productive employees of the company, and this will definitely be seen and appreciated.