Simplifying and speeding up the time to hire is something every hiring team loves but often struggles to achieve.

Talent teams can work smarter by using a structured interview process. And we believe in using a candidate interview evaluation form to do this. A well-made interview assessment form gets teams on the same page about prospective candidates while also reducing unconscious bias.

To help your team make the right choices quickly, we’ll share best practices for designing interview evaluation forms that hook top-quality, professional candidates.

TL;DR—Key Takeaways

• A candidate evaluation form, or simply an “interview evaluation,” is a standard form interviewers use to evaluate a candidate against a particular set of criteria.
• Interview rubrics are included in the evaluation form to assess a candidate fairly, based on a set scoring system.
• Along with reducing personal bias, the benefits of using an interview evaluation form include speeding up interviews and enabling teams to make more data-driven decisions about potential new hires.
• If you’re creating a candidate evaluation form from scratch, we’ve got seven tips to design an interview evaluation form that everyone on the team can use. For example, agreeing on success criteria, following a structured interview approach, and leaving enough space for comments or notes on any interview red flags you spot.

What is a candidate interview evaluation form?

A candidate interview evaluation form is a document that lists fixed criteria for assessing an applicant. These forms help hiring team members document their thoughts on each candidate’s interview performance.

Since everyone on the team asks the same set of questions and uses the same method to score applicants, the process is standardized and fair. And if you’re looking for a clear business case, interview evaluations will ultimately speed up the overall recruitment cycle, from comparing candidates to decision-making.

While you can design an interview assessment sheet however you want, here’s an example of a simple yet effective form for evaluating candidates. 👇

Free interview evaluation form template

Discover the perfect tool to streamline your hiring process with our free interview evaluation form template. Download it here to enhance your candidate assessment efforts, but keep reading to uncover expert tips on maximizing its utility.

What is an interview rubric?

An interview rubric, also called a hiring or candidate scorecard, is a scoring tool enabling interviewers to rate each candidate’s education level and communication skills in specific categories.

It’s a vital component of an interview evaluation form and provides a quantitative way for the hiring team to decide who to advance to the next step in the hiring process. The interview rubric can reduce bias as the team objectively measures, scores, and analyzes each candidate using the same rating system.

Key features of a good candidate evaluation form

Ideally, you’ll want to personalize the candidate evaluation form to your company and the role you’re hiring for. But don’t forget about these essential elements:

• Personal information: Candidate name, work experience, educational background, certifications, and other key details.
• Role alignment: How their prior work experience, education, and overall profile make them suited for the specific job.
• Soft skills: Interpersonal skills, leadership skills, non-verbal and verbal communication, teamwork, and other soft skills.
• Technical skills: The core competencies for the job, e.g., basic customer service skills for a customer service lead role.
• Culture fit: How well the candidate’s values align with the company’s mission, vision, and long-term goals.
• Interviewer’s impressions and recommendations: Candidate enthusiasm displayed in the interview, specific remarks they made, questions they asked, etc.
• Comparison and ranking: How well they stack up against other candidates, and your key criteria for the role.
• Next steps: What you intend to do with the candidate based on their interview performance, e.g. invite them for another interview, reject them, send them a detailed test task, and similar.

Benefits of using an interview assessment form

Not all companies use an evaluation form during the interview process. But those who go with the flow will quickly realize how complex and lengthy their interviews and decision-making becomes. Considering it takes an average of 42 to 44 days to fill a role, anything that delays the process will cost the company more time and money.

And without structure, recruiters frequently fall back on unconscious biases to sway them, selecting new hires who aren’t a good fit in the long run.

Ultimately, both the business and candidate benefit from this shift to more quantitative data, as it reduces the risk of bias and speeds up the hiring process, among other benefits (like these below).

1. Standardization

To make fair hiring decisions, you need to focus on providing a level playing field for all candidates. By using standardized interview evaluation forms, you’ll assess everyone based on the same criteria, so feedback is consistent no matter who is conducting the interview.

As a result, hiring teams can collate candidate data faster and remove any roadblocks that slow down the recruitment cycle.

2. Reduce bias

Reducing personal bias in the interview process, like scoring someone with a higher score solely because they went to the same university as you, ensures all candidates are treated equally.

For example, the latest research shows that 36% of Gen Z workers have experienced discrimination during hiring. The biases are varied, including age, ethnicity, gender, weight, hair color, and others.

A structured interview ensures every candidate receives the same set of questions, regardless of age, ethnicity, religious beliefs, weight, or any other factor.

The structured approach and exclusion of personal information ensures everyone follows the same procedures and reviews candidates objectively.

3. Talent records for easy reference

Hiring teams can quickly and easily review the core information about an applicant by revisiting their evaluation form.

This is particularly useful if there are hundreds of applicants for a particular role or if the candidate is considered for a future role. Moreover, clear, quantitative records support the teams’ ability to make data-driven decisions.

4. Improve candidate feedback

Candidates always want to know how they’ve performed in an interview, and they don’t want to wait weeks or months to hear whether they were successful or not.

Having all relevant info available immediately on the evaluation form makes it quicker and easier to provide feedback to candidates and deliver a good candidate experience.

Interviews play a crucial part, as candidates can decide whether or not they accept a role based on how the interview went. Cronofy’s research shows 72% of candidates decided to take a job or not based on how smoothly the interview went.

5. Ensure compliance

Having records of each candidate interview can simplify any compliance or audit processes. Evaluation forms should provide the evidence needed for any HR compliance-related issues, such as litigation concerning the fairness of an appointment.

For example, if you run into the worst-case scenario of being sued because of discrimination, evaluation forms could save the day. You’ll have ample evidence that the candidate was not discriminated against, and all it took was filling out a few boxes during the interview.

How to create an interview evaluation form in 5 steps

Your company’s interview evaluation forms should be easy to use, enabling the hiring team to make quick, analytical decisions on which candidates to progress in the hiring cycle. Kickstart the process by considering these tips.

1. Identify the job role’s requirements

Each interview evaluation form should be adjusted to the specific role, starting with the job requirements. The hiring team should understand exactly what kind of candidate they want to hire. Creating an ideal candidate profile is an excellent starting point.

This profile is a list of desired skills, competencies, work experiences, and values that the candidate should ideally have to be a match for the role.

Speaking of which, make sure to differentiate between essential items and those that are nice to have. If you’re being unrealistic, the hiring process will drag out, and you risk losing great applicants who only met 90% of your criteria.

2. Agree on success criteria

This is when the hiring team determines what a successful candidate’s answer looks like. Note the major difference between step one and step two. In step one, you create a list of things the candidate should ideally have. In step two, you decide what a good answer from the candidate should look like.

For example, a good candidate for a project manager role should show exceptional communication skills, speak confidently about their previously completed projects, and pinpoint how they contributed to their completion.

A candidate for a CTO should explain which projects they spearheaded, the teams and people they managed, the technologies they used, and their overall impact on the business while they were employed there.

In short, this is the performance you expect from an amazing candidate during the interview.

3. Use an interview rubric to create a scoring system

An interview rubric is a crucial part of the form. To get everyone on the same page with the scoring method, the team will need to:

✅ Quantify the key job skills by using a numerical rating system. For example, a candidate with all five of your desired skills scores a 5/5.

✅ Decide on the rating scale or what each score means so that scoring is consistent across the team. For example, 1 = poor and 3 = satisfactory. In other words, if your scale is 1-5, use that same scale across questions and categories.

✅ Double-check everyone understands the rating scale before the interview begins. Then, debrief afterward to ensure everyone followed it correctly. Explain in detail what each level of the rating scale means to avoid misunderstandings in your team and prevent you from dropping qualified candidates.

All interviewers must use the rubric to evaluate candidates fairly—against a consistent set of expectations. Plus, it’s a good idea for all interviewers to provide input about what constitutes a quality answer and add what they’ve learned from their experience.

What’s more, rubrics can reduce bias by supporting a more analytical approach to interviews. Considering up to 65% of tech recruiters feel there is bias in tech recruitment, hiring teams using an interview rubric can mitigate this.

4. Structure your interview assessment form

Once again, each interview assessment form should be built from scratch for every business and role. However, you might like to follow this logical form structure:

• Candidate information section (name, the role they applied for, date and time, interviewer’s name)
• Evaluation criteria (broken down into categories such as soft skills, technical skills, cultural fit, problem-solving skills, etc.)
• Rating system (a standardized rating scale for each criterion your hiring team can understand)
• Behavioral questions (specific examples of past experiences)
• Skills-specific questions (tailored to the job requirements for a specific role)
• Notes and observations (free text section to jot down important notes, red flags, and observations)
• Overall assessment (a summary of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and a final recommendation on what to do with the candidate)
• Final comments and sign-off (additional feedback and the interviewer’s signature and date)

5. Leave space for notes and final comments

During an interview, you may hear the candidate say something that piques your interest, for the right or wrong reasons, that you want to discuss with the team afterward.

For example, you immediately notice the candidate is bragging about their achievements. And you jot this down as an interview red flag to unpack later.

That’s why it’s a good idea to allow plenty of space on the form for comments, notes, and your overall impression—remembering something you noticed six candidates ago is not easy for everyone…(except that braggy guy, of course!).

Best practices for using interview evaluation forms

An interview evaluation form is not just a stack of additional paperwork for your hiring process. When used intentionally, these forms help managers make better hiring decisions, by delivering consistency throughout the hiring process. The gains are the same whether you have 10 or 100 candidates.

Use feedback forms at the beginning of the recruitment process

Feedback forms are only valuable if you use them early on. When you establish consistent standards for assessment in the beginning, it’s easy to go back and find out who said what about a candidate and how their performance fares against your standards.

It also ensures fairness and objective assessment across candidates. You’ll compare applicants on the same basis, and all staff members immediately knew whether a candidate is a good fit just by glancing at the notes.

Train your interviewers

Just like any tool, interview evaluation forms require your team to know how to use them well. While most evaluation forms are pretty straightforward, you’ll still have to sit down and explain:

• How to use the rating scales
• How the hiring team benefits from using them
• How it provides a better candidate experience
• How to best extract useful information out of candidates

Once you create an interview evaluation form you’re happy with, set aside a few time slots to coach your recruiters and HR team on how to use them.

Regularly update your interview forms

At some point, you and your team may notice your interview evaluation form needs changes, such as adding a section on coping with remote work. Regularly updating your forms can minimize any interviewer frustration as the content is relevant and ready for them.

In addition, you may need to adjust the form depending on the position. If it’s a junior position, a simple evaluation form will suffice, but for a managerial or leadership position, the form may need more detail, such as delving into the person’s specific experience and abilities.

Follow a structured interview process

A structured interview format is another tool that facilitates fairness in the interview process. With structured interviews, the team uses a pre-defined set of interview questions for every candidate interviewed for a particular role.

What’s great is this format can speed up the interview process, as interviewers get less sidetracked (hopefully) with irrelevant details, like the candidate’s favorite type of pizza! If the team is interviewing a boatload of candidates for a role, saving time and staying on track is definitely a must.

Structured interview questions can include:

• Skill-specific questions, such as “What programming language do you prefer and why?”
• Behavioral questions, such as “Describe a time you had to motivate a team or team member to manage a shorter deadline.”
• Company culture questions, such as “What did you like most about your last company?” But be careful not to focus too much on ‘culture fit’ and instead look for positive signals of organizational fit.

Make hiring decisions based on evaluation forms

Interview evaluation forms can help immensely with making the right hiring decisions in more ways than one. They…

• Give you an objective comparison of different candidates
• Establish a baseline for what a “good” candidate is
• Make the hiring process more transparent for everyone involved
• Protect you from potential issues with candidate discrimination later on
• Allow data-driven hiring instead of making decisions based on a hunch

But this may be easier said than done. Here’s a simple process for making data-driven decisions based on evaluation form data.

• Organize and consolidate all the data for one candidate in one place. An applicant tracking system will be of great help here.
• Look for patterns. Identify the candidates all your hiring team members highly praise. At the same time, find discrepancies where different reviewers have opposing comments.
• Quantify the results. Use the rating scale for each skill set to find averages for each criterion. Then, get an overall score for each candidate to create a list of your top candidates.
• Contextualize qualitative feedback. Combine quantitative and qualitative insights for a balanced overview of each candidate’s interview performance.
• Avoid bias. Watch out for confirmation bias, i.e., favoring feedback that coincides with the interviewers’ personal opinions. Also, pay attention to the halo/horn effect, where a single trait or impression is overemphasized.
• Prioritize role-specific needs. Match each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses against the key competencies for the role.
• Consider cultural fit. Review the responses and see how the candidates’ values align with yours.
• Cross-check with other inputs. Take the data from the interview evaluation form and compare it against the candidate’s assessment results, resumes, portfolios, and other available data.
• Discuss as a team. Organize a post-interview debrief to discuss the most promising candidates, resolve conflicting feedback, and achieve consensus on who goes further.
• Document the decision-making process. Write down who was rejected and why, as well as the reasons why some candidates moved on to the next round. If you need to run an audit later on, you’ll have all the details in one place.

Common mistakes to avoid in interview evaluations

While interview evaluation forms can be incredibly valuable, they can also harm your hiring efforts if not done well. Here are some of the most common mistakes you should watch out for.

• Lack of clear evaluation criteria. Avoid overly broad or ambiguous criteria such as “good fit” or “strong skills.”
• Overly subjective ratings. Impressions that rely on feelings or impressions without hard evidence can be discarded.
• Evaluation bias. Allowing personal preferences, stereotypes, or the halo/horn effect to impact hiring decisions.
• Incosistent rating scales. For example, using a 3-point scale for one skill set and a 5-point scale for a different one.
• Overemphasis on scores. Focusing only on numerical scores without considering qualitative feedback.
• Ignoring job-specific skills. Using a generic interview evaluation form and not adjusting it for the role you’re hiring for.
• Neglecting cultural fit. Taking into consideration hard and soft skills but not testing for cultural fit.
• Inadequate space for notes. Not leaving enough space for the interviewer to add their contextual remarks.
• Lack of alignment across reviewers. For example, when reviewers use the evaluation form in different ways or interpret the criteria differently.
• Overloading the form. Including too many questions or overly complex questions that lead to rushed or incomplete evaluations.
• Not capturing the follow-up questions. I.e., not documenting cases when the candidates’ responses require additional input or clarification.
• Skipping final recommendations. Not asking interviewers to provide a clear summary or hiring recommendation.

Supplement your interviews with skills assessments

Creating an interview evaluation form that is relevant and easy to use will help the hiring manager ensure consistency and a more fair approach when evaluating candidates.

Another key aspect of the recruiting cycle is skills assessments. Skills tests focus on applicants’ actual skills and capabilities, filtering out those with high potential.

With 49% of today’s employees working in jobs unrelated to their formal education, there’s ample scope for a skills-first approach to hiring.

Skills assessments fit in well in two different spots in the recruiting cycle:

☝️ You can assess candidates’ skills before the interview. And use the test score to identify the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, which the panel can discuss with the applicant during the interview.

✌️ Or, you can assess candidates’ skills after the initial interviews. That’ll be once the high-level technical and cultural fit has been confirmed.

Assess candidate strengths with Toggl Hire

Combining Toggl Hire with interview evaluation forms gives you a 360-degree view of your candidates’ performance. With our skills tests, you can determine if the candidate has the right soft and hard skills for the role at hand.

Once the results come in, send the candidates follow-up tasks to do at home and confirm your assumptions. You can then run a video interview with Toggl Hire and make notes in an interview evaluation form.

The end result is a comprehensive list of details on every candidate, ensuring a data-driven hiring decision you won’t regret. Ready to give it a try? Sign up for a free Toggl Hire account today.

The most successful people in the world guard their time above all other assets. Mark Zuckerberg wears the same clothes every day to save mental energy, while IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad schedules his entire day in ten-minute blocks to ensure he never wastes a minute.

But what about you? What if you could get more done in less time? What would you do with all those extra hours? This is the power of mastering time management — a skill that makes organizations more efficient and profitable while fostering a calm work environment.

Good time management skills to master (or hire for) in 2025

No matter where or how you work, you must master time management strategies.

These hold the key to making more money in less time and with less stress. Imagine being able to set clear goals, beat procrastination, consistently meet deadlines with ease, and deeply enjoy your free time feeling fulfilled across both your personal and professional life.

Developing this skill is more than just a lifestyle hack; you won’t be able to conquer a competitive environment without it. Knowledge workers believe just 54% of their work is high-impact.

That means they spend 46% of their time on busy work rather than making any real waves. Mastering time management immediately tilts the scales, helping you drive more impact in less time — a key skill for any organization leader.

Organization

Do you ever feel lost and overwhelmed as you flick between Excel sheets, a software database, and your emails? What about losing track of what project is at what stage or mixing up your deadlines? It can feel like driving on a gravely overgrown road — lots of fuel for not much mileage.

Systemizing your approach to work is like repaving the road. It will build routine into your workflow and lower cognitive load. This kind of mental organization will make you more efficient (and effective!) over time.

Physical organization also plays a role in your ability to concentrate. Our brains hate cluttered spaces—constant visual disorganization literally drains our cognitive resources.

