Office timing is a crucial topic in the professional sector today. More and more people have recently started to question whether their office timing can increase the expected efficiency of managers. On the other hand, since there has been a lot of changes in the modern working environments, it is really thought-provoking sometimes to think if there is a standard office timing in the companies.
Here in this article, you will read interesting matters related to office timing that may broaden your horizons about the office timing of your own business, as a project manager.
What is Office Timing?
There are two definitions for office timing; firstly, the time that managers devote to their employees to know their concerns and find solutions for them. Secondly, the office hours that the employees are obliged to work during the day, based on which they get paid.
Anywhere in this article, we mean the first definition by mentioning office timing. According to this definition, office timing effectively creates an open door policy, allowing for aspirational communication and collaboration goals to be established. By providing strong communication channels between employees and their managers, an open door policy fosters complete workplace transparency, communication, and productivity.
Why is Office Timing Important?
As everything is facing the changes caused by modern living influences, office timing is now an important issue both for managers and employees. They are rapidly discovering that traditional organizational approaches are failing them. For instance, burnouts are on the rise, stress-related ailments at work are increasing as well, boredom is becoming dominant in the workplaces, etc. So, it is essential that managers consider new ways of operating that will enable them to build up a more flexible, digital, and open social and economic environment.
As a result, managers are coming up with different ideas such as teleworking, walking to work, and napping at work, extending leave hours, taking regular breaks throughout the day, etc.
The logic behind these trends is that they can increase the quality of work and life of the employees.
Let’s take a look at some interesting statistics from a study to realize why it is important for you as a manager to implement office timing in your management strategies:
- 44% of participating employees said they don’t feel free to express themselves to their managers.
- Employees admitted to speaking out 42% of the time but concealed information if they believed they had nothing to gain or much to lose by doing so.
- Fear of the penalties deterred 20% of employees from addressing routine company issues.
Despite attempts and theoretical aspirations, each of these concerns leads to severe communication and collaboration issues, preventing a real open door policy from being developed. So, it is important for the managers to develop efficient office timing so that there would be more and better communications and collaborations between employees on the one hand and between managers and employees on the other.
What Are the Benefits of Office Timing?
So, now we know that office timing is important. But let’s also know the benefits of office timing:
- Office culture creation: Managers that show a high level of accessibility are more likely to discuss difficulties with their employees. This can create a culture that promotes open lines of communication.
- Strong long-term relationships: There would be a stronger relationship between managers and employees.
- Trust: Office timing is a crucial aspect of successful management that leads to increased loyalty and a dedication to high performance.
- Better Intra-departmental Collaborations: Workplace collaboration caused by efficient office timing enhances workflow processes, strengthens employee and team relationships, boosts productivity, and boosts efficiency.
What Are the Top Challenges of Office Timing in A Remote Work Policy?
Due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses have decided to work from home due to governmental safety measures. So, it is becoming harder for managers to adopt an office timing strategy as one of the ways to lead a remote team. The fact that the employees are not present in the workplace can significantly affect their communications together and with the managers.
Basically, there are two top challenges of office timing in a remote work policy. First, it may be difficult to implement office timing effectively which brings about communication issues. Second, since employees cannot see each other or see each other much less than in an on-site workplace, they may find it difficult to collaborate together. This would result in a reluctance to have teamwork in the long run.
Let’s see how you can overcome these challenges as a manager.
How to Implement Office Timing in A Remote Work Policy?
So, here are the steps that you should take if you want to implement office timing in a remote work policy:
1. Use a Time Management Software
Running a remote team without using time management software is indeed very difficult. If you know how much time you can save by using one, you would immediately sign up for it. When you are managing a remote team, it is inevitable to use different platforms to communicate with your team members and instruct them about their daily tasks. And, at some point in time, you may find it annoying that you should switch between platforms because each of them brings different benefits to your business. The best time management software that we suggest you use is Nifty.
The are many advantages of using a time management software to keep track of your workloads and ensure an effective time management process for your remote business. Here are some of the benefits that Nifty can provide to eliminate the bottlenecks in your day to day work environment:
- You can manage your time more effectively with Nifty’s built in time tracking and reporting or using their native Harvest integration.
