You would like to have a grip on the time spent by your field staff, because it can save you a lot of money. But how do you ensure that field service timekeeping does not cause you headaches, but improvements in efficiency?
Working with 'statuses'
You can choose to record hours based on predefined statuses. That is, your field staff can indicate on their laptop or mobile device when they are on their way to a service job, when they start a work order, when they take a break, etc. Working with statuses takes your people little time, and it provides real-time visibility of work to the minute. It does require a lot of discipline from your people to constantly change the status. Another disadvantage is that it is not always easy in practice. For example, consider a mechanic working on two work orders simultaneously; it then becomes very difficult to record the hours worked per work order with statuses.
Having hours completed
Of course, the hours worked can also be entered into the system at the end of the day. The field technician then enters the start time and end time of the activities he or she has performed. It has the great advantage of allowing your technician to focus entirely on his or her primary duties during the day rather than on administrative matters. But it does not provide real-time visibility into your employees' activities during the day. An alternative may be to have mechanics complete hours several times a day.
Balancing between control and flexibility
There is no "best" method for field service timekeeping. It depends on the type of organization, your people and the type of service work they perform which method is most appropriate. You will find that it is often a balancing act between controlling your people on the one hand, and being flexible and easy to work with on the other. Or to put it another way; you want the most accurate insight possible into the activities of your field service employees without hindering them from performing their primary duties. Whatever method you choose; digital time registration will in any case provide you with more efficiency and less headaches than the traditional paper work order.
As Product Owner, Joan Gaastra has the wheel in his hands at Dysel. He determines which functionality will be developed and where the priorities lie.