Prioritization

Even the most well-paved road is useless if it takes you in the wrong direction. Organization without prioritization will just keep you aesthetically busy without leaving any real impact. We want to make a difference. And for that, we need to know what important tasks need our immediate attention.

There are lots of frameworks you can use to get your priorities in order. The Covey Matrix is a great place to start if you want to get a sense of what is urgent vs non-urgent and important vs non-important. Getting a better grip on this improves decision-making and delegation and makes you more likely to hit long-term goals.

Goal setting

Setting clear, achievable goals is a great way to build a roadmap from where you are to where you want to be. By breaking down big visions into manageable milestones, you’ll build momentum and motivation right into your daily work life.

Make sure the goals you set are dependent on variables you can control, not external outcomes. For example, if you’re a freelancer who wants to grow their business’s social media presence, you cannot control how many followers you’ll get in the next 3 months. But you can control how often you’ll show up. “I will post 5 times per week” is a much better goal than “I will get 10,000 followers in 90 days.”

The head of a software company might have different types of goals that span different responsibilities. For instance, they might be hiring, leading a tech project, and dealing with business admin all at once. Keeping these goals measurable and time-bound ensures they don’t spiral into a rabbit hole on any of these (which can be easy to do), but rather keep moving forward at pace.

Task management

Few things are as satisfying as ticking off a to-do list. Once you know your high-priority items, you can start effectively managing the different associated tasks. Project management apps, such as Toggl Plan, can help with planning, tracking, and completing tasks efficiently.

Keeping on top of tasks is especially important for cross-functional projects that involve other team members. Poor time management can bottleneck a whole project needlessly, kind of like when traffic forms out of nowhere (seriously, that’s a thing!).

Communication

What’s a junction without a traffic light? The same as a project without good communication — absolute chaos.

Clear, concise communication is what allows everything else to flow. Without it, teamwork and collaboration take a hit, and misunderstandings and stress levels rise.

Communication skills are especially important in remote teams, where it isn’t always possible to hop on a call and iron things out, especially if you’re spread out over 18 time zones like we are at Toggl!

That’s why we came up with a few basic Slack communication rules for our team. For example, if you’re asking for input or feedback on something, you must provide all the context needed to understand it in your message — that means links, tables, or documents.

We also recognize different people prefer different communication styles. This could be as simple as personal preference, or it could vary based on culture or even neurodivergence.

Delegation

All the time-blocking in the world won’t give you more than 24h in a day. There comes a point—whether for better productivity or your own sanity—that you’ll need to delegate tasks. Knowing how to assign tasks to the right people is a skill in itself.

Doing so is important as it optimizes resources and time, leading to more overall profitability. It also is one of the most important time management techniques as it protects against burnout. By focusing only on priority tasks and delegating the rest, you’re able to keep dreaming—building out the vision and the team to make it happen, rather than worrying about multitasking across low-value activities.

Problem-solving

Problem-solving is one of the top 10 most desirable power skills right now. Good problem-solvers are an asset to any organization, generating creative solutions, implementing effective fixes, and ultimately improving processes.

Their ability to quickly identify issues and develop solutions saves time and prevents minor issues from escalating. Again, this is so important in a remote work setting, where it’s especially easy to misread someone’s intentions over written communication or let small issues get big for no reason.

Stress management

When you’re stressed, you can’t manage your time correctly, which just stresses you more. So how do we get out of this vicious circle?

Believe it or not, stress management is deeply tied to organizational and time management skills. When we’re organized, prioritize our tasks, and manage our schedules, we reduce the chaos that often leads to stress. Organizing tasks, setting realistic deadlines, and planning breaks maintains focus, prevents overwhelm, and reduces the risk of burnout.

To manage stress, try time-blocking intense work sessions — a time free of emails and other notifications or distractions. Build breaks into your day to keep momentum up. Lastly, it’s a good idea to channel excess stress into a workout or daily walks to ground yourself.

Setting boundaries

This last skill doesn’t come naturally to many. But like anything, with intentional practice, it will get easier and better. The hard fact is you’ll never have the spaciousness you crave in your personal life if you don’t learn how to say ‘no’ to non-urgent tasks.

Self-discipline to get more done is one thing, but recognizing when you’re at your limit is another.

Being able to confidently communicate when you reach that point is also important, as it will help you maintain your commitments to those who are counting on you. It’s unfair to your employees or teammates to take on more than you can handle because they’re indirectly taking a hit they didn’t consent to.

Why are time management and organizational skills important?

Improved time management directly impacts a company’s bottom line by as much as a 61% increase in revenue. But benefits run deeper than just dollar signs. With effective time management also comes…

🚀 Increased productivity

Time management skills help employees prioritize tasks and work more efficiently. By allocating time effectively, employees can focus on high-impact tasks, reduce wasted hours, and maximize output. This leads to a greater sense of accomplishment and enhances productivity without unnecessary stress or strain.

🔋 Enhanced job satisfaction

64% of workers have struggled with lacking enough time and energy to complete all their work in a day. By getting a better handle on their workload through time management, stress decreases, and work-life balance improves. This improves morale at work and reduces burnout, leading to an overall improvement in well-being.

⚙️ Improved team dynamics

Proper time management across the board makes a team work like a well-oiled machine. It means fewer delays, clearer communication, and smoother collaboration. Shared understanding and respect for deadlines strengthens trust and cooperation, making teamwork more enjoyable and productive.

Plus, collaboration boosts workplace performance. According to a Stanford study, employees who collaborated were 64% more likely to stay on-task than those who didn’t. They also experienced less fatigue, were more engaged, and had better results than their solitary peers.

🪜 Career advancement

Mastering time management skills is also a stepping stone for career advancement. Employers highly value employees who can manage tasks independently, meet deadlines, and optimize productivity.

That’s why time management is one of the top 10 most desirable soft skills, according to Forbes.

Mastering time management will no doubt make you stand out from your peers if you’re aiming to grow within your organization.

Why time management tools are such an important part of time management strategies

Time management tools come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. A simple to-do list on paper, a full-fledged software app, intangible frameworks, or techniques like Pomodoro…the list goes on. Different approaches will work for different people, but one thing they all have in common is you get better at them the more you practice.

Technology can automate repetitive tasks, simplify your workflow, and provide reminders for tasks or deadlines that might otherwise slip through the cracks. Some employee time tracking software even pulls usage data to offer insights into work patterns and suggestions to improve efficiency. Here are some suggestions:

• Todoist: A great alternative for pen and paper to-do lists
• Trello or Asana: For project management
• Toggl Track: Time tracking tool to see where you’re spending time on tasks and where you can improve efficiency.

Prioritize tasks with Toggl Track

Toggl Track is an intuitive, easy-to-use time tracker that accounts for every moment. It’s a great accountability tool to combat procrastination and get real about how you can improve your work days. It boasts some great time management features that will help you stay focused, like:

• Setting time tracking/management goals for yourself or for your employees
• Google Calendar and Outlook integration to block and track time spent on meetings and other scheduled events
• Seeing your tracked time in a calendar which helps you understand how you spend time in a visual way

For example, if Toggl Track reveals you’re checking your email inbox every 30 minutes, perhaps you should time-block two hours per day to dedicate to emails. This will prevent you from switching to that tab during the workday because you know you have time set aside for it later, enabling you to find flow faster in other tasks.

Sign up for a free account and try it for yourself!

For the average person, tracking time can be incredibly boring or even an invasion of privacy. But for someone running a business, keeping tabs on time is the key to increased efficiency, productivity, and profitability. It’s also essential if you’re billing clients by the hour. 

Of course, time tracking methods aren’t made equal. Manual tracking with spreadsheets and notes belongs in the past — it’s clunky and requires hours of mind-numbing work. In contrast, time tracking software allows you to track projects with ease as you grow your bottom line. 

If you’re searching for a new time tracking system, you may be confused by the range of price points, features, integrations, and use cases available. This guide answers all your questions (and then some) to learn the most important aspects of purchasing a time tracking tool.

5 signs you need a time tracking system

Time tracking software does more than just track your team’s working hours. It gives you insight into the health of client accounts, the wellbeing of your employees, and measures the gap between the hours allocated to a project — and the resources actually used. 

Here are five signs it’s time to invest in a time tracking system 👇

1. You are using spreadsheets (like Excel or Sheets). Manual spreadsheets make it difficult to track real-time progress or adjust for project changes. Not only is tracking projects, time, and tasks manually prone to human error, it’s also inefficient and time consuming. 
2. Your team isn’t meeting project deadlines. Frequent delays or missed deadlines is a warning signal of a lack of visibility into how your team spends its time. A time tracking system shows where time is allocated, what tasks your team are working on, and whether resources are being used effectively.
3. Your customers question where time was spent on their project. If clients are asking where time went or doubting the value provided, it’s a sign you need a system to clearly show how effort aligns with deliverables.
4. You have zero insights or reports into projects. Without real-time data or historical reports, you can’t analyze trends, allocate resources effectively, or anticipate project bottlenecks.
5. You struggle to maintain accountability in your team. Disorganization or lack of clear accountability among team members can lead to wasted time, scattered capacity, or overlooked tasks.

If any of the above pain points resonate with you, it might be time to think about using a time tracking system.

What does a time tracking system do, and do you need one?

A time tracking system is much more than a stopwatch. The right platform has other key benefits besides telling you how much time you spend on a task or project:

1. Profitability

Profitability tracking is used to plan and estimate internal and client projects. It’s easy to compare the estimated time to your team’s actual time on a task.

Why it’s helpful 👇

• Determine your utilization rates, also known as how much of your total work is billable. For example, our research showed that design agencies have a high utilization rate of 70%, meaning they can bill clients for 70% of their work. The other 30% can then be comfortably allocated to non-billable work, like admin tasks, without worrying about making the project unprofitable. 
• Analyze data gathered from time tracking to deliver good client work while remaining profitable and accurately forecasting costs, revenue, and necessary time for future projects.

2. Productivity

Productivity tracking logs your time according to clients, projects, and tasks.

Why it’s helpful 👇

• Understand how much of your work time is productive, as opposed to scrolling TikTok or chatting with coworkers.
• Learn how long time individual tasks take, helping you forecast future projects more accurately.

3. Forecasting & planning

This feature determines how each project’s allotted time is used. For example, if it’s the 25th of the month and only 30% of the retainer hours are used for the client, the manager can be alerted and then decide how to strategically use the remaining time for the biggest impact.

Why it’s helpful 👇

• Monitor hours worked compared to forecasted hours for each client to see if a project is progressing as planned, if it’s profitable and if team members are completing the most valuable tasks.
• Determine the cost of individual tasks and compare them to the time a team member puts into them.

4. Precise billing & invoicing

Useful to set hourly rates for specific clients, types of work, and employees. Bill your clients accurately down to the last cent and create invoices based on the time entered by your time.

Why it’s helpful 👇

• Distinguish between billable and non-billable hours and remain profitable.
• Use built-in invoicing to create invoices with a few clicks, shortening the time from the created invoices to getting paid.

5. Time tracking for legal requirements

Many countries and states now require employers to track employee time for compliance and legal purposes. Time tracking can accurately record how long employees work for and if they are getting mandated breaks.

Why it’s helpful 👇

• Track time accurately for your team members and comply with federal and local laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and EU Working Time Directive (EWTD).
• Track overtime easily and pay your employees fairly for the extra work.

When a time tracking system makes sense

Most businesses that want to stay on track, profitable, and productive could benefit from using a time tracking app daily. Here’s how to tell if your business needs a time tracking system:

You don’t know the difference between your billable and non-billable hours	You struggle to determine which clients and projects drain your time and resources
You can’t accurately forecast how much time your team will spend on a project	You must comply with legal requirements and have accurate timesheets for each employee
You frequently price project work by the hour or completed project	You want to balance your team workload better to prevent burnout and poor employee engagement
You can’t cope with manual time tracking through timesheets, tables, and documents	You need to distinguish between profitable projects or clients that hog more time than they pay for

To get the most out of a time tracking system, most teams require a paid software. So, the next part of evaluating whether it’s a viable software for your team is to calculate the ROI.

Calculate the cost of a time tracking system vs the ROI

There are plenty of free time tracking apps out there, and if you’re just starting, it’s only natural to consider these first. But purchasing a time tracking app is an investment rather than a cost. Although many require you to pay per user or seat, the return on investment can be massive over time.

You can track the ROI from your time tracking platform by:

• Comparing your profitability for each project against your time on it
• Considering the more accurate billing process, as you charge each client for the exact amount of time spent on their project
• Discovering productivity bottlenecks in your client roster and your team
• Determining what accounts for billable and non-billable time
• Having more data to make data-driven decisions instead of trusting your gut feel

Free time trackers are a good starting point, but if you’re serious about increasing productivity and profitability, they’re not a good long-term solution.There are certain downsides to using a free tool that can limit its overall impact on your operations:

❌ They may have limited or zero report customizations available
❌ It’s often not possible to add billable rates for individuals, teams, and projects
❌ You’ll usually lack forecasting, project analysis, and integration capabilities

While you may start on the free plan, this is not the best for larger teams needing better insights into profitability, billable rates, and capacity.

Must-have functionalities of a time tracking system

Choosing a time tracking system can feel incredibly difficult simply because of the enormous choice in the market. Here are the features you should look for in a time tracking system, at a minimum.

1. Ease of use

If you’re spending money on a tool, you’ll want your team to use it. Time tracking won’t come naturally to your team in most cases, and if the tool is easy to use, adoption will become easier, too. Also, using a time tracking app will become second nature if it integrates with your existing tech stack.

Here’s how to assess if a time tracking system is easy to use:

• The user experience should be straightforward, allowing you to add users easily, set reminders and alerts, and create workspaces.
• It should integrate with existing tools, such as project management, development, invoicing, design, and others.
• It should be available on multiple platforms and devices, e.g. desktop, web, and mobile
• It should have good customer support that functions across different channels, such as email, live chat, Slack, and phone.

How to evaluate this:
✅ The vendor promises minimal learning curve
✅ Product walkthrough to help you pick up the basics
✅ Proven examples of other teams easily adopting the time tracker into their tech stack

2. Flexibility

To increase adoption with your team, the time tracking app should be flexible and accommodate their needs instead of disrupting the way they work.

• Ideally, the tool should have automated time tracking. You hit the “start” button, and the tool automatically switches back and forth between apps in the background, accurately logging tasks and projects.
• A variety of apps, such as web, desktop, and mobile, make user adoption even easier
• The tool should integrate seamlessly with the apps you already use. For example, if you already use Trello for project management and Quickbooks for invoices, pick an app that has native integrations with both.

How to evaluate this:
✅ The platform offers different ways to track time
✅ Automated time tracking
✅ Integrations with apps you already use

3. Reporting and analytics capabilities

Tracking time is just the beginning of getting in control of it. Reporting features deliver an overview of how your team spends their time at work, which clients and projects take up their days, the ratio of billable and non-billable hours, and more. Look for:

• Tools that have metrics such as burn rate (billable/non-billable hour ratio)
• Project cost based on time tracked
• Project profitability (the ratio of projected vs. estimated revenue)
• Detailed timesheets

How to evaluate this:
✅ Project time estimates
✅ Billable rates/labor costs
✅ Different reporting views (e.g., pie charts, table charts, timelines, filters)
✅ Sharing options and export formats (e.g., scheduling automated client emails or public link sharing)
✅ Customizable dashboards for continuous reporting on data that matters to your company

4. Data security

The data generated by the time tracking system should be available to you and your team only. This is especially relevant for heavily regulated industries where client data should be protected at all costs.

Look for:

• Enterprise-level security
• Data encryption in transit and at rest
• Secure servers with protection against cyber attacks

How to evaluate this:
✅ Access rights
✅ TLS 1.2 protocols
✅ AES256 encryption
✅ SHA2 signatures (as supported by the customer)

How to validate time tracking vendor support

While a lot of time trackers look similar on the surface, many of them only offer the basics like time entry tracking or basic reports. To get the most out of your time tracking system, the vendor must offer detailed guidance and support for your team.

Here are some areas of support you should expect.

📚 Detailed guides

Many of us like to self-serve problems and troubleshoot to solve issues quickly. Research if chosen time tracking vendors have detailed guides and knowledge bases available to get answers to your questions. Some vendors also have communities where users can discuss quick solutions and tips.

🤝 Onboarding help

Your vendor should offer a customized onboarding process to ensure your new Toggl Track program fits into your team’s workflow. This could include sharing onboarding materials and videos, to training and priority support if needed.

🧑‍💻 Dedicated Customer Success manager

Larger teams or those with complex requirements can require ongoing expertise, feature assistance and even custom solutions to optimize their specific workspace. An Enterprise-grade time tracking software should offer a dedicated customer success manager to these teams to maximize the value of their time tracking system.

Successful companies using time tracking systems

Businesses of all shapes and sizes use time-tracking systems to increase profitability and productivity while making their teams and customers happier. These are some of the best examples.

Talk Shop Media saves 80 hours a month on time tracking while improving operations

Talk Shop Media is a full-stack marketing agency with around 50 people covering a variety of professional services, from PR to SEO and paid ads. Their previous time tracking app had a dated interface, and the reports were limited, leading to compliance issues.