- You can estimate and track time, expenses, and team bottlenecks to balance workloads.
- Nifty allows you to add high level milestones to your workflow so that you can achieve your project goals much easier and on schedule.
- You can monitor your milestones through automated progress reporting as tasks are completed.
- Multiple color themes are there for you to add beauty and clarity to your projects.
- You can integrate third-party apps such as Harvest, GDrive, and Zoom, etc.
- Since you can set start and end dates for each task, set up reminders, and build repeating workflows.
- You can import and export CSV and excel sheets into your projects for analyzing your time spend.
Nifty has pricing plans that suit freelancers to large teams with a generous free forever plan to get you started. If you’re looking to get more done, in less time — Try Nifty for free today!
2. Define Parameters
Wanting to use an office timing policy in your remote project management can sometimes turn into a revolving door, damaging your project time management. Time is quite an important issue when it comes to project management. You’ll need time to complete your duties or ask others to complete their own duties. However, office timing doesn’t imply that you must be available at all times, which is why it’s critical to set a time for your employees.
Hence, you should use a time management tool to define parameters for your project time. As we just mentioned, Nifty boosts team efficiency by combining all of the major project management functions into one tool.
Rather than managing many project time management solutions, Nifty helps you to manage your team. Get milestone-driven progress to keep your team motivated and on track to meet goals before they’re due.
3. Prepare Yourself
You never know what issues an employee will bring to you during office timing, which is why you should be prepared for anything. For example, if someone raises health and safety concerns, you’ll need to know how to handle the situation quickly. Well, let’s say that your management skills talk loud in these situations. You should think of the best ways at the lowest costs to meet your employees’ satisfaction.
4. Listen Well
Whether it is in-person office timing or an online one due to the remote working conditions, you should be aware that you have to listen more than you speak. You should make your employees feel heard. To show that you’re engaged and interested, make eye contact, use positive facial expressions, and maintain open body language.
5. Be Reliable
Your employees should feel safe and secure to talk with you about their constraints and issues. If you want them to talk to you, you should first give them the feeling that they can trust you and speak their minds without the fear of losing anything. Psychological safety is something that can lead to creating an environment where employees can feel safe to talk. Therefore, building trust is a key thing you should do if you want to manage your remote, in-person, hybrid, or agile work environment.
Team members that feel trusted are more likely to speak up, take risks and be vulnerable. As a result, these teams have a lower chance of failing. So, during your office timing, you have a perfect opportunity to create trust and show that you are reliable as a manager.
6. Ask Questions
Initial worries may be more serious than they appear after more questioning. You don’t want to put the employee on the defensive, so ask for more information so you can work together to find a solution. Asking reasonable questions from your employees during office timing can also make them want to talk to you more. It helps them to engage with you and talk about their issues much more openly.
To do this, you need to find the root of their concerns. Why do they feel like that? To know the answer to this question, you should ask some other questions to get to know the root indirectly.
7. Encourage Employees
To make your employees talk with you, you should provide encouragement. You should provide them with the assurance that they will not be penalized if they make a mistake. During and outside of office timing, you have to discourage gossip. Then, do your best to build a pleasant and supportive atmosphere for all employees. Moreover, make sure that feedback is ongoing. Use your office timing to ask for employee opinions on a regular basis.
8. Consider Writing MoM
Moments of meetings (MoM) are very important for any meeting. Writing your meeting notes down and documenting them during your office timing can be useful for your whole office timing goals. Keeping a document from your meetings can help you to keep track of the issues expressed, the topics addressed, and the solutions offered.
Doing this can help you to always remember which of your employees is concerned about what and what solution(s) you have provided for them. So, next time that something relevant happens, you can refer back to your documents.
Conclusion
Considering to adopt an office timing policy for your project management strategy is indeed a very wise decision that you can take. Given that it brings a lot of advantages to the relationship that you have with your employees, either in-person or remote, you can simply be sure that it can improve your business as a whole. The reason is that strong relationships can lead to better communications and collaborations. Wish you the best of luck!
