It is defined as the unproductive time of employees that is caused by the management due to factors that are beyond their jurisdiction. It is to be noted that employees/workers get full payment, i.e., salary, even though they haven’t worked during the idle times.
So basically, in an industry setup, it is calculated as
Idle time = Cumulative time spent by an employee in the office- Actual time spent by an employee doing work
Multiple reasons cause idle time to occur in a company. Here are some of the key causes:
Monitoring the idle time is important because it can have a lasting impact on enterprises and businesses. The adverse impacts are:
Sometimes it’s the decision makers of a company who do not schedule operations or work shifts and thus leads to idle times. In other cases, it might be the employees themselves who cause the idle time.
For instance, a software development project needs 10 advanced systems (laptops) and 10 resources (skilled IT professionals) to do the job in 20 days. Now suddenly, on the 2nd day, two systems start to malfunction due to some technical glitch. Now, the project was extended to 21 days because two professionals were sitting idle for a single day, since their systems were being sent to the servicing company nearby.
As a second example, imagine that a presentation needed to be completed within two days by an FMCG company for one of their clients. And this was to be made by four executives in the office. On the first day, the location of the office experienced a severe earthquake, which made the executives take shelter outside for some time. Now, because of the number of idle times during their shelter, the submission had to stall for a day.
To comprehend how idle time works in real-time workspace scenarios, given below are some of the best examples:
It’s a paradox , as some idle times are beneficial to the employees and workers as well. Here’s how-
There are certain consequences when idle times are left unattended by employees at a company workspace. Those generally lead to:
Though enterprises use both of these terms interchangeably, they have particular differences when compared thoroughly.
Idle times refer to the period when employees are available to work, but they don’t perform according to the expected tasks for their roles. Comparatively, downtime refers to the time during which employees cannot work due to some external factors such as power outages, machinery failure, or scheduled maintenance.
Comprehending this difference is vital for effective idle time control and operation management. While downtime issues need technical solutions, idle time generally requires a more strategic approach to enhance communication, operations, and resource planning.
With Time Champ’s productivity tracking software, you can track all the computer activities that your employees perform during work hours and get active and idle time reports. Moreover, our efficient employee tracking software helps you track employee activities with the Monitor Tab, such as keystrokes, mouse movements, screen recordings, screenshots, audio , and location tracking. One can also send automatic reminders and track working hours to detect idle times.
This will help you identify the idle times and strategize on minimizing them, generating the best employee output.