After getting started with Toggl Track, the team spent 50% less time on time tracking, resulting in 60-80 hours won back every month. The reason? The simple and user-friendly interface.

With Toggl Track, Talk Shop Media created comprehensive reports on profitability, account health, and employee wellbeing. Toggl Track allowed them to collect and analyze data for reports without additional work.

The end result was the ability to identify accounts that needed extra attention, such as restructuring the retainer agreements and project rates.

“Time tracking data is crucial for us. If you need to know the health of your accounts, there’s no other way to figure it out without time tracking. Advanced and visually appealing Toggl reports and easy-to-use UI translated into much better company-wide time tracking compliance and accuracy of data.”

Hannah McClenaghan, Operations Manager, Talk Shop Media

FullStack Labs uses time tracking data to win more business

FullStack Labs is a software consultancy that grew from 70 to 600+ people in a very short time span. In a very crowded space, FullStack Labs stood out by providing clients with transparent Toggl Track reports to each client.

Instead of templated invoices with just a few lines and a sum to be paid, they included a breakdown of the delivered work along with who did it. Using Toggl Track time reporting in their pitches allowed them to win major clients such as Uber and multiple Fortune 500 companies.

On the operations side, this reporting practice allowed them to retain their top performers. Thanks to detailed reports, they compensated their team fairly and accurately and paid them overtime on top of their salary.

How to set your business up for success with Toggl Track

Toggl Track is a time tracking system you can adapt and customize to suit your company. From small teams to enterprise businesses, we’re confident we’ve got your use case covered.

If you have a small team, you can start as low as $9 per user/mo. Enterprise businesses can use some of the more advanced plans, which include features such as forecasts, analyses, SSO, timesheet approvals, and more.

Toggl Track offers much more than simple time tracking. Some standout features include:

✅ Billing and invoicing
✅ Payroll processing
✅ Project time tracking for multiple projects at a time
✅ Client management
✅ Detailed reports and analytics across employees, projects, and clients

Toggl Track integrates with the tools you love and use every day, including Asana, Jira, Github, Salesforce, Notion, Slack, and Zapier. Not only are there 100+ tools to choose from, Toggl Track also  has a custom API to fit into any tech stack.

If you don’t have a diverse tech stack to integrate with, you can use our browser extension and easily track your time using tools such as Notion and Zendesk.

Even though it may sound complex with its rich feature set, Toggl Track is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. Even if your team has never tracked their time before, adopting and mastering Toggl Track is as easy as pie.

Scattered and unstructured schedules used to rule my life. I juggled tasks, missed deadlines, wasted time, and ended each day feeling frustrated.

As a creative, that was not only frustrating but also eating away at my business and making it hard to grow. But…everything changed when I discovered time blocking. I quickly learned how to reclaim my time, better balance work and pleasure, and even carve out some time for a little guilt-free scrolling.

Using one of these nine time blocking apps, you too can whizz through your to-do list with room to breathe at the end of it all. 

The best time blocking apps at a glance

Tool	G2	What is It?	Best For
Motion	4.0	A dynamic scheduling tool that optimizes your day in real time	Professionals and teams looking for AI-driven time management
TickTick	4.6	A versatile task manager with built-in time-blocking features	Individuals who want a blend of simplicity and functionality in task management
Sunsama	N/A	A daily planner that combines tasks, calendar events, and priorities in one place	Professionals who need to align daily tasks with long-term time management goals
Toggl Track	4.6	A time tracking tool that offers insights into productivity patterns	Freelancers and teams who want to understand and optimize their time usage
Todoist	4.4	A powerful task manager that helps you organize work and life	Anyone looking to manage tasks efficiently with helpful reminders and due dates
Clockwise	4.7	An intelligent calendar assistant that optimizes your schedule for focused work blocks	Professionals and teams in need of automating their scheduling
Planyway	4.4	A team calendar and timeline for Trello and Jira users that facilitates time blocking	Users who manage projects and tasks directly in Trello or Jira
Morgen	5.0	A tool that integrates all your calendars and tasks in one interface for better time management	Individuals who juggle multiple calendars and platforms
Google Calendar	N/A	A widely accessible calendar app that supports straightforward time blocking	Anyone looking for a simple and integrated way to plan their day

What is time blocking?

Time blocking is a time management technique in which you dedicate specific time slots in your calendar to different tasks or activities.

It’s not to be confused with the slightly stricter timeboxing, which requires you to complete a task within a given timeframe. Time blocking reserves time for specific activities but allows you to complete them across several sessions.

Apps make this process a lot easier, giving you a clear visual of ​​your task list and time window. That way, you know exactly how far along you are, how much time you need for each task, and what you can realistically get done in time.

Here are some more time blocking benefits:

• Reduces procrastination: Time blocking overcomes the urge to put things off (we’re looking at you, procrastinators), making you more likely to start and complete tasks on time.
• Improves focus: It encourages single-tasking by assigning a specific task to a particular time block, which can improve your deep work concentration and productivity.
• Minimizes multitasking: Time blocking curbs the temptation to juggle back and forth between tasks, reducing the cognitive overload and burnout that come with trying to multitask.
• Promotes work-life balance: Daily planning allows you to deliberately carve out time for free time and self-care, ensuring work doesn’t infringe on your personal life.
• Ensures you’re realistic: Time blocking highlights how long tasks actually take so you can better plan your deadlines and schedule tasks.

Time blocking can be adapted to various work environments and personal routines—whether you’re a freelancer or have too many team members to count.

For instance, consulting firms and marketing agencies can allocate specific time slots for client meetings, research, and content creation. Then, you have internal teams like HR and IT who might want to dedicate blocks of time to tasks such as employee relations, system maintenance, and project development. 

Plus, time blocking isn’t just for work — you can also carve out time for exercise, family, and hobbies.​​

How I evaluated each time management app

No two apps are made equal, but I created this list of the best time blocking apps based on the following criteria:

• Calendar integrations: The ability to integrate your favorite calendar app makes synchronization across all devices and platforms a breeze — a must for any time blocking app.
• Task management: Robust task management features mean you can stay on top of your to-dos and prioritize tasks like a pro, all within the app.
• Ease of use: A user-friendly interface means you’ll be navigating the app with no learning curve, encouraging you to stick with it and boost your productivity.
• Calendar view: A good time blocking app offers plenty of different views, whether you like looking at a calendar or timeline or need to see your monthly or daily schedule.
• Customization options: Just as no two apps are equal, neither are two users — customizable features cater to your unique preferences and workflow.

An in-depth overview of the best time blocking apps

Motion

📌 Motion ​​is an AI-powered time blocking app that integrates with your calendar to prevent any scheduling conflicts.

Motion simplifies your scheduling needs thanks to its AI-powered time blocking features. By integrating a calendar that distinguishes between personal and work activities, Motion makes sure tasks are auto-scheduled without any conflicts, improving your operational efficiency.

It comes with a “booking page” feature to create a page and schedule meetings. From that page, send a link to others who can book time based on your availability. This way, appointments will auto-populate into your calendar without overlapping with other tasks.

If you’re looking for a time blocking app with great reporting features, Motion might fall short. It can also be pricey for individual users and has fewer team collaboration options than competitors.

✅ Pros

• Auto-schedule meetings
• Integrates with popular calendar apps
• Powered by AI

❌ Cons

• Team collaboration features are subpar compared to most other time blocking apps
• Pricier than competitors
• Doesn’t have advanced reporting capabilities

Plan	Cost	Details
Individual	From $19/month for one user	Includes booking site pages and templates
Business Standard	From $12 per user/month	Supports teams of 20 users or less and includes project workflow automation for 10 concurrent workflows
Business Pro	Pricing available upon request	Supports teams of 20+ users looking for unlimited workflows and API access

G2: 4.0 (93), Capterra: 4.3 (47)

TickTick

📌 TickTick is a productivity app with time blocking features that allow users to dedicate focus time to their most important tasks.

TickTick excels at organizing tasks and planning time effectively. Its features align with the Getting Things Done framework, which encourages you to free up your brainpower by storing all your work information in an external source (like an app).

It integrates with other essential tools (Outlook, Slack, Gmail), but its strength lies in its task prioritization and varied viewing options. This way, critical tasks won’t slip by when you’re mapping out your daily schedule. 

TickTick doesn’t have any built-in time tracking or time reports. However, knowing your time habits and how long each task takes is enough to improve your time management. Their Premium version allows you to record how long each task takes manually.

✅ Pros

• Intuitive interface
• Ability to organize tasks based on set criteria 
• Affordable paid plan as well as a free version

❌ Cons

• Calendar views and timelines are only available for Premium subscribers
• Doesn’t have built-in time tracking
• Doesn’t have time reports
• You can only get an annual plan

Plan	Cost	Details
Free	Free for one user	Great for organizing a simple to-do list!
Premium	From $35.99/year	Includes advanced features like multiple calendar views, task duration, and statistics

G2: 4.6 (106), Capterra: 4.7 (123)

Sunsama

📌 Sunsama plans your day realistically so you can avoid procrastination and missed deadlines.

Sunsama organizes your daily tasks into specific time slots and integrates with project management tools like Trello, Asana, Notion, and Monday. We’re all guilty of taking on more than we can handle, but Sunsama sends unrealistic workload notifications to ensure you stay energized.

This way, you’ll have a balanced workload and set aside some time in the day for yourself. The manual planning process, while thorough, can be time-consuming, and the lack of a free plan post-trial may be a drawback for some.

✅ Pros

• Comes with a built-in timer and analytics
• Prevents over scheduling

❌ Cons

• Doesn’t have a free plan
• Lacks automated features

Plan	Cost	Details
Monthly Subscription	From $16 per user/month (when paid annually) or $20/user/month when paid monthly	A monthly subscription grants you access to all features (you can also test Sunsama with a 14-day free trial)

Capterra: 4.7 (25)

Toggl Track

📌 Toggl Track is a time management app that helps you organize and track your time, whether managing projects in single or multiplayer mode.

Toggl Track integrates with Google or Outlook calendars and effortlessly compares time blocks with the intuitive calendar view. This feature allows you to swiftly duplicate your calendar events as time entries, saving valuable time and reducing manual effort.

​​You can also view detailed time reports to evaluate your time management habits across various periods. You’ll know how much time each task takes and time spent on unplanned activities. This gives you the data to review your time blocking strategies and optimize every workday.

With an idle time detection feature, Toggl Track gives you a friendly nudge if you’ve been inactive for a while — ensuring your time entries are accurate. Plus, with reporting capabilities, it shows exactly what you did during each time block so you can optimize for productivity and have something to show for your work.

✅ Pros

• Easy to use on any platform
• The free plan has great time blocking features
• Access detailed, customized reports

❌ Cons

• The free plan only includes five users

Plan	Cost	Details
Free	Adds multiple workspaces under one organization, priority support, custom solutions, and much more!	Includes unlimited time tracking, tags, and clients
Starter	From $9 per user/month	Comes with project templates, billable rates, time estimates, and alerts
Premium	From $18 per user/month	Includes timesheet approvals, project forecasts, and team labor costs
Enterprise	Custom pricing	Adds multiple workspaces under one organization and priority support, plus custom solutions and much more!

G2: 4.6 (1,572), Capterra: 4.7 (2,532)

Todoist

📌 Todoist is a to-do-list app compatible with all your devices for user-friendly organization and time blocking.

Todoist has great scheduling options so you can block time to get work or personal tasks done (because why not both?). Set specific due dates and times for your tasks, creating a system that segments your day into dedicated time blocks for your various activities.

It comes with an AI assistant (for paid users) that helps you rename tasks and even suggests what projects they should belong to. If you’re a large team looking for a time blocking app, Todoist may not have enough collaborative features to your liking. But small teams and solos are sure to enjoy it. 

✅ Pros

• AI assistant (for Pro)
• List, calendar, and Kanban view options
• User-friendly on all platforms and devices

❌ Cons

• Lacks advanced project management tools
• Not great for team collaboration

Plan	Cost	Details
Beginner	Free	Includes three filter views and five personal projects
Pro	From $4/month	Comes with an AI assistant and 300 personal projects
Business	From $6 per user/month	Adds a shared team workspace with up to 500 team projects

G2: 4.4 (800) Capterra: 4.6 (2,526)

Clockwise

📌 Clockwise helps you create and manage your team’s ideal schedule. 

Clockwise is an AI-powered time management tool designed to optimize your team’s schedules so you can all be more productive with your time. It integrates with your favorite business productivity tools to easily overcome scheduling conflicts. 

It has many features to help with time blocking, like its AI scheduler. You chat with it like a chatbot, asking it to perform tasks like “clear my day,” and it’ll automatically reschedule your meetings. However, individuals or smaller teams with less complex scheduling needs might not get the most value out of it.

✅ Pros

• User-friendly AI interface
• Great for large or busy teams

❌ Cons

• Not great for meetings with external users
• It doesn’t replace your calendar, it only integrates with it

Plan	Cost	Details
Free	Free	Includes access to intelligent calendar management
Teams	From $6.75 per user/month	Adds group scheduling links and helps optimize meeting times
Business	From $11.50 per user/month	Includes round-robin scheduling logic and access to admin controls
Enterprise	Pricing available upon request	Allows you to centrally manage user provisioning and de-provisioning, along with other benefits

G2: 4.7 (66)

Planyway

📌 Planyway lets you block time easily in Trello and Jira without learning an entirely new app. 

Planyway integrates seamlessly with your favorite project management tools (we’re looking at you, Trello, and Jira). It transforms your board into a visual calendar you can drag and drop tasks onto and block out time for.

Track progress with time entries in a list or calendar view and even log time within Trello cards. While some users mention that Planyway isn’t as user-friendly on mobile devices, if you primarily work on your desktop and value a tool that offers customizable checklists and views, Planyway is a strong choice. 

✅ Pros

• Clean, easy-to-navigate interface
• Great for Trello and Jira users

❌ Cons

• Users report that the mobile app is buggy
• Lacks other helpful integrations

Plan	Cost	Details
Free	Free	Pricing is available upon request
Individual	From $4/month	Includes a multi-board view, an automated time tracker, and subtasks visualization
Team	From $3 per user/month	Includes shared team workspace with team timeline and team time tracking
Enterprise	Pricing available upon request	Adds extra security requirements and dedicated customer success

G2: 4.4 (18), Capterra: 4.5 (298)

Morgen

📌 Morgen is a versatile calendar app that integrates the functionalities of both a calendar and a daily planner. 

Morgen is another AI-powered planner that helps you prioritize your tasks and intelligently blocks out time for them in your schedule. ​​It’s best for individuals who need a comprehensive tool for managing their schedules, tasks, and appointments across various devices — like Windows, macOS, Apple, iOS, and Android.  

It’s also better suited for individuals or small teams but still a great option for users wanting to plan and complete their to-do lists realistically.

✅ Pros

• Visually appealing interface
• Great structured time blocking features
• Includes scheduling links

❌ Cons

• The free mobile version is read-only
• Expensive compared to competitors

Plan	Cost	Details
Basic	Free	Includes a desktop app and one calendar integration
Pro	From $9/month	Includes unlimited calendars, task integration, and time blocking features
Enterprise	Pricing available upon request	Adds custom workflows and multi-team management

G2: 5.0 (3)

Google Calendar

📌 Google Calendar is a popular calendar app that lets you segment your day into distinct periods dedicated to work, personal commitments, or simply “you” time. 

Why invest in a tool that integrates with Google Calendar when you can use Google Calendar for your time-blocking needs?

Google Calendar offers a holistic view of your schedule and integrates easily with other Google applications. If you don’t want any fancy features and prefer to keep everything in the same app, then it’s the perfect beginner-friendly option.

You can add detailed event descriptions to ensure you know exactly what’s on your agenda, set up recurring events for those routine tasks, activate a “Do not disturb” status to minimize distractions, and even color code your events. 

✅ Pros

• Great free plan
• User-friendly and integrates with other Google apps
• Comes with basic features for beginners

❌ Cons

• Lacks detailed task management features
• Adjusting time blocks is a manual process

Plan	Cost	Details
Free	Free version for users with a Gmail account	Comes with all basic planning features
Business Starter	From $6 per user/month	Includes a business email and 100-participant video meeting capabilities
Business Standard	From $12 per user/month	Includes everything in Business Starter plus the Gemini app and meeting recording
Business Plus	From $18 per user/month	Adds extra storage and meeting capabilities

Capterra: 4.8 (3,337)

Best practices for implementing time blocking

Apps make time blocking easy, but where do you even begin? And how do you make it a habit, not a one-time thing? These are our top strategies for effectively incorporating time blocking into daily routines.

Start by prioritizing tasks

Start by identifying and prioritizing your most important tasks using a method like the Eisenhower Matrix. Map out your day by assigning specific time slots to each task, and make a pact to stick to your plan. Try to get those high-priority tasks done during your peak productivity hours. Circle back regularly to review and tweak your schedule, always making sure you’re getting the pressing tasks out of the way first.

