Garnering information on staff’s output and time expenditure will boost service-delivery.
Whether in good times or bad, maximising effi ciencies, controlling costs, and driving revenues should be at the forefront of sound business practice and management. In resource (people) intensive businesses such as fi nancial services, IT, audit practices, and manufacturing, a large percentage of total expenditure can be attributed to staff salaries and associated infrastructure (up to 85% in IT/consulting companies).

It stands to reason therefore, that when applying the 80/20 rule, effort should be expended in  understanding and managing this costly resource. Investing effort here will aid in driving down the total cost of ownership and improving effi ciencies. Through effective time management and administrative solutions, management is provided intelligent data and statistics which can drive business policy.

In truth, many companies either have little or no time management systems and processes, or often rely  on very basic Excel-driven time management practices, essentially for billing purposes. I have often been surprised at the lack of focus on and appreciation of effective and proactive time management from a large percentage of executives and management with whom I have engaged in this regard over the years.

Globalisation and the current tough trading conditions have forced businesses to drive down costs and
improve outputs in order to remain competitive and sustainable into the future. The foundation to  implementing a strategy to aid business competitiveness is to extract effective time and utilisation metrics. As the saying goes, you cannot manage what you cannot measure.

Accurate statistics and management information that is provided real-time and reliably, ensures that  management has factual data with respect to effort, costs and outputs. It drives a culture of commercial  awareness across the business and ensures a leaner, meaner organisation able to compete in this
tough global market.

The biggest challenge to proper implementation and adoption of effective time management is an initial staff reaction of ‘policing’ what they do. The positive spinoffs though which highlight trends of  overworked versus underworked staff, excellent delivery versus non-delivery, and measurable return
on investment, soon allay this notion, provided that the executive will to succeed prevails.