How to motivate your employees to track time in Jira

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It’s not unusual for a company to meet resistance when implementing time tracking software for Jira for the first time. There are a few reasons why this happens.

Employees may be reluctant to put in the effort to track time every day, for one. Most employees also have many tools and tasks already, and don’t want to add another one to the list. In addition, they may feel like their company is spying on them and resent the perceived intrusiveness of time tracking.

That said, starting out with time tracking software doesn’t have to be a top-down initiative that threatens employees and brings bad feelings into a company. There are a few ways to motivate your employees to track time and melt away resistance. Here are a few:

1) Get your employees on board with time tracking from the start

If you’re thinking of adopting time tracking software for Jira, avoid springing it on employees suddenly. From the beginning, when you’re researching different options, make it clear that you’re exploring making this change. 

2) Build a climate of trust

It is vital that your employees trust you when you adopt time tracking software. Clarify explicitly that the new tool is not made to spy on employees. Explain that you will be using this data to help them and the company achieve more. Be true to your word. 

3) Explain the need for time tracking and show employees the benefits

Include employees in the process by showing them the benefits of the software. They’ll benefit from knowing how teams can gain insights and better organize their work. Keep demonstrating and articulating the value of time tracking as much as possible.  Make sure to explain the reasons why you are tracking time, whether it’s to facilitate invoicing or run reports to gain actionable insights. 

4) Educate your employees on how to track time

Training is important to keep everyone on the same page and stay transparent. Tracking time is often easy for the end user, but why not show your employees some of the more intricate functionalities, like reporting? Administrators have access to advanced reporting functionality, while users can report on their own vacation time, sick time, or how long they spent on a particular project.  By seeing all of the things time tracking software can do for their company, your employees will have a better understanding of how their time tracking data is being used - whether it be for project-based statistics or for invoicing, for instance. 

5) Encourage employees to use handy add-ons

Time tracking software may come with add-ons like Google Calendar integrations or a mobile app. Make sure employees know about these functionalities as they can be very beneficial. With a mobile app, employees can easily track their time while commuting home in the evening, for example. With a Google Calendar integration, all their meetings are already entered on their timesheet.

6) Ask how employees are doing 

A simple check-in can work wonders. Engage your employees by asking how they are doing with the time tracking software. Take their input into account.  

With a proactive approach, you can bring employees on board with time tracking. 

[M Amine]

Great article to read

[Sarah Fletcher {Tempo}]

Thank you @M Amine!