Then, set realistic time blocks

Set time blocks that work for you—it doesn’t have to necessarily follow any strategies you see touted online. Time blocking isn’t one-size-fits-all—experiment with different approaches to find what works best for you. If morning time blocks aren’t clicking, try shifting them to the afternoon. And remember, it’s better to overestimate the time needed than to constantly run over and burn yourself out!

But allow flexibility for unexpected changes

Life often throws curveballs, fastballs, and changeups, so be ready to adapt. Pencil in some “flex time” within your schedule to account for unexpected interruptions or tasks that run over. When these surprises pop up, you can swiftly adjust your time blocks, re-prioritizing as you go. The best part? Time blocking apps can help you deal with the unexpected!

How to use Toggl Track for better time blocking

Think of Toggl Track as your very own personal assistant, giving you precise time tracking that seamlessly integrates with your schedule.

With detailed reports, you’ll gain powerful insights into where your time goes, helping you refine your blocks and boost productivity. Plus, Toggl Track plays nicely with your favorite productivity tools, making it simple to incorporate into your workflow.

​​Effortlessly tracking tasks, spotting trends, and continuously improving your time management don’t have to be a pipe dream. Create a free account and see how Toggl Track can help you do just that!

Ever feel like you’re constantly juggling career responsibilities and personal commitments with no time for yourself? Well, you’re not alone — 60% of US workers say they don’t have boundaries between work and personal lives. 

With our pockets constantly buzzing with notifications, it’s like we’re always in the office. And even if we’ve physically clocked out for the day, mentally, we’re still drifting back to that unfinished to-do list.

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance has become a massive challenge, which is why time management strategies are so important. 

Managing your time effectively is easier said than done. That’s why we’re exploring the best timeboxing apps in 2025 to improve your business productivity and personal well-being.

The best timeboxing apps at a glance

Tool	Best For
Sunsama	An AI-powered timeboxing app for automatically scheduling tasks into your daily routine. It is best for individuals or teams who want to prioritize tasks with minimal manual work.
Motion	An AI-powered timeboxing app for automatically scheduling tasks into your daily routine. Best for individuals or teams who want to prioritize tasks with minimal manual work.
Toggl Track	A productivity app that manages tasks and organizes time effectively. It is best for freelancers and small teams seeking an affordable and feature-rich tool.
TickTick	A productivity app that manages tasks and organizes time effectively. It is best for freelancers and small teams seeking an affordable, feature-rich tool.
Any.do	A task management app for organizing and managing personal and professional projects. It is best for individuals and small teams who value simplicity and cost-effectiveness.
Todoist	A timeboxing app that helps individuals avoid distractions. It is best for individuals who struggle with procrastination.
Freedom	A timeboxing app that helps individuals avoid distractions. Best for individuals who struggle with procrastination.
Akiflow	A calendar app with plenty of widgets and task management features. It is best for professionals who use Apple products.
Playway	A calendar app that integrates with popular project management tools. It is best for teams who use Trello and Jira.
Fantastical	A calendar app with plenty of widgets and task management features. Best for professionals who use Apple products.

Are timeboxing apps different from time-blocking apps?

Timeboxing and time-blocking might sound interchangeable, but they offer unique approaches to managing your schedule. Timeboxing involves setting fixed time slots for individual tasks. This method is great for those who thrive under deadlines and need a structured approach to tackle their to-do list.

Time-blocking involves dedicating specific periods to focus on a set of tasks or a particular type of work. You create blocks for similar activities instead of assigning a time slot to each task. For example, blocking mornings out for creative work and afternoons for admin tasks. This approach is ideal for people who prefer flexibility and find it easier to stay focused when they can switch between similar tasks. 

Choosing between the two methods depends on your personal workflow preferences and the nature of your tasks. Timeboxing might be your best bet if you prefer a more rigid structure and clear deadlines. But if you prefer a flexible schedule and can stay focused on similar tasks, time-blocking could be the better way to go.

The best timeboxing apps to add to your tech stack in 2025

Selecting the best timeboxing apps was no easy task, but we approached it with a clear list of criteria! First, we dove into reviews and user feedback to ensure each app had a stellar reputation and offered a fantastic customer experience. For each tool, we included links to their respective G2 and Capterra profiles so you can check out the reviews yourself.

Then, we checked each app included essential timeboxing features that truly boost time management — like timers, time tracking, and distraction blocking. Finally, we aimed to create a diverse list that caters to various needs — whether you’re a freelancer, team leader, or just an everyday person looking to up your personal productivity game. 

Sunsama

📌 Sunsama integrates with popular calendar and task tools for easy organization and realistic day-to-day planning.

Sunsama is a daily planning app with timeboxing features that neatly organize your routine into time-specific blocks. It integrates with popular project and task tools like Asana, Notion, Monday, Trello, and ClickUp, allowing you to drag and drop your tasks right into your calendar.

If you exceed your daily working hours, Sunsama sends an unrealistic workload notification. This keeps your workload balanced and helps you avoid burnout. 

The manual nature of its planning process can be time-consuming, and the absence of a free plan post-trial may discourage some potential users. While Sunsama offers daily reflections and weekly reviews, it doesn’t have more advanced reporting options.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Easy to plan everyday tasks • Keeps your workload realistic • Auto changes your status in Teams or Slack	• Lacks advanced reporting capabilities • Doesn’t have a free plan • Planning is more manual than automated

Pricing and plans

Monthly subscription: From $16 per user/mo billed annually. Access to all features. Comes with a 14-day free trial.

Capterra: 4.7 (25)

Motion

📌 Motion ​​is an AI-powered timeboxing app that accelerates task management by intelligently scheduling tasks into your daily routine.

Motion does the heavy lifting for you. With the power of AI, you don’t need to manually set your tasks for the day or reschedule them if they’re not completed. 

For each task, fill out the expected completion time, the due date, and your preferred timeframe. You also have the option to add notes, a start date, and labels for organization. Then, Motion will auto-schedule these and automatically block tasks and focus time on your calendar. 

Users report the app being slow and buggy sometimes, which isn’t great when trying to manage your time effectively. It can be a bit pricey for individual users, and those wanting more reporting capabilities might be disappointed.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Auto-scheduling features • Prioritizes specific tasks based on priority, deadlines, duration, and working hours • Can reschedule tasks when unexpected events happen	• Team collaboration isn’t great • Takes a while to set up • Lacks reporting tools

Pricing and plans

• Individual: from $19/mo. Supports one user. Includes meeting booking pages and templates. 
• Business Standard: from $12 per user/mo. Supports teams of 20 users or less. Adds project workflow automation for ten concurrent workflows.
• Business Pro: Supports teams of 20 users or more. Booking a demo to learn more about pricing. Includes unlimited workflows and API access.

G2: 4.0 (93), Capterra: 4.3 (47)

Toggl Track

📌 Toggl Track combines time tracking and timesheet management to increase your focus and productivity in an easy-to-use platform.

If you’re looking for integration with over 100 popular tools, advanced reporting capabilities, and a super easy-to-use and intuitive interface, Toggl Track is for you! Drag and drop tasks to schedule time blocks on your calendar, and then log time for these tasks in real time and all in the same place.

Toggl Track helps you complete tasks on time during predetermined specific time slots. Visibility into individual task duration improves your focus and productivity in the long run. 

​​Use summary, detailed, or weekly reports to see everyone’s tracked time and productivity, generate timesheets, and spot productivity gaps. Whether you’re interested in a free or team plan, Toggl Track has you covered.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Free plan  • Ease of use across all platforms • Detailed, customizable reports • Built-in time-tracking	• Five-user limit for free plan

Pricing and plans

• Free: Free for up to five users. Comes with unlimited time tracking, clients, and tags.
• Starter: From $9 per user/mo. Adds billable rates, project templates, and time estimates and alerts.
• Premium: From $18 per user/mo. Includes timesheet approvals, project forecasts, and team labor costs.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing. Comes with multiple workspaces under one organization and priority support.

G2: 4.6 (1,572), Capterra: 4.7 (2,532)

TickTick

📌 TickTick is a timeboxing and productivity app that helps individuals and teams manage tasks, organize their time, and become more productive.

TickTick makes it easy to organize tasks and plan your day, week, or month accordingly. Ever heard of the Pomodoro technique? It’s when you break down your tasks into bite-sized chunks. With a Pomodoro timer, you can complete your work in focused sessions, maximizing your productivity. 

The platform integrates with popular tools like Outlook, Slack, and Gmail and has many different viewing options—from calendar to Kanban to timeline. Since you can set four priority task levels, you don’t have to worry about procrastination getting in the way of the important stuff. TickTick will ensure you finish those key tasks first!

TickTick doesn’t come with built-in time tracking or time reports. Tracked time data can highlight your time-spending habits and boost productivity. If you have a Premium plan, you can manually add how long each task takes you.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Easy to use and beginner-friendly • Organize tasks with features like tags, multi-priority, smart lists, and sorting • Offers a free plan and an affordable paid version	• Timeline and calendar views are only available for Premium • Lacks built-in time tracking • Doesn’t have time reports • You can only purchase an annual plan

Pricing and plans

• Free: Free for one user. Great for organizing a to-do list.
• Premium: From $35.99 per year. Includes premium features like multiple calendar views, task duration, and statistics.

G2: 4.6 (106), Capterra: 4.7 (123)

Any.do

📌 Any.do is a to-do list and timeboxing app for organizing tasks, managing calendar events, and planning daily work.

Any.do simplifies task management whether you’re on your phone, computer, tablet, or even your watch. It’s perfect for the busy student, parent, or freelancer—which is reflected in the cost. You can set a daily planner, and trigger reminders so you never forget an important task.

The Premium plan delivers access to color coding tags, integrations, and more reminder features. Remember that this isn’t the best tool for teamwork, as it doesn’t have the same functionality as a project management tool. However, it’s a cheap option for individuals and everyday use.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Available on multiple platforms • Affordable for individuals  • Can send smart, personalized suggestions	• Doesn’t have many advanced features • Lacks built-in time tracking • Lacks functionality for teams

Pricing and plans

• Personal: Free for one user. It comes with reminders and a daily planner and allows you to sync across all devices.
• Premium: From $4.99/mo when billed annually. It includes AI-powered features, color tags, and location reminders.
• Family: From $8.33/mo for four members when billed annually. Adds a shared family space and up to four shared projects.

G2: 4.2 (193), Capterra: 4.4 (177)

Todoist

📌 Todoist is a task management app for managing simple and professional projects.

Yep, Todoist is great for your personal and professional life! You can prioritize your task list based on labels and deadlines. It also integrates with your favorite third-party apps like Slack and Zendesk.

Todoist comes with an AI assistant for breaking down tasks, suggesting tasks for projects, or even renaming tasks for better actionability.

While it falls short in handling complex projects, it’s ideal for basic tasks and project management, great for individuals and small teams who value simplicity and cost-effectiveness. 

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Offers project templates • Different view options (like lists, calendars, Kanban) • User-friendly on all platforms	• Doesn’t have advanced project management tools • Not great for larger teams

Pricing and plans

• Beginner: Free to use. Comes with five personal projects and three filter views.
• Pro: From $4/mo when billed annually. It includes 300 personal projects and an AI assistant.
• Business: From $6 per user/mo when billed annually. Adds a shared team workspace with up to 500 team projects.

G2: 4.4 (800) Capterra: 4.6 (2,526)

Freedom

📌 Freedom is a timeboxing app for individuals who need to avoid distractions and focus on their work by blocking websites and apps. 

Freedom lets you create custom blocklists with the websites and apps you want to block. You can also block all websites and add exceptions for the ones you need. This blocklist is synced across all platforms, including Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome.

Plus, with a locked mode, it won’t let your distractions get the best of you. When enabled, this feature doesn’t let you end a Freedom session to keep you focused. You can schedule these focus sessions so they begin automatically.

Unfortunately, Freedom lacks tool integrations or comprehensive task management features. But it’s a great app to optimize your workday if you want to stop wasting time on distractions and spend more time on your tasks.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Syncs your blocked apps across platforms • Comes with ambient sounds for deep work • Advanced scheduling features	• Lacks task management features • Not great for teams • Lack of integrations

Pricing and plans

• Free: Offers a free plan with limited features.
• Premium: From $3.33/mo when paid annually or $8.99 when paid monthly. Comes with browser extensions, focus music, and locked mode.
• Forever: A one-time payment of $99.50. Has all the same perks as Premium without a recurring fee.

G2: 5.0 (6)

Akiflow

📌 Akiflow is a timeboxing app for boosting team productivity, managing tasks, and planning calendars and schedules in one place. 

If you’re tired of juggling apps and tools, Akiflow can make your life much easier. ​​It integrates tasks from different apps, such as ClickUp, Notion, Google Calendar, and Gmail, into one centralized location.

Akiflow also has powerful scheduling features, like time blocking and meeting booking. It also has a guided planning feature to help you plan your schedule and review your daily performance.

Remember that Akiflow is priced higher than other timeboxing apps, which might deter budget-conscious users. If you like using desktop apps, you’ll have no problem. However, users who prefer mobile apps might be disappointed.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Lets you block time slots for tasks • Task consolidation • Has a range of views (calendar, upcoming, plan)	• Mobile app must be used in conjunction with the desktop • Pricier compared to other options

Pricing and plans

• Monthly: From $34/mo. Comes with unlimited integrations, tasks, and meetings.
• Yearly: From $9.5/mo.

G2: 5.0 (33), Capterra: 4.8 (92)

Planyway

📌 Planyway is a team calendar and timeline tool for project planning and time management. 

Planyway lets you track the progress of projects in a timeline view, time block tasks, plan workloads, track time, and sync your calendars to keep all tasks and deadlines in one place. With Trello, Jira, and GitHub integrations, Planyway gives you a visual overview of tasks, deadlines, and team workload.

You can also see time entries in the list or calendar view and log time directly in Trello cards. Some users say Planyway isn’t user-friendly on mobile devices. But if you’re mainly working on your desktop and want a tool that makes it easy to customize your checklist and view, then you shouldn’t have a problem with Planyway. 

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Integrates with Trello, Jira, and GitHub • Beautiful, intuitive interface • Great organizational features	• Mobile app is subpar • Lacks other integrations

Pricing and plans

• Free: Comes with filters and calendar views.
• Individual: From $4/mo. Includes multi-board view, automated time tracking, and subtasks visualization.
• Team: From $3 per user/mo. Adds shared team workspace with team timeline and team time tracking.
• Enterprise: Contact sales for pricing. Comes with extra security requirements and dedicated customer success.

G2: 4.4 (18), Capterra: 4.5 (298)

Fantastical

📌 Fantastical is a calendar app for managing your tasks, meetings, and events all in the same place.

Fantastical is designed for iOS and Apple products with features like calendar management, weather integration, and basic task management. If you want an alternative to Apple Calendar, Fantastical is your go-to.

Fantastical now offers a Windows app in the Microsoft Store, but most unique widgets are tailored for Apple products. You can toggle between light and dark mode and organize your calls and meetings—but there aren’t robust time tracking capabilities.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Apple widgets and integrations • Task management features • Weather updates	• Designed for Apple users • Users report not being happy with the switch from one-time payments to a subscription model

Pricing and plans

• Free: Free to use with one calendar set, events, tasks, and notifications. 
• Individuals: From $4.75/mo, billed annually. It comes with unlimited calendar sets, Apple Watch support, and scheduling features. 
• Teams: From $4.75 per user/mo, billed annually, this service lets you manage any number of users who each have their own account.

G2: 4.4 (16), Capterra: 4.8 (20)

What makes a great time boxing app?

You might be scanning the list and thinking, “These are all great options!” First, you’d be right; that’s why they made our list. But as you start comparing different apps head-to-head, it’s important to know what to look for.

A great time boxing app should have several key features setting it apart. Here’s what defines an outstanding time boxing app:

• User-friendliness: The app should be intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to quickly set up and manage your time blocks without a steep learning curve.
• Customization options: Look for apps that customize your time blocks, set reminders, and adjust settings to fit your unique workflow.
• Integration capabilities: Choose an app that integrates with other productivity tools, calendars, and apps you already use.
• Effortless task management: These are all about boosting productivity, so the app should make it easy to add, edit, and organize tasks within your time blocks.

How to integrate time management into your workflows

Setting clear priorities daily is the best way to start taking back your time. Figure out your most important tasks and focus on those first. Your timeboxing app should also support this prioritization. Using technology isn’t cheating; consider it a shortcut to getting things done. 

Time boxing (and time blocking, if that’s more your vibe) is a great way to schedule your tasks and improve operational efficiency. Dedicate specific periods to focus on a set of tasks or a particular type of work. And as tempting as it is, avoid distracting yourself with social media or the news!

With these tips, create a balanced routine incorporating your professional responsibilities and personal commitments. No one wants to suffer from burnout. Here are some of our favorite time management techniques you can steal:

• Set clear boundaries and stick to them
• Schedule some “me time” to focus on your well-being
• Say “no” sometimes if your schedule is full
• Take regular breaks to break up focus and relaxation time
• Use a timeboxing app to stay organized and on track

Try Toggl Track for time tracking accuracy

Toggl Track is an excellent addition to your larger timeboxing strategy because it seamlessly integrates with your to-do lists and task management apps. With a browser extension, you can track time effortlessly anywhere — say goodbye to tool fatigue!

