How to make savings in a time of crisis? TIMATE's guide for businesses

The World Trade Organization predicts that the global commerce will diminish by 13–32% in the nearest future. The reason, of course, is the pandemic which put many companies and factories on hold and reduced the demand for products and services. As a result, businesses seek savings that would help them survive the hard times. TIMATE’s analyses show that the change in monitoring the employees’ working time can reduce the costs to a considerable extent.

Unsure about the future, companies often make chaotic decisions. It is perfectly understandable that they suspend recruitment, but they also stop seeking new orders, since they believe they do not have sufficient resources to carry out new processes. They fall into a trap: they have no money to build teams and the shortage of employees reduces their income.

Meanwhile, you can make savings within the enterprise without implementing any major organizational changes. The key approach is to analyse the processes and identify those that make money leak out of the company budget.

One of the areas worth considering is the use of the working time by employees. As it turns out, a company employing 500 people may lose over 1 million PLN per year due to the working time waste.

The working time bottleneck: where do the hours and the money disappear?

TIMATE, the manufacturer of the time and attendance system, analysed the behaviours of employees in several large companies from the sectors of production and logistics. The yearlong project revealed areas in which an employer can make savings effectively. These savings can be considerable, as an average employee wastes 460 minutes of the working time per month. When comparing the initial results (at the start of the analysis) with the final results (after one year of using the TIMATE system), it may be concluded that the abuses and costs related to the use of the working time can be significantly reduced.

Importantly, TIMATE analysed only the time that employees are contractually obliged to devote to work. The analysis excluded the statutory breaks.

What do employees do at work when they do not work?

1. A cigarette break

20% of the wasted working time, i.e. 90 minutes per month on average, cover the cigarette breaks. TIMATE’s analysis shows that the advanced working time monitoring (not only exits/entrances, but also employees’ behaviours during their working hours) allows to reduce this time by up to 78%.

2. Leaving for private purposes

13% of the time for which the employer pays and in which the employee does not work cover the situations of leaving the company premises for private purposes. The enterprises under analysis managed to eliminate this problem completely by using cutting-edge technologies.

3. Meals

As it turned out, employees spend more time on their meals than it is specified in the labour code. To be precise, it is additional 60 minutes per month. This can be reduced by up to 92% per month.

4. Unauthorized overtime

A major problem faced by employers is the unauthorized overtime, i.e. the working time that goes beyond the employee’s contractual working hours. Much of this overtime is not agreed upon with the managers, which means that employees stay longer, but they do not do any work during this time. On average, this overtime is one hour per one employee per month. This issue can be completely eliminated, as shown by the example of the businesses analysed by TIMATE.

5. Entrance and exit

It would seem that entering and exiting the company premises should not take up much time. Meanwhile, it turns out that these actions may cover a large amount of minutes on a monthly basis. Time is wasted in the queues to the turnstiles and on talks in the cloakroom. The time at the gates can be reduced by 87% by using the automatic time and attendance system.

6. Ineffective time

The analysis reveals that an average employee wastes 90 minutes per month on simply doing nothing. The businesses under analysis managed to reduce this figure by 67%.

7. Shorter actual working time

Leaving early or arriving late result in a situation when an employee spends less time at work than specified in the contract. This issue can be completely resolved.

Better work organization: savings at your fingertips

460 minutes per month may seem unimpressive. However, it is enough to translate this figure into money in order to see the scale of the losses.

Let’s assume that an employer pays the average of 0.47 PLN for one minute of work. A company employing 500 people loses over 100,000 PLN on wasted working time per month, i.e. over 1 million PLN per year. This is a huge amount of money, explains Sebastian Młodziński, TIMATE’s CEO. By analysing employees’ behaviours, it is possible to identify the causes of waste and react accordingly. In consequence, a company can optimize the work and divide the tasks among its employees more effectively. This will, of course, boost its performance.

A more effective team will be able to carry out more tasks and the company will earn more without recruiting new people. This is one of the ways that businesses can use to face the present economic challenges and come out victorious.

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