4 ms·

Everyone looks to software solutions, but maybe this person needs an assistant of some sort.

Viliam1234 6y ago
It also depends on how complicated the current software is. If it is simple, then yeah, you probably need to delegate the paperwork to someone else. But maybe the software is needlessly complicated, annoys everyone, but others can deal with it and this specific employee just has a lower frustration tolerance. In that case, making the software easier would make everyone happy. If everyone uses the software every day, and you can reduce the time from 2 minutes to 20 seconds... I am also the kind of person who forgets to write daily logs. But if I set up the web page to open automatically at 4 PM on my computer, then I don't forget, of course. However, in some systems you only need to automatically open some URL, while in other systems it is more like "open the URL, click this link, authenticate, click that link, authenticate again, click another link, and now you finally get to edit the spreadsheet". How much work it is to edit the time fields? Are reasonable default values provided (either your standard work time, or a copy from yesterday), so that on a typical day you only write "did this and that" and click OK? Or do you need to specify the time using a complicated wizard that sometimes gets it wrong, e.g. you make 10 mouse clicks to choose "9:00" and 10 more mouse clicks to choose "17:00", and then you sometimes get an error message saying "you cannot log 32 hours during one day", so you need to erase the whole record and start again? Do you work for a foreign company that speaks a language you don't understand, but you were told it's okay because the company policy is English everywhere... well, except for their time-logging system, which requires you to always choose from several pull-down menus filled with gibberish? How detailed are the logs? Is it enough to give "implemented Jira story 1234" as a description for entire 8 hours of work, or do you need to provide a detailed list of steps, with a time interval for each? Do you need to fill out two separate time logs, one internal for your company, and one external for the client? None of these examples was made up (they are collected from multiple companies though). So, it makes sense to also check whether the software side is sane, and optionally fix it -- maybe give the task to the employee who had problems writing the logs, he will be sufficiently motivated. But sometimes this doesn't help, or for some reason you are not allowed to fix the software... and then it makes sense to hire an assistant.

It also depends on how complicated the current software is. If it is simple, then yeah, you probably need to delegate the paperwork to someone else. But maybe the software is needlessly complicated, annoys everyone, but others can deal with it and this specific employee just has a lower frustration tolerance. In that case, making the software easier would make everyone happy. If everyone uses the software every day, and you can reduce the time from 2 minutes to 20 seconds... I am also the kind of person who forgets to write daily logs. But if I set up the web page to open automatically at 4 PM on my computer, then I don't forget, of course. However, in some systems you only need to automatically open some URL, while in other systems it is more like "open the URL, click this link, authenticate, click that link, authenticate again, click another link, and now you finally get to edit the spreadsheet". How much work it is to edit the time fields? Are reasonable default values provided (either your standard work time, or a copy from yesterday), so that on a typical day you only write "did this and that" and click OK? Or do you need to specify the time using a complicated wizard that sometimes gets it wrong, e.g. you make 10 mouse clicks to choose "9:00" and 10 more mouse clicks to choose "17:00", and then you sometimes get an error message saying "you cannot log 32 hours during one day", so you need to erase the whole record and start again? Do you work for a foreign company that speaks a language you don't understand, but you were told it's okay because the company policy is English everywhere... well, except for their time-logging system, which requires you to always choose from several pull-down menus filled with gibberish? How detailed are the logs? Is it enough to give "implemented Jira story 1234" as a description for entire 8 hours of work, or do you need to provide a detailed list of steps, with a time interval for each? Do you need to fill out two separate time logs, one internal for your company, and one external for the client? None of these examples was made up (they are collected from multiple companies though). So, it makes sense to also check whether the software side is sane, and optionally fix it -- maybe give the task to the employee who had problems writing the logs, he will be sufficiently motivated. But sometimes this doesn't help, or for some reason you are not allowed to fix the software... and then it makes sense to hire an assistant.