While some timeboxing apps offer basic time tracking, Toggl Track takes it to the next level with comprehensive and customizable reporting features. These features allow you to identify inefficiencies and optimize your schedule.

Sign up for a free Toggl Track account and find out exactly what we mean!

We live in a beautiful world of some 1,500 ethnicities and over 7,000 languages spoken by people of different ages, abilities, and genders.

Yet, a quick look at a Fortune 500 leadership page suggests only one particular type of person can succeed in the corporate world. Yep! White, middle-aged men have been unjustly favored in the hiring process for decades. It’s time to change that. 

In the UK, the FTSE Women Leaders Review has set a recommendation that FTSE 350 companies have at least one woman in one of the four key roles by the end of 2025. The new EU Pay Transparency Directive also requires companies with a gender pay gap of above 5% to take immediate action.  

Moreover, many companies are taking voluntary steps to improve diversity hiring. Because they know the hard facts: 

Companies that value diversity have a 6.8% higher stock price, 4X higher employee engagement rates, and 3.3 lower staff turnover. 

Culture Amp 

If you, too, believe that bringing more voices to the table is better for business (and by proxy for the societies it operates in), here’s your primer on how to build a case and implement diversity hiring practices in 2025. 

What is diversity hiring?

Diversity hiring is the process of correcting conscious and unconscious bias in the talent acquisition process. 

Even the most experienced recruiters might unconsciously privilege certain candidates based on their socioeconomic background, prior experience, or educational credentials. Diversity hiring neutralizes biases related to age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and gender in hiring decisions, giving equal opportunities to every candidate. 

“Diversity hiring” doesn’t mean hiring someone because they tick a specific box,” clarifies Lauren Daly, Founder of Networkher UK. “It means giving every talented individual a fair shot at opportunities they may not have considered simply because the door hasn’t felt open to them.” 

Sadly, many candidates felt left on the “porch.” Female candidates are less likely to apply to advanced, high-paid open roles because they’re worried about not meeting all qualifications, according to Katherine B. Coffman, an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. Including more precise requirements in the job description (a skills test passing threshold in the case of Coffman) drove 29% more female applicants. 

Women, and disproportionally women of color, also face higher occupational segregation. According to UN data, 62% of women work in the services industry, and only 4% of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies identify as female. Similarly, 63% of LGBTQ+ people have dealt with some form of discrimination during their career, either being excluded from a promotion or treated with prejudice by colleagues. 

The purpose of diversity hiring is to ensure that companies hire people for the right skill sets, not ‘convenient’ or ‘conventional’ character attributes. 

Diversity vs. inclusion

Browse an HR blog or two, and you’ll quickly see the words diversity and inclusion (DEI) often go together. There’s a reason for this, but the two terms don’t actually mean the same thing.

Diversity hiring refers to the processes and tools we use when building a diverse workforce. It’s a strategic approach to the recruitment process, not an overarching theme for all areas of business organization.

Inclusion is an ongoing task that extends beyond the goal of recruiting diverse candidates. Inclusive companies develop policies and processes that contribute to cultivating diverse teams. For example, they might schedule work events to celebrate different cultures or implement cultural competence training.

That said, you can’t practice diverse hiring and then neglect workplace inclusion. People who feel alienated, misunderstood, and otherwise “passed over” in daily work will not be productive or stay with the company for long. 60% of Canadian employees would quit their jobs for benefits that are more inclusive of their colleagues’ diverse needs.

Diversity hiring vs. diversity hire

Another key distinction is between diversity hiring and diversity hires. Superficially, the two terms are almost identical, but they refer to different workplace concepts.

Diversity hiring is a systematic process that applies unbiased candidate assessments to source candidates with the skills companies need.

A diversity hire is an individual recruited to improve diversity metrics or tick HR boxes. They may have the required skills and suit the organizational culture, but without the right policies in place, a “diversity hire” usually happens more by accident than design.

Diversity hires also tend to face additional challenges in the workplace. Employees from different backgrounds might feel under increased pressure to deliver and feel more like a statistic than a human being — hardly a recipe for productivity and employee retention.

Diversity hiring helps leadership teams avoid this situation. A good diversity and inclusion hiring strategy means thinking beyond the quotas and focusing on systematic changes in talent acquisition, pay grading, succession planning, representation in management, and wider cultural transformations.  

Benefits of building a diverse workforce

Diversity hiring assumes major changes to your recruitment and selection process. Orchestrating change is tough, especially when you lack leadership buy-in. 

So, it’s important to understand why diversity and inclusion are critical parts of business success and communicate that data to others. Here are several statistics that we find particularly persuasive:

• Companies with high ethnic and gender diversity on executive teams economically outperform less diverse organizations by 39%. [McKinsey]

• Financial companies with above-average gender diversity outperform less diverse competitors by 8.3%. In healthcare, the figure is 9%, while real estate companies see an 8.2% dividend [Morgan Stanley]

• Companies that prioritize DEI increase employee happiness by 31% and motivation by 25%. Happier, more productive staff delivers better business outcomes. [BCG]

• Employees who strongly believe the organization doesn’t value diversity are more than three times more likely to leave within 12 months. [Culture Amp] 

The takeaway from these figures is simple: diversity delivers financial and organizational gains, and many companies are already capitalizing on these benefits. 

More likely to outperform competitors

Hard evidence from the US and the UK points towards a strong correlation between leadership diversity and company performance and profitability. 

David P. Daniels, a Professor at the National University of Singapore Business School, and his colleagues studied the stock market and investment trends to find the causal relationship between better financial outcomes and gender diversity. 

The majority of investors they spoke to believe that low diversity numbers would trigger a negative stock price reaction. High figures do the opposite. They’re also likely to support diverse firms more due to their perceived creativity, ethicality, and lower legal risks.

Respectively, a 1% increase in gender diversity among major tech firms like Google and eBay could increase their valuation by $152 million, researchers concluded.  

McKinsey data also confirms this: ethically and gender-diverse companies outperform their peers year over year by as much as 39%. 

Makes organizations more attractive to skilled professionals

In the age of remote work, top talents hail from every corner of the world. Employers who know how to attract and nurture diverse talent pools are less likely to suffer from skill shortages and ultra-high employee hiring costs. 

3 in 4 job seekers see workforce diversity as an important factor when applying for positions. As part of this, 64% of candidates expect job postings to include compensation data — and 44% chose to not apply when this data wasn’t public over the last 12 months.

Inclusive hiring becomes even more important as the workforce demographic shifts.

77% of US Gen Z workers want to work for a company that cares about diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as prioritize social and environmental responsibility. To attract the new generation of talents, you’ll need to blend better representation in employer branding with fair hiring practices. 

Brings a wider range of perspectives and approaches

Nine in ten employees have a positive experience working with and learning from colleagues of different backgrounds and perspectives. Such experiences neutralize groupthink and encourage more people to challenge the status quo, which is great for business. 

Korn Ferry research shows diverse teams make better decisions than homogenous ones 87% of the time, and are 70% more likely to succeed in new markets with new products. By reinforcing collective intelligence with different voices, companies can minimize uniformity in thinking, leading to bolder, more creative, and more impactful business ideas. 

Contributes to a fairer and more equitable society

Companies are increasingly held responsible by stakeholders, shareholders, and societies at large for their actions. And most have a massive platform to do good (rather than just pretending to with different washing campaigns).  

As part of its commitment to DEI, Heineken decided to challenge the stigma faced by female football players and fans. Its marketing team launched a ‘social swap’ experiment, asking Jill Scott MBE and Gary Neville to swap their social media accounts and post as one another. 

Although Gary posted on Jill’s account, she received five times more negative and sexist comments. The experiment turned into a marketing video, generating over 1 billion impressions, 7 million views, and crucial conversations about gender bias. 

We have the opportunity of such broad reach, as a long-standing sponsor of UEFA, to use our platform for good and challenge with initiatives like the Social Swap, all with the aim to refresh perspectives.

Pascale Throne, Global Diversity & Inclusion Head at Heineken

3 common challenges HR professionals face when implementing diversity hiring

Although diversity is a great investment, human resources teams often struggle to push through with their DEI initiatives. 

Why? Many companies lack data to justify investments. Only 15% of companies connect their DEI progress to business outcomes such as increased profitability or productivity.

Those who do get a green light often face internal resistance due to ingrained unconscious bias. “We all tend to seek out comfort and familiarity,” says Francesca Gino, Harvard Business School professor. “And this often translates into choosing to work with those who are like us.”

That’s why your organization always ends up with the same candidate pool, limited to a very homogenous group of people without the skills you need. To change that, consider addressing the following problematic areas. 

1. Unconscious bias

Unconscious biases are perspectives we have about certain people that form outside of our conscious awareness. For example, you may think a younger employee is less experienced than an older one. Or prioritize candidates from the same Alma Mater as you. 

The problem with unconscious biases is they’re subtle. But they also cause major havoc in the recruitment process. Many rule-based resume screening tools automatically discard or down-rank candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. So, interviewers fail to choose the best candidate 42% of the time due to bias. 

To fix that, DEI leaders adopt new practices, such as: 

• Adapting interview formats (47%) to suit differently abled candidates
• Building more diverse hiring teams (45%)
• Using blind recruitment techniques (33%).

2. Difficulty attracting diverse candidates

“Diverse candidates simply don’t apply to our company.” I’m sure you heard that rant on LinkedIn. And most won’t unless you make a targeted effort. 

A 2024 survey by the UK Recruitment and Employment Confederation found that 44% of employers don’t use inclusive language in job descriptions, 61% don’t have diverse interview panels, and 75% don’t name blind CV submissions. 

In other words — they do nothing to attract diverse candidates. 

Candidates from minority groups already struggle with confidence and a lingering fear of discrimination. They seek out workplaces with high psychological safety and acceptance levels. To attract them, your job promotion strategy must send a clear message: Everyone is welcome. 

Get inspiration from the best job descriptions to improve your candidate value proposition. Include information on your DEI policy and a call to action to encourage submissions from every type of candidate, regardless of age, ability, or background.

3. Resistance to change

Old habits are hard to shake off. When hiring managers and people teams don’t see problems in the hiring process, they don’t rush to fix them. Unfortunately, many people lack awareness about the pitiful state of diversity in their organizations — that is until they face the court of public opinion. 

Conduct a diversity audit to get the real numbers on gender and ethnic representation across your workforce.

Just like Levi Strauss, you may realize that representation reduces the closer you get to the top. While the company’s frontline workforce is wonderfully diverse, with 37% white, 28% Hispanic or Latinx workers, 18% Black, 10% Asian, and 5% other BIPOC, its corporate and even more so top management teams aren’t as diverse.

In 2020, this revelation triggered a greater focus on diverse hiring and better succession management practices. 

Tips for building a diversity recruiting strategy in 2025

Many people believe that DEI can positively impact recruitment and retention. But 70% also say their company lacks a proper framework. If you’re in that camp, start by applying the following tips. 

1. Get buy-in from leadership

Diversity requires commitment at all levels, but most importantly from leadership. You’ll face resistance at every level if your executives aren’t on board. 

Use the power of data to reason with other stakeholders. Articulate your business case by showing how investments in diverse hiring practices can address lingering problems like long time-to-fill, skills mismatches, or low workforce productivity rates. 

Link quantifiable DEI benefits to organizational goals.

For example, if the leaders are concerned with profitability, showcase how diversity hiring can reduce time-to-hire for new roles and help with skills acquisition. If retention is the problem, bring out cases of how a more equitable culture improves employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. 

When trying to secure buy-in for diversity, Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of The United States Hispanic Business Council, likes to start with a series of questions: “What does the employment market look like in your industry? What does the future employee look like for your brand? Does your leadership team — this is where a lot of companies fall short — reflect the markets you serve?”

2. Get creative with candidate sourcing

Let’s start with one of the core ideas of diversity hiring: If you can’t reach diverse candidates, you won’t ever be able to promote diversity in your workplace. Therefore, candidate sourcing is where diversity recruiting starts.

Switch from using only general job boards like Indeed and Monster to more inclusive ones like Pink Jobs or Diversity.com. If you’re doing campus recruitment, add new universities to your mix, serving more diverse groups of students.

As part of its Inclusive Futures program, Lloyd’s launched an early-careers talent pool designed to engage black and ethnically diverse candidates from partnering universities. The company aims to develop an ‘executive pipeline’ to bring more diverse groups from the classroom to the boardroom.

It also helps to attend recruitment events that attract diverse attendees. These events could be in person, but groups like Work Without Limits also run virtual recruitment fairs — a great way to attract those with disabilities. 

Companies can also establish mutually beneficial links with diversity advocates or community groups. For instance, Lady Bird Talent runs Hire Women Week in January and promotes careers for women and non-binary folks all year round.

3. Try blind hiring tools

Another critical task when hiring diverse teams is removing sources of bias. Not an easy task, but a feasible one with the right blind recruitment tools for candidate screening. 

Blind recruitment software anonymizes candidate information during the hiring process. HR professionals may unwittingly pass judgment when seeing ethnic names, gender identifiers, age, or other personal identifiers.

By removing these from the beginning of the candidate screening process, you shift the attention to skills and qualifications.

Mobile startup, Listonic was tired of inviting the ‘wrong’ candidates for interviews—people who looked good on paper but lacked the necessary competencies. So Emil Krzeminski decided to try something new — remove resume screening from the hiring process and use skill assessments to recruit new sales partners.

“I knew that if I look at resumes, I will unintentionally start judging candidates by certain characteristics,” Emil shared. “Toggl Hire’s screening tests helped us assess candidates objectively and focus only on the most qualified ones.”

4. Check the language in your job descriptions

Read through some of your past job descriptions, ideally for recruitment processes that failed to deliver diverse employees. Do they contain biased terms like “hard-hitting” (which could sound excessively macho) or “dynamic” (which could deter older applicants)?

Use inclusive language to describe core job requirements. Foreground necessary skills and qualifications for job performance. Setting the bar too high deters less confident people — a huge diversity hiring snafu.

As the World Economic Forum’s 2023 report shows, more women respond to job offers with clear qualification requirements.

Writing an inviting and inclusive job description doesn’t add much overhead to your HR team. 

• Balance the gender tone. Use a good mix of masculine-tone phrases as feminine ones to attract a balanced mix of candidates. Phrases like “Prove you can crush deadlines” or “ someone who thrives under pressure” have a more masculine undertone versus female counterparts like “Showcase your ability to meet goals” or “someone who excels in dynamic environments.”

• Remove arbitrary candidate requirements. Information like college major, graduation year, GPAs, location, or even full years of experience in a particular sector is largely irrelevant for most jobs. When describing candidate requirements, focus on the skills and competencies you seek. You can leave some of these in a “nice-to-haves” section to encourage more applications. 

• Add a diversity statement. In the US, employers are legally obliged to include an EEO Policy Statement in all job descriptions. In other jurisdictions, it’s not mandatory but much recommended. Briefly summarize your commitment to providing diversity and equality opportunities to every candidate. 

5. Implement skills testing

Skills-based hiring progressively replaces traditional hiring approaches. It lowers the time and cost to hire while increasing candidate quality and workplace diversity. 

Testing eliminates bias from job candidate evaluations. Fully or semi-anonymized skill assessments provide recruiters with concrete evidence of the candidate’s aptitude for the role. As one of the screening methods, tests also benchmark one candidate against another based on their performance in different areas.

For example, knowledge of Android app development or remote work readiness. This way, you can fairly compare people’s abilities without focusing as much on their ‘clout’ or some other (un)favorable characteristics. 

From our experience with hiring remote employees across 40+ countries, skills assessments act as a great competency filter for shortlisting candidates faster and without bias. 

6. Develop a diverse employer brand

Poor brand reputation can deter people from diverse backgrounds. Think of some inappropriate remarks by your leadership or public complaints on Glassdoor from current employees. 

Candidates constantly form opinions about companies based on stories or (in the worst cases) scandals they see online — and those are plenty. 

Roblox came under public scrutiny after its current and former staffers came forward about the company’s lackluster diversity efforts. The C-suites reportedly had very ‘lax’ attitudes towards the problem, like a VP saying that he was working on hiring more women but wasn’t sure if it ‘counted’ if they were all of East Asian descent. 🤦‍♀️ 

Uber, in turn, had to issue hasty apologies after (its now-former) Chief Diversity Officer hosted DEI sessions titled “Don’t Call me Karen”, which many BIPOC employees found very diminutive and offensive. 

If you don’t want to repeat the same employer branding mistakes, you’ll need to practice listening to your employees and using their voices both to address root problems and showcase your progress to others. 

Uber made amends by finding a better executive to lead their DEI and working with its staff to ensure similar issues won’t reoccur. The company has since launched a Global Self-Identification (GSID) program and thought leadership series designed to explain how the company uses DEI data to advance our workforce, workplace, and even marketplace goals. 

Follow the lead and start sharing stories (no matter how big or small) about how your company aims to build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. Showcase positive stories about the achievements of diverse employees.

7. Use a diverse interview team

Fact: homogenous hiring teams produce homogenous results. Diverse recruitment teams are more likely to consider potential candidates of different backgrounds. 

Take a look at your hiring panels. Do they reflect the diversity within your organization? Are you bringing a wide enough outlook? 

Diversifying hiring panels makes a big difference. Heineken wants to see 30% of senior management roles occupied by women in 2025. To do so, the company has created an internal Global Commerce Talent Committee, which now ensures at least one female candidate is shortlisted for every senior sales vacancy. To avoid bias, all company interviews also have a gender-diverse panel. 

8. Stick to structured interviews

DEI teams create standardized interview guides to promote fair assessments. During the first round(s), favor a structured interview process over an unstructured one to give all qualified candidates an equal opportunity. 

A structured interview includes a list of predefined questions and a standard scorecard for all applicants. Each interviewer then provides a score, and the team decides on progression based on the cumulative score. 

Structured interview questions should be role-related. Look for evidence of candidates’ skills and competencies rather than focusing on how they acquired these. Situational interview questions are handy. They ask candidates to role-play relevant scenarios, providing valuable information about how they would respond to workplace challenges without dwelling too much on their background. 

How do you retain diverse talent?

Diverse hiring is the first step of a wider DEI journey. You also need to build an environment of inclusion and diversity to retain the new hires. People who witness or experience discrimination, bias, or disrespect are nearly 1.4 times more likely to resign. That’s the last thing you want. 

To cultivate and retain a content, diverse workforce: 

• Offer diversity training programs to managers. Bias and cultural faux pas often come from a lack of awareness. Coach your senior staff to adapt their behaviors to a wider range of employee needs. To improve its DEI efforts, Ingka Group (parent company of IKEA) had over 1,400 senior managers complete the program. This helped the company achieve a 50/50 gender balance in management positions (all levels of management) and improve its inclusion score to 80%.  

• Create better career progression paths. Employees quit jobs when they see no opportunities for advancement. Diverse candidates hit the ‘glass ceiling’ more often due to the lack of visible representation at higher positions and prejudiced succession planning programs. 20% of BIPOC employees see racial identity as a barrier to career growth, and 35% suspect this but are not certain. In contrast, only 10% and 12% of white employees feel the same way. Review your workforce planning strategy to ensure you’re giving equitable opportunities to advance people of different backgrounds, genders, and abilities. 

• Create affinity groups. To cultivate a greater sense of belonging, create internal communities where employees with similar identities or interests can connect for support, mentorship, or just some casual chit-chat. Nike runs several employee-led networks for members and friends of the LGBTQ+, veteran, BIPOC, indigenous, and disabled communities. 

Retention should be as important as diverse hiring. Without driving deeper cultural transformations in your company, you’ll fail to gain tangible benefits diverse teams can bring. 

Is diversity hiring legal?

Yes, diversity hiring is legal in most jurisdictions, provided companies adopt the correct procedures and respect local labor laws. 

Although critics may not agree. For decades, recruiters drifted towards affirmative action to solve racial or gender disparities. HR teams set quotas and created training programs for underrepresented groups.

Critics often accused recruiters (and still do) of hiring minority employees at the expense of others (generally middle-aged white men). The idea of ‘reverse discrimination’ argues that employers favor groups or special interests, skewing their recruitment processes to meet social or political goals.

A June 2023 Supreme Court case struck down “race-based admissions programs” to US colleges. Soon after, 13 attorney generals wrote a letter to Fortune 100 CEOs. The AGs stated that companies “must overcome…underlying bias and treat all employees, all applicants, and all contractors equally, without regard for race.”

Global regulators argue for a simple principle: Employers cannot hire people from protected groups solely based on their ethnic origins or other personal characteristics. They need a robust justification based on the role and skill requirements. Anything else is discrimination. 

To make sure your diversity hiring program doesn’t cross any red lines, you need to design it in compliance with these laws. 👇

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) manages a suite of laws that seek to prevent discrimination at work. EEO includes the hiring process, workplace compensation, promotion, and assigning workloads.

Under Equal Employment Opportunity laws, companies cannot discriminate against individuals based on:

• Race
• National origin or ethnicity
• Gender or sexual orientation
• Age
• Disability (physical or mental)
• Religion

The consequences of ignoring EEO legislation are severe. In 2021, Wal-Mart received a $125 million fine for discriminating against an employee with Down Syndrome.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act has protected disability rights since 1990 and extends protected status to those with physical and mental disabilities (listed as conditions that “substantially limit one or more major life activities.”) Employers must avoid discrimination when hiring and take reasonable steps to accommodate disabled employees at work.

Employment Equality Directive

The EED is the European Union’s version of EEO. As in the USA, European employers must accommodate all employees and create and apply policies to prevent victimization, harassment, and discrimination.

Racial Equality Directive 

The EU’s Racial Equality Directive (RED) complements the EED. The RED prohibits discrimination based on race and mandates support for victims of racial discrimination or harassment. Companies also need to quickly remedy any instances of victimization, whether individual or systemic.

Gender Equality Directive  

The Gender Equality Directive (GED) prohibits gender-based discrimination across the EU. Candidates should be treated equally during recruitment, promotion procedures, or everyday work, regardless of their gender.

The GED includes provisions to enforce gender-neutral wording and imagery in job advertisements. It enforces neutrality throughout the recruitment pipeline — another good reason to create a diversity hiring strategy that minimizes bias at every stage.

How to measure the effectiveness of your diversity recruiting efforts

The purpose of diverse hiring is to eliminate systemic inequalities from your hiring process to judge candidates based on their merit, rather than personal attributes. But to solve the problem, you first need to diagnose it. 

“Data serves as the compass that guides our efforts towards achieving equality within our organization,” shared Salesforce Chief Equality Officer Lori Castillo Martinez. “It enables us to pinpoint the areas where we need to direct our focus and resources for maximum impact.” 

Salesforce data suggested a low representation of Black leaders in the US on VP levels and above. So, the company launched several equality and leadership development programs to support career growth among employees in this group. 

To ensure your efforts are directed at the right targets, you should track the right DEI metrics at the hiring stage. Namely:

• Interview-to-hire ratios for candidates of different backgrounds and gender to ensure they’re moving through the recruitment pipeline. 

• Offer acceptance rates to understand if applicants align with your culture and working environment. They can also diagnose pay inequality among different groups of people. 

• Sources of hire. Measure which channels bring a more diverse range of applicants to optimize your promotion strategies. 

• Retention rates by demographic groups. Benchmark employee retention rates among different groups to identify potential retention issues with diverse hires. 

Also, keep track of the workforce composition at different company tiers. Measure what percentage of people from diverse backgrounds are present at each level — frontline, management, executive, and board. Set targets if necessary, but don’t just hire to meet those targets. Stay focused on objectively measuring candidate competencies regarding the open role. 

Examples of diversity hiring goals

Just like any other hiring initiative, diversity hiring has to be backed by a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (aka SMART) recruitment goal. 

For example: 

• Diversify recruitment channels. Set targets for trying alternative recruitment channels and strategies for candidate sourcing. Slack got ahead in DEI by recruiting many of its tech staffers from coding boot camps that trained underrepresented talent.

• Address pay equity. Gender pay gaps persist in many companies and have recently become a governmental concern. New salary transparency laws across the EU, the US, and APAC force employees to disclose salaries during recruitment and, in some cases, report gender pay gap statistics publicly. To address this, conduct an internal compensation review to ensure you offer fair, competitive compensation to new hires and current employees. 

• Improve the quality of hire. Quality of hire is a composite metric that reflects the value of new employees. It can be measured through turnover rates, job performance, employee engagement, and cultural fit with a 360 rating. By removing biases from the hiring process and using skills-based assessments, you’re more likely to attract strong matches. 

Remember, diverse hiring goals don’t have to be ‘moonshot.’ Small, targeted improvements across the entire recruitment cycle create a compounding positive net effect over time. 

Build diverse teams with Toggl Hire

Diverse companies are resilient and profitable. Organizations that incorporate different perspectives excel in talent acquisition, employer branding, workplace productivity, and ultimately—financial metrics.  

However, to make huge strides, you’ll need to upgrade your recruitment process. 

Toggl Hire helps companies build a more diversity-focused recruiting strategy with skills-based hiring. Tailor tests for different roles to find candidates with the right competencies without using bias-prone measures like ‘age’, ‘tenure’, or ‘college degree’.  

Give everyone a fair shot without overwhelming your recruitment teams with cheat-proof responses, automated grading, and data-driven candidate insights.  

Our mission at Toggl Hire has always been to make hiring smarter, faster, and more seamless for businesses and the candidates they hire.

Over the years, we’ve developed our platform to help companies identify top talent through innovative candidate assessment features. This means you might know us for our skills assessments, but, hey, everybody needs to reinvent themselves from time to time, and that’s exactly what we’ve been hard at work doing. 🐦‍🔥

We knew we could push the boundaries of modern hiring even further, and that’s why we’re thrilled to announce that Toggl Hire has evolved into a full-cycle hiring tool — combining the best of an applicant tracking system with our signature assessment features, all in one easy-to-use platform.  

Why we upgraded Toggl Hire  

Hiring isn’t just about finding candidates; it’s about managing the entire recruitment process from start to finish. 

A huge part of that lies in being able to effectively organize candidate information, assess the right skills, provide a stellar candidate experience, and make confident, data-driven hiring decisions.

Sounds simple, right? 

You’d think so, but we listened to feedback from our users—busy hiring managers, recruiters, and HR professionals—and learned that having multiple tools can break the workflow (not to mention having to pay for several tools just to hire one candidate gets pretty costly, pretty fast).

This made us ask ourselves a simple question: Why not do it all in one place, and why not make that one place Toggl Hire?

With this in mind, we’ve expanded Toggl Hire into a full-cycle hiring platform, streamlining every step of your recruitment process. Now you can assess skills, organize candidates, collaborate with your hiring team, and make informed hiring decisions — all without leaving Toggl Hire.  

It’s nothing revolutionary, but we’d argue that the sheer size of our skills test library alongside other essential hiring features is (seriously, go test the assessment capabilities of a few other popular ATS and let us know how they compare! 😏).

What’s new?  

Not much has changed, yet everything has changed. Along with an upgraded UI and several improvements to our backend for improved stability and ease of use, here is what you can expect to enjoy alongside our new pricing plans.

🏆 All-in-one functionality  

Toggl Hire now delivers all the key features of a robust ATS, from job descriptions and candidate scoring to analytics, combined with our industry-leading assessment tools to identify top talent faster. 

🔋 Improved workflow integration  

While you might have previously had to integrate a skills testing tool with a popular ATS, with Toggl Hire’s new and improved full-cycle functionality, your entire hiring team can work together more efficiently and focus on making better hiring decisions.  

💰 More value with every plan  

With our improvements comes an exciting shift in how we offer our software to you. We’ve reimagined our pricing plans to meet the varied needs of our users, from growing startups to larger enterprises.

What this means for you

Our new pricing structure reflects the versatility and expanded capabilities of Toggl Hire. Each plan is carefully designed to help you get more out of the platform, whether you’re testing the waters with candidate assessments or managing complex hiring pipelines at scale.  

We understand that every team is different, which is why we’ve built our plans to cater to a wide range of recruiting needs. Don’t worry, though; we’ve kept our forever-free plan, which allows you to hire for one role at a time. You can also try advanced features with a 14-day free trial. 

If you don’t have an account, you need to create one first. Then, you can start your free trial directly within the platform. Or, you can contact us at support@hire.toggl.com and we will set you up.

What’s included in the Starter plan?

The Starter plan is ideal for growing teams and includes:

• 3 active job openings
• Unlimited skills tests
• Unlimited users
• Fully-custom tests
• Async video interviews
• Customizable hiring pipeline
• Bulk actions
• Automation & AI
• More!

What’s included in the Premium plan?

The Premium plan is ideal for larger teams with ongoing hiring needs. It includes everything on the Starter plan plus:

• Unlimited job openings
• Expert-created homework assignments  
• Custom roles and permissions
• API access
• Dedicate CSM
• And more!

Built for better hiring decisions  

Ultimately, our goal with these updates is simple: to help you save time, reduce bias, and hire smarter. Whether you’re a rapidly growing startup hiring your first team or an established company fine-tuning your process, Toggl Hire is here to support you every step of the way. 

A talent pool is a database of potential candidates who have, in some way, shown an interest in working for your organization. Sounds simple enough, right? You probably have their contacts somewhere in your email or recruitment software.

Sure. Maybe. Careful, though — a great talent pool isn’t just a list of names and phone numbers. A properly curated talent pool provides rich information on each potential candidate, including but not limited to their experience, skills, career goals, and cultural fit.

Those job candidates are primed and ready to be contacted if a role needs filling. While it’s unlikely they’ll already have been fully interviewed, they will at least be partially vetted to ensure they meet the core standards of your organization.

What is a talent pool, and how is it different from a talent pipeline?

A talent pool is a curated group of great candidates who likely have the skills to help your company grow and have, at some point, expressed interest in making that happen.

Talent pools vs. talent pipelines

Talent pools and talent pipelines are two different but complementary tools for recruiting and hiring top-notch talent.

Talent pipelines are filled with candidate profiles who are considered qualified for specific roles. These could be past applicants who aced the interviews but were not hired, candidates referred by your employees, or sourced talent that engaged with your recruiters in the past.

On the flip side, talent pools are more like your secret stash of future candidates. It’s a database of passive talent who have shown some interest in working for your organization.

These candidates might not have gone through the full interview process yet, but they’ve at least been partially qualified to make sure they meet your company’s standards.

How do talent pools work?

Say you’re looking for a Director of Marketing, and you’re down to the wire with two stellar candidates. You finally make your choice and send out the job offer.

What happens to the other candidate? They’re qualified, passionate, and promising.

Along the way, you also interviewed a handful of promising rising stars who weren’t the right fit for this specific position but might shine in other areas of your organization when the need arises.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could keep them engaged in some way with your company? So when you expand the team, you go to them first instead of starting from square one?

That’s exactly the idea of a talent pool.

How do talent pools impact your talent pipeline?

Below are the three main roles talent pools play in talent acquisition.

Access to passive candidates

Passive candidates are people who are already employed and are not actively looking for a job but might be interested if the right opportunity presents itself. Talent pools are a great way to tap into these folks, who are usually high-quality candidates (and maybe even former employees).

Hiring isn’t just a question of right person, but also right time. How do you increase your chances of getting the best talent at a good time? You keep trying them, even if they aren’t looking.

By building and maintaining a database of skilled individuals, you can stay top of mind for them. Try sharing tailored content — think industry insights, company updates, and career growth opportunities. Newsletters are a great format for this. Play the long game, and all that relationship-building is bound to pay off.

Increased employer branding

90% of workers — irrespective of age or salary — would trade a percentage of lifetime earnings in exchange for more meaningful work. 82% say it is important for their company to have a purpose.

This is especially true for Gen Z, who has been called the “most purpose-driven generation” and will make up a quarter of the global workforce by 2025.

There has literally never been a better time to shout about your vision and mission to your talent pool. Brag about your company culture, values, and lofty aspirations.

Get creative with formats, too. Video interviews with current employees, for example, can feel way more personable than a standard landing page. Share the BTS of your company headshot photoshoots. Is there an unusual story behind your branding? Tell it!

Strategic workforce planning

Talent pools are full of vetted, qualified candidates. This means when you have a role to fill, you don’t have to shout into the void and hope for the best. You can strategically dip into your pool, find the best matches, and invite them to interview.

90% of hiring managers find it hard to source skilled candidates. Building a talent pool is literally a shortcut that immediately puts you in the top 10% of companies.

Companies with talent pools also report 30% lower hiring costs and a shorter time-to-hire. It pays to have a pipeline.

Benefits of using talent pools in recruitment

Having a list of pre-qualified, enthusiastic, and aligned candidates ready to go is a recruiter’s dream. While high-quality talent pools are by no means a walk in the park to set up, they offer a range of benefits, including the following.

Flexibility and agility

Imagine you’re halfway through hiring for a graphic designer, and suddenly, your head of design quits. Your priorities have suddenly shifted — you need to replace the head before you continue hiring the graphic designer.

With a talent pool, you’ll be able to manage this in a much more flexible and agile way than with conventional hiring. Chances are you’ll already have a qualified, willing candidate under your nose, ready to fill those shoes.

This is a recognized issue in talent acquisition — in fact, there’s been a 30% increase in skill similarity across recruiting roles in the last five years. 91% of recruiting experts say they’re focused on being agile to adapt to hiring needs. As LinkedIn’s 2024 The Future of Hiring Report states, “Recruiting teams want to do a better job helping organizations anticipate labor market ups and downs and ensure that they’re able to pivot quickly.”

Doing so will be vital to future-proofing recruiting teams. Erin Scruggs, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Linkedin, shares her experience.

“Every recruiter needs to be able to be flexible and deploy into hotspots versus specializing in specific domains. We didn’t do that a year ago, two years ago, or three years ago. But it’s critical for staying agile.”

Having a vetted group of candidates ready to step into roles as they arise — as you would with a talent pool — minimizes downtime and maximizes efficiency. Now that’s a real advantage that’ll make recruiter’s lives easier coming into 2025.

Reduced time to hire

Talent pools are incredibly efficient. If you think about it, they’re kind of like having a line of people in front of your door waiting to interview for the positions before they even arise. They help streamline the recruitment process by lowering time-to-hire and, therefore, make the whole process less resource-intensive.

For example, Toggl Hire’s talent pool feature helps you fill unexpected vacancies and hard-to-fill roles with a reservoir of pre-qualified talent at your fingertips. This helps you avoid those business slow-downs from unforeseen circumstances or highly specialized open positions.

While time to hire remains a core recruitment metric, companies are increasingly also looking at the quality of hire. As Amy Schultz, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Canva, explains, “For years, Talent Acquisition has been focused on metrics like time-to-fill and acceptance rates. But today, leadership is asking us about the quality of our hires and how we are measuring that.”

Cost-effective hiring

Talent pools don’t just save time — they save money, too. You don’t need to spend so much on advertising when you already have a line of candidates out the door.

Companies with great talent pools don’t need to invest so much in sourcing or posting on external job boards, job openings, or recruitment agencies.

It also optimizes recruitment budgets over time, as you don’t experience so much variability in your spending as when you’re hiring from scratch every time. Costs kind of even out, making finances more predictable and stable.

Improved candidate experience

Keeping the old candidate data from your ATS can improve the candidate experience once they’re part of the talent pool. Use the information gathered during the recruitment process to personalize the communications you send these previously “unsuccessful” candidates.

It can be tempting to outsource this kind of work to AI — indeed, 73% of HR professionals already use AI in some capacity to help with recruitment and hiring. But as John Vlastelica, CEO of Recruiting Toolbox highlights, maintaining a human touch is key.

“The best recruiters must be great at building relationships and creating high-touch candidate experiences that will help them rise above the bots,” he says.

Setting up these communications will help your organization stand out as a company that values people and puts effort into nurturing relationships. This can lighten the blow of rejection for candidates while boosting satisfaction and loyalty among potential hires.

Strong loyalty can help your bottom line, too — companies with a strong employer brand experience a 50% decrease in cost per hire.

Enhanced diversity and inclusion

If used intentionally, talent pools can help diversity and inclusion bloom. By actively sourcing talent from diverse communities, underrepresented groups, and varied backgrounds, you can build a more representative candidate pipeline.

According to a 2024 report from Hunt Scanlon Media, over 55% of recruitment leaders surveyed listed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as their focus, only second in priority to AI.

In the same report, Saul Gomez, director of IDEA at TI Verbatim Consulting, makes it clear — getting diverse talent through the door is only the first step. Active measures have to be taken to build an environment of psychological safety where everyone trusts it is safe for them to be heard.

“If we’re not being inclusive of diversity, then how are we leveraging it? How are you capitalizing on it? It’s worth asking, ‘Are we maximizing what our talent pool has to offer?’ At the end of the day, people want to feel included…and in order to leverage the diversity that organizations have, you need individuals to feel they are valued for themselves,” he says.

Another key trend driving increasing diversity is the shift to skills, rather than degrees, when evaluating candidates for positions. In a recent survey conducted by Intelligent.com, 70% of companies reported already having eliminated bachelor’s degree requirements to create a more diverse workforce.

A shift towards judging candidates based on their skills rather than higher education can increase your talent pool 10x while also addressing critical skills gaps and boosting diversity.

How to build a talent pool

There are four parts to building a talent pool: source, segment, engage, and recruit.

Keeping those parts in mind, below are some effective strategies and best practices for creating and maintaining a robust talent pool filled with qualified and engaged job candidates.

Step 1: Source candidates for your talent pool

• Social media: Use social media to create content showing why your business is a great place to work, and include a call to action that drives candidates to your career site. LinkedIn is an excellent platform for this, but don’t ignore “non-professional” social platforms, such as X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Instagram, if you want to target a particular demographic.
• Careers pages and job boards: Don’t miss the opportunity to capture the details of candidates actively searching on your career site or interacting with your job boards. Drive them to sign up for your talent pool by submitting a free application, so you can stay in touch with them and notify them when a good fit role becomes available. Many job boards also allow you to capture information from candidates who have viewed your vacancies.
• Previous applicants and employees: Ask unsuccessful candidates and previous employees if they want to be added to your talent pool. This is a great way to keep in touch with job seekers and consider them for future roles.
• Referrals: Employee referrals are a great way to source top talent. Incentivize your staff to refer the best people in their network to get more submissions.
• Recruitment agencies: Work with recruitment agencies to source candidates for specific roles. This can be a great way to reach a wider pool of candidates and find top talent you may not be able to find on your own.

Step 2: Segment your talent pool by organizing candidates

By segmenting your talent pools, you can tailor your messages and job opportunities to specific groups of candidates. But how do you segment your talent pools in the most efficient way to speed up the hiring process?

Consider attributes like:

• Job function
• Skills
• Experience level
• Location
• Interests

Sorting candidates by these factors will help you send targeted messages that resonate with each group. Don’t be one of the companies that send unsuitable openings to candidates due to poor segmentation (seriously, 3 in 10 candidates report this happening).

But segmentation isn’t just about who they are; it’s also about where they are in your recruitment process.

For example, you can keep track of people who completed skills assessments but weren’t selected for the next stage or have been engaging with your social media posts but haven’t applied yet. This way, you can make sure you’re reaching out to the right people at the right time with the right message, keeping everything organized and efficient.

Step 3: Nurture and engage your talent pools

Building talent pools is like tending to a garden: nurturing and engaging them is where the real magic happens.

Simply collecting candidate details and storing them in a database won’t help you build strong relationships and keep candidates excited about the possibility of working with you. To stay connected with candidates in your talent pools, consider the following strategies:

• Provide value by sharing high-quality content, such as commentary on the latest industry news, research insights, and professional resources.
• Create networking opportunities by hosting free events and workshops for qualified candidates. These events will allow candidates to meet and engage with your employees, learn from peer-to-peer feedback, and enjoy free pizza (which is great but should never be all you offer actual employees).
• Organize career days to give qualified candidates a glimpse into your company culture and career opportunities.

Don’t forget the power of personalization, either:

• Reach out to candidates with tailored messages acknowledging their unique skill sets and interests.
• Use their preferred communication channels, whether it’s email, social media, or even a good old-fashioned phone call.
• Let them know they’re more than just another name on a list — they’re valued members of your talent community.

Step 4: Recruit from your talent pools when a position opens

When it’s time to fill open roles, recruiting from your talent pools can feel like finding the perfect puzzle piece from a collection you’ve been carefully curating.

This is why it’s important not to burn any bridges with unsuccessful candidates — 49.5% of them would happily join your talent pool if offered!

Reach out to the candidates in your talent pools who have the skills and qualifications you’re seeking. Strong segmentation and AI tools can help streamline this task and ensure your passive candidates are always in the loop about upcoming opportunities.

Make it personal and craft messages that show genuine interest in their career goals and how they could contribute to your company. It’s about making them feel special and excited about the opportunity. And don’t forget to highlight any new developments or perks that might pique their interest. After all, you want them to be as enthusiastic about the job as you are.

Timing is everything, too. Monitor the ebb and flow of your talent pools. When a position opens up, strike while the iron is hot.

7 tips for keeping your talent pool full of high-quality candidates

Now that you know what a talent pool is and how to build one, it’s time to focus on the quality. A database is only as good as the quality of the candidates within it. Don’t fall into the trap of having a poor-quality talent pool by following these tips. 

1. Focus on niche job boards

If you’re attracting talent pool applicants through job boards, it’s time to take a more targeted approach. Given building your talent pool isn’t based on volume but rather quality, the mainstream job boards such as Indeed and Monster may create too much noise. 

Instead, focus your efforts on niche job sites targeted to the type of talent you are looking for. This isn’t just about skills either — ensure you also consider ways of working. While there are specific job boards for developers, salespeople, or legal professionals, job boards also exist for full-time remote workers and freelancers.

2. Test candidates during the initial application process

According to the SHRM 2024 Talent Trends Report, 54% of companies are now using some form of pre-employment assessment to gauge candidates’ skills, abilities, and knowledge. What’s more, 76% of hiring professionals see these test results as just as important, if not more important, than education level or years of experience.

One of the easiest ways to keep the quality of your talent pool high is to create a standard of entry. Why let anyone join when you can test candidates’ abilities and filter out the best?

Skills testing tools allow you to create bespoke tests, which can be used as the perfect benchmark for your talent pool. Tests are quick and easy to set up with a range of pre-set templates for popular job roles such as Account Executives, Data Scientists, Product Managers, and many more. 

Almost 4 in 5 recruiters say that using pre-employment assessments has improved their quality of hire, but careful, some have reported experiencing longer time-to-fill as a result.

With one-click candidate screening, Toggl Hire is designed to give you the best of both worlds — higher quality and faster hires.

3. Regularly engage with candidates

You’ve filled the auditorium seats — now you gotta grab the mic and hop on stage! What are you going to say?

The trick is to engage with your candidates little and often. This is not the time to shy away or play the humility card. Your goal should be to authentically showcase why your company is a great place to work, the things you’re achieving, and your vision for the future.

Approach it a bit like you would approach posting on social media. You want to be consistent, authentic, relatable, and as organic as possible. Here are some ideas of what you could share:

• Targeted job offers based on the individual’s skills
• Offer happy birthday greetings if you have that info
• Send exclusive invites to trade fairs, events, or webinars
• Ask for feedback on your own recruitment process — make the candidates feel like their voice matters
• Highlight any recent big wins, product updates, and what you’re working toward next
• Share pictures of company meet-ups if you’re a remote company!

4. Regularly cleanse your talent pool

Like all databases (or actual pools!), you should regularly cleanse data that are out of date. This should be a priority for every recruiting team.

If someone applied to your talent pool a long time ago, their situation may have changed, and their initial interest may no longer be valid. 

If you can automate your processes, try a pre-cleanse email. That way, you also allow the future candidate to re-submit their interest or update their profile to reflect their most up-to-date information. 

Ultimately, whether you remove candidates or get more up-to-date information, you know your talent pool is more current, and, by default, the quality is much higher! 

5. Polish your employer branding

Boosting your employer brand efforts will go a long way with external recruiting. It’s not just about attracting candidates to the job itself but also creating an enticing company culture.

In today’s competitive job market, candidates are looking for more than just a paycheck. They want to be a part of a company that aligns with their values and offers opportunities for growth and development. By showcasing your unique company culture, values, and employee benefits, you can attract top talent who are not only highly skilled but also excited to work with you.

Invest in building a compelling employer brand through your website, social media presence, and other recruitment channels. Highlight your company’s mission, values, and employee testimonials to give candidates a glimpse into what it’s like to work with you.

Case Study example: Spotify

Spotify pulled off a 3-in-1 we absolutely love.

1) Their talent pool is open for anyone to join, right there on their website.

2) The process is super on-brand, elevating their employer brand and desirability. (The call to action is ”Join the band” I mean, come on!)

3) They’re targeting students, meaning they’re getting first dibs on the newest talent entering the market.

This is genius, as Spotify will be front of mind as a place to work for any young minds interested in music and/or code. Working and communicating with so many younger folks, they’ll also get a competitive advantage in hiring and retaining the next generation (which, as we’ve mentioned, has got recruiters worried).

As Hung Lee, Curator at Recruiting Brainfood, puts it, “Gen Z isn’t interested in snazzy marketing collateral. Employer branding efforts need to go away from post-production towards revealing employees’ work and experience at the company to a wider audience.”

And that’s exactly what Spotify is doing.

6. Collect feedback to improve your processes

You don’t know what you don’t know. And there are two main ways to find out — directly, or indirectly.

Directly ask candidates about their experiences and feelings regarding your recruitment approach. This can be via email, surveys, or even gamified incentives with gift card prizes.

Another option is to indirectly collect feedback via platforms like Glassdoor. Here, you’ll be able to see exactly what candidates thought of your selection and interview processes — unfiltered.

Considering that 84% of job seekers consider a company’s reputation before applying, it’s a worthwhile investment of your time to see where candidates think you’re falling short. Set up systems to actively monitor and respond to reviews on Glassdoor and similar sites and take note of any comments that appear again and again. You might be surprised at how you’re being perceived (both in good and not-so-good ways!).

Building your employer brand in public like this is a great look — it shows transparency, ownership, and responsibility and that you care about the humans behind your candidate processes. A positive reputation not only attracts top talent but also reduces hiring costs, as candidates are more likely to apply directly rather than via an external agency or expensive recruitment marketing channels.

7. Keep engaging passive candidates

While having an active talent pipeline is important, don’t overlook the potential of passive candidates. These individuals may not be actively looking for a job, but they could be open to new opportunities if approached in the right way.

Engaging with passive candidates requires a strategic approach. Look for professionals in your industry who demonstrate potential or align with your company’s values. Reach out to them through personalized messages that highlight the specific reasons why they would be a good fit for your organization.

Use your talent pool to nurture relationships with passive candidates over time. Share valuable industry insights, relevant articles, and updates about your organization that could pique their interest. By consistently staying on their radar and building a rapport, you increase the chances of them considering a future opportunity with your organization.

Is there one key to great talent pooling?

When it comes to getting talent pooling “right,” the biggest tip we can give is:

Take the time for effective planning.

While it isn’t the one and only key point to consider, it carries a lot of weight and, by being strategic, can make your life in recruitment much easier.

Building an effective talent pool starts with aligning it with your organization’s values and employment needs. It involves reviewing big-picture strategies, assessing in-house talent, and creating strategies to build competency and bridge skills gaps.

By continuously asking for feedback both internally and from candidates, you can constantly monitor the talent pool’s effectiveness and keep it tightly tied to your company’s goals and budgets.

Use Toggl Hire’s ATS to build a talent pool

Toggl Hire’s talent pool feature is built to help you seamlessly carry over your ATS into a pool of titan candidates. We support hiring managers handle the talent management process in three key ways:

• Streamlined Candidate Management: With Toggl Hire, you have access to a centralized and organized database full of all your past test takers. You can easily add, update, or remove candidates as needed, making it simpler to manage your candidate records and streamline your recruitment process.
• Pre-Qualified Talent: Unexpected vacancies and hard-to-fill roles can slow down your business operations. With Toggl Hire’s talent pool, you have a reservoir of pre-qualified talent readily available at your fingertips, enabling faster and more efficient hiring decisions.
• Advanced Search Capabilities: Finding the right fit for a role involves considering various factors like skill, location, and role. Our advanced search capabilities allow you to easily sift through your talent pool based on these parameters, helping you find perfect-match candidates in seconds.

Never let a high-potential candidate slip through your fingers again. Create your Toggl Hire account today and get started for free!

Each day consists of 86,400 seconds or 1,440 minutes. That sounds like a lot of time, but once we remove sleep from the equation, much of that time goes by in a flash.

To improve our time management, we must first understand how we spend our time and then make changes to optimize our actions — like a doctor diagnosing an ailment before prescribing treatment.

Since you’re not (likely) a doctor, we’ll help you get started with this quick guide, which explains what time tracking involves, how easy it is, and the benefits you can expect once you fess up about how you spend each hour of the day.

TL;DR—Key Takeaways

• Time tracking is exactly what it sounds like — recording and analyzing how you spend time on different tasks and activities.
• It has many benefits, such as more accurate invoicing, a better understanding of project costs, the ability to create timesheets, improved project management, and others.
• There are multiple ways to track time, such as manual, digital, and automated, as well as productivity techniques such as Pomodoro and time blocking.
• Great time tracking software should have a great user experience, lots of integrations, customization options, detailed reporting, and data security, among other features.
• To get your team excited about time tracking, explain why it’s important, show them the ropes, and lead by example to demonstrate your own commitment to optimizing time.

What is time tracking?

Time tracking is the process of recording and analyzing how you spend time on different tasks and activities. You can record these details individually or as part of a team. And it’s also suitable for analyzing what’s happening in both your personal and work hours.

For example, on Monday, you might spend 35 minutes eating lunch, 4 hours 15 minutes in meetings, 1 hour 15 minutes at the gym, 2 hours 10 minutes commuting to work, etc. Once you’ve tracked these insights, you’ll see the big picture of where every minute goes. Beware—there might be some shockers in there!

What are the benefits of time tracking?

When we commit to time tracking, the main benefit is increased productivity. Being presented with how we spend our time in black and white makes it impossible to ignore the minutes we waste on unproductive activities.

When we harness our personal time better, we can spend more quality time with our friends and families, doing things we love and care about. Sounds like a win to us.

In a professional context, you’ll also enjoy some of the following benefits of time tracking:

📄 Producing more accurate client invoices

Accurate time tracking is critical if you charge your clients by the hour. A minute here or there daily can stack up to thousands of dollars of damage every year.

In some cases, you might overcharge your clients and face their questions or lose them to a business rival. But equally, it’s just as easy to shoot yourself in the foot and forget to charge for all of the work time you’ve spent on a particular client.

Time tracking also helps when differentiating between billable hours and non-billable hours. This highlights the amount of time your employees spend on tasks that don’t improve your bottom line. The promise? Commit to time tracking, and you’ll enjoy better invoicing and increased revenue.

💰 Understanding project costs better

When you track time for projects, you’ll start to understand how long it takes to complete portions of the project and the final product. Most importantly, you’ll know how long you require to produce quality work without feeling rushed or burned out.

For example, a good developer can build a website in one month. If a new client approaches them and asks to build a website in ten days, the designer knows it’s not feasible.

The result is a better estimation of project costs. They’ll become better at resource allocation, budgeting, and predicting timelines for future projects.

Let’s say a prospective customer asks the developer to build that website for $5,000. Based on time tracking entries, they can determine if this means $20 or $80 per hour and whether the fee is worth their time.

⌛ Creating simple timesheets for hourly workers

HR teams use employee timesheets for non-salaried workers to determine:

• Who worked
• How long they worked for
• How much to pay them
• How much time off they’ve accumulated

While an important part of the working arrangement for hourly workers, time reports can be extremely tedious for the employees filling them in and the admin teams processing them. Ideally, you’ll use time tracking tools to manage time entries automatically. This ensures:

• Each employee gets accurate and fair compensation
• No one has to spend hours digging through spreadsheets in Excel and calculating time entries
• Payroll is automated, and legal compliance becomes a breeze

👷 Streamlining project management

When you determine where your team’s time is spent, project management takes on a completely new level.

Employee time tracking shows you:

• The total time spent working on a project
• How much time each task requires
• Who spends their time on which task (and how much)

As a result, you can spot obstacles and inefficiencies without micromanagement. For example, you can determine that a particular client is taking double the time for task completion while paying the same as everyone else. Or you’ll become aware that certain employees purposely take longer to complete a task.

Ultimately, project time tracking gives you full visibility of your team’s activities, and you’re less likely to take on too much or work too little to be profitable.

🔓 Building trust and transparency

Imagine you have to charge a client $50,000 to build a mobile app. The client has just started working with you, and they don’t know much about app development.

The best way to convince them the work is worth the investment? Detailed timesheets.

Time tracking creates a bond of trust and transparency between a business and its clients. For each item on the invoice, you can add a line describing how much time it took, the hourly rate, and even who completed the work.

Popular time tracking methods

There’s more than one way to crack an egg, and the same is true of how you choose to track time. Here are some methods you can choose to slide into your workflows:

Manual time tracking

As the name suggests, you manually track the time to complete a task. You write down when you started and finished and then add the numbers at the end of the day, week, or month.

The biggest benefit of the manual method is that it’s easy and free. However, it’s very time-consuming, and you can quickly get tired of navigating spreadsheets and staring at the clock nonstop.

Swipe cards

Swipe-card time systems track employees’ time at physical locations and monitor attendance, absences, and breaks. They’re easy for the whole team to use and don’t require training.

Although more modern than punch card systems, this type of time clock still has some limitations. One is that it can’t be used to track remote employee time.

Digital time tracking

Time tracking apps such as Toggl Track allow you to hit a button to start a timer and once more when the work is done. Besides saving time, you also get integrations with other tools (e.g., project management software), automated timesheets and invoices, and much more.

This method allows you or your team members to track time on mobile devices, too, making it ideal for a team that is on the go.

Automated time tracking

Keeping an accurate record of all activities in one place is easy when everything is automated. An app can simply analyze the window or app you’re using and break down your time entries.

For example, it can tell you how long you spent in Google Docs, Figma, Docker, or some other app. This method is ideal as it doesn’t add new bottlenecks to your workdays; instead, it breaks down activities neatly without manual work.

Mobile time tracking

If you have a distributed workforce across various locations, they can log their time using their mobile devices. With the right time tracking software, they can start the timer on their mobile and stop it on a desktop device.

Geofencing

As an alternative to mobile tracking, geofencing is another way to automatically track the time when an employee enters or leaves a specific location. Administrators set up virtual boundaries, and when employees enter or exit these boundaries, an app automatically tracks their time.

This method can be useful for businesses with field workers or remote employees who may not have access to a computer. However, it can feel too much like surveillance for some.

Pomodoro time tracking

In this time tracking system, you do focused bursts of productive work (usually 25 minutes) followed by a break (usually 5 minutes).

Pomodoro forces you to work without distractions and take breaks to get rest and prepare for another Pomodoro cycle. It’s also one of the templates offered in many time tracking platforms.

Time blocking

In this method, you block off a time period to work on a specific task or set of tasks without interruptions. For example, you might allocate a one-hour block to write or respond to emails. It’s ideal for those with busy schedules who work on tasks they can easily group.

How to use time tracking in different industries

Anyone can use time tracking tools, from small businesses and remote teams to Fortune 500 companies. However, different types of users will experience different benefits:

Freelancers

Freelancers can use time tracking to bill clients more accurately and get fair payment for the work they deliver. They can easily distinguish non-billable and billable time and only invoice clients for the work on their projects.

Perhaps most importantly, freelancers can use time tracking entries to establish trust and transparency with clients.

Lawyers

Lawyers rely on time tracking to bill clients by the hour, often commanding a hefty fee. Tracking their work hours on cases or in court helps them maintain transparency and justify their costs.

They can also determine which clients are taking more time than the others and what tasks take up most of their days.

Contractors

Contractors typically juggle multiple clients at a time which requires strong self-discipline and careful time management.

Using time tracking platforms, contractors can accurately track projects and tasks per client. They can create accurate time logs and invoices, monitor progress, and identify bottlenecks in each project.

Service providers

Service providers like IT support can use time tracking to improve their project management and determine which tasks and projects take up a huge chunk of their time. Based on their time analysis, they can better allocate their resources, prioritize tasks and projects, and improve their productivity.

Creative agencies

Creative agencies can use time tracking to monitor their employees and clients. On the one hand, they get time cards with each employee’s records for the day and month, ensuring everyone earns their salary.

On the other hand, agencies can more accurately predict project pricing and scope. For example, they can easily avoid scope creep and charging too little for a project that could take double the estimated time.

Large teams

The famous Pareto principle states that 20% of the input is responsible for 80% of the results. But in large teams, it can be easy to lose track of who does what (and when).

Time tracking in large teams lets you determine responsible stakeholders and their total contribution to the finished project. Additionally, large teams can save massive amounts of time with automated timesheets, invoices, and payroll.

Essential features of great time tracking software

The features you need will depend on your goals and needs. However, any great time tracking software should have the following:

• User-friendly interface: The app should be easy to navigate so employees can adopt it quickly without a steep learning curve.
• Integration capabilities: Integrations with tools such as project management platforms, invoicing apps, and payroll software save time for your team. Instead of switching back and forth between apps, you can do everything in one window.
• Real-time tracking: You’ll gain a bird’s eye view of your team and their performance, enabling quick decision-making and prioritization.
• Detailed reporting: You should be able to generate detailed and insightful reports for each task, project, and employee. These reports are valuable for your clients and your team, as you can pinpoint obstacles, improve productivity, and track project progress.
• Customization options: Each team has its own processes, workflows, and stakeholders. Your time tracking solution should adapt to your unique needs and preferences.
• Data security: The data in the time tracking platform should be yours and yours only. This protects your business, employees, and clients from unauthorized access.

3 common time tracking mistakes

Time tracking is a powerful tool for managing work and productivity, but it can be less effective when these mistakes occur:

1. Confusing time tracking with employee monitoring

Time tracking and employee monitoring can often be mistaken for the same practice, but they serve entirely different purposes. 

Managers can use time tracking to understand work patterns, optimize processes, and improve productivity. In contrast, employee monitoring involves recording employees’ activities to ensure they work as expected. Compared to time tracking, employee monitoring is incredibly invasive, often using tracked keystrokes and screen activity as “proof” of what workers are doing.

2. Not tracking billable and non-billable hours

Often, employees only track billable project hours they can charge their clients for. They forget about all those extra hours spent on non-billable tasks like internal meetings or administrative work. 

This is a mistake, as tracking non-billable hours can help you spot inefficient work processes and understand overall productivity. Proper tracking can also help you adjust your rates.

For example, if a client project requires 25 hours spent strategizing internally but 10 hours executing the work, it would be a mistake to only charge for the 10 hours. You might need to change your rate structure or negotiate with your client to reach a fairer deal.

3. Using time tracking data for appraisals

Although time tracking data shows how team members spend their work time, it doesn’t capture the full picture of an employee’s contributions. 

Analyzing work performance based only on time tracking data is unfair as it overlooks the quality of work, creativity, or problem-solving skills. 

How to get employees excited about implementing a time tracking app

As a business owner, time tracking obviously has immense value for you. But how do you explain it to Jane from accounting, who already has a packed calendar and 15 different apps she uses daily? Here are some tips.

1. Explain why time tracking is important

Highlight how accurate time tracking contributes to better project estimates and billing and improves employee productivity and accountability.

In other words, show employees that time tracking benefits everyone, from the team to the clients. Reiterate you’re not using it to micromanage or spy on your team.

2. Show your team how to track their time

Before they start using a time tracking app, show your team how it’s done. Tools such as Toggl Track are super simple, but you should still show the team how you want them to use the app.

Training your team on how to track their time:

• Ensures accuracy and consistency
• Reduces the resistance to change
• Optimizes tool usage

Whether it’s a simple spreadsheet or dedicated software, employees need to see practical tips on tracking time to demystify the process. 

3. Lead by example

Show your team that no one is exempt from time tracking, even the managers and the CEO. Otherwise, if only the employees are tracking time, they might get a feeling that management is protected and time tracking entries will be used against them.

Fire up the automated time tracker as you begin work, and let the app do the rest of its magic. It will benefit you (no matter your role or skill level) and show your team you’re all equal.

How Toggl Track can help you track time

Once you have your time tracking data collected accurately, you can use it in many different ways. We’ll explore each in more detail. 

1. Track project profitability

Tracking project profitability helps project managers identify which projects bring in money and which do not. With these insights, they can plan future projects better to increase business profitability. 

With Toggl Track, project profitability is easy to measure. Use the Insights feature to analyze your team’s and projects’ financial performance. Explore project earnings, labor costs, and employee and project profits.

2. Identify bottlenecks

A bottleneck in project management is a point in a process where work slows down or gets stuck. 

Identifying bottleneck tasks in a project helps managers address inefficiencies and streamline workflows. To identify bottlenecks with Toggl Track, start by estimating tasks:

1. Click Create New Project or Edit Project
2. Go to the Time Estimate section
3. Enter your custom hourly estimate

To create task-based estimates:

1. Open the Project
2. Select the Tasks tab
3. Add or edit an estimate from the Estimate column 

After you’ve created your estimates, go to the Project Dashboard to compare estimates vs. actual time tracked and identify potential bottleneck tasks.

3. Improve resource allocation and utilization

Resource allocation is finding and assigning available resources to a project. 

Resource utilization refers to how effectively these resources are used for maximum productivity. 

Good resource allocation and utilization keep projects on track and within budget by improving productivity, efficiency, and waste minimization. 

4. Monitor employee workload

Monitoring employee workload prevents burnout, keeps workloads balanced, and promotes a healthy work environment. 

With Toggl Track, you can easily view your team’s tracked time and what they’re working on. Go to the Team Activity tab under Organization > Workspace > Select Workspace> Activity tab. 

Here, you can see the most active team members from the past seven workdays and use the dropdown filter to review Activity by User or the last 20 time entries.

5. Identify training needs

Identifying inefficient team members is important. Why? It helps you understand who needs training to perform better and who needs better tools. 

Toggl Track’s Detailed Report makes it easy to analyze individual time entries and spot ineffective work.  You can access this report by clicking the Reports tab on the left side menu and selecting Detailed from the top center of the screen. 

6. Compliance with local laws

Depending on where you base your business, you may need to comply with local labor laws regarding time tracking and employee work hours. For example, new regulations in the EU require all businesses to implement time tracking systems to record employee hours (as of July 1st, 2024.)

Through its Export functionality, Toggl Track makes it easy to provide a detailed breakdown of time tracked when needed. You can choose to export time entries or user data with total hours worked and overtime to easily share during audits or regulatory reviews. 

7. Cultivate self-accountability

Project managers can use time tracking data to cultivate self-accountability among team members. Here are some tips:

• Share time tracking insights with employees so they can see their work habits and areas for improvement
• Suggest employees set personal benchmarks based on their time tracking data to keep them accountable and focused on their goals
• Recognize and reward employees who improve their time management to motivate them to take time tracking seriously. 

Get started with a free time tracker

Time tracking isn’t just a way to keep tabs on employees scrolling TikTok instead of putting hours in Jira. It’s a tool that improves productivity and profitability and benefits everyone in the workplace.

Even for individuals, time tracking can help you become more aware of your day-to-day obligations and become a better version of yourself.

The best part is that time tracking is easy and free. With Toggl Track, you can gain control of where and how you spend your time.

Try it out now by signing up for a free Toggl Track account!

📚 Read more about the best time tracking tools:

• 10 Best Free Timesheet Apps To Track Work Hours (2025)
• 10 Best Time Tracking Apps & Billing Software for Consultants [2024]
• 10 Best Agency Time Tracking Software for 2024 [Comparison]

Harvest is a well-known time-tracking app that allows users to log and track their time across multiple projects. With valuable features like analytics, reporting, invoicing, and integrations with other tools, it’s a solid choice for many businesses.

But it isn’t the right choice for everyone. Some users report missing features, while others say the reporting doesn’t meet their needs. Every software has its pros and cons, but if you’re curious about exploring Harvest alternatives, you’re in the right place.

Top Harvest alternatives at a glance

Tool	G2 Rating	Who’s it Best For?
Toggl Track	4.6	A simple-to-use time tracking tool known for its powerful, flexible capabilities. Best for freelancers and agencies who need a productivity boost.
Hubstaff	4.5	Time tracking with GPS and geofencing, ideal for remote and field teams needing accountability. Great for distributed workforces requiring detailed productivity insights.
TimeCamp	4.7	Automatic time and billable hour tracking, best for small to medium businesses and freelancers needing seamless integrations with project management tools.
Clockify	4.5	A basic time tracking software providing billable and non-billable hour tracking and reporting.
DeskTime	4.5	If you need a hawk-eye on where your employee’s time goes, this is the tool. URL tracking shows you as much detail as you’d like to see.
Replicon	4.3	Enterprise-grade time tracking with compliance, payroll, and resource management. Ideal for big companies needing detailed analytics and advanced reporting.
Everhour	4.7	Seamless integration directly into project management tools like Asana and Trello. Less tab switching, more deep work.
Wrike	4.2	Project management tool with built-in time trfacking. Great for teams looking for smooth cross-functional communication and transparency.
QuickBooks Time	4.5	An advanced accounting software that integrates time tracking with invoicing and payroll.
Timely	4.8	Project management tool with built-in time tracking. Great for teams looking for smooth cross-functional communication and transparency.
Paymo	4.6	End-to-end project management with time tracking, invoicing, and task management. Best for small agencies and freelancers who need a 2-in-1 time and project tracking solution.

Why Harvest might not work for everyone

The best time tracking tools should, well, save you time. They should not add a bunch of admin to your workflow. Of course, everyone works in different ways, so a customizable tool that can streamline employee performance and boost profitability is an investment worth making.

While Harvest does have a lot going for it, there are some limitations to consider. Depending on your specific needs, they might be deal-breakers that point you toward other options.

Here are some common issues users have complained about on review websites like Capterra and G2:

• Very manual most of the time, which is time-consuming and error-prone
• Clunky experience that isn’t very user-friendly
• Not enough customization options
• Very basic reporting
• No opportunity to account for extenuating circumstances can make it feel a little too “Big Brother”

If you’re worried about these points, it’s fair to consider alternatives to Harvest that might suit you and your team members a bit better. That said, we recommend testing Harvest alongside a few other tools to see how they compare side-by-side.

11 alternatives to Harvest time tracking

First up, here’s how we handpicked the 11 best Harvest alternatives for time tracking:

• We combed through hundreds of software user reviews and feedback to see what real people had to say.
• We double-checked each tool to see how the time tracking features stacked up against each other.
• We explored how different tools work in different use cases. We’re all about inclusivity, you see.

So, without further ado, here is our breakdown of a few great alternatives to Harvest so you can see for yourself which tool is right for you.

1. Toggl Track

📌 Best for anybody who wants to optimize their time with an incredibly user-friendly timekeeper. You can start tracking time in just a few clicks.

Toggl Track is a powerful timer that blends user-friendly time tracking and timesheet management in one package. Keep an eye on your time with an automated dashboard, summary reports, and detailed breakdowns. Our platform integrates with 100+ tools and offers invoicing features.

Top features

• Multiple device tracking: Toggl Track syncs effortlessly across browser extensions, desktop apps, and mobile devices
• Insights: Keep an eye on profitability with simple time reports and insights for further optimization
• Billable and non-billable hours: Accurately predict project rates based on historical billable hours
• Historic billable rates: Set and modify historic billable rates to past or future data
• Custom dashboard reporting: Go beyond a template and design your dashboard as you wish
• Project management: Simplify client and team management with straightforward task lists

Pros

• Intuitive mobile app and Chrome extension
• Value-packed free plan
• Easy-to-read time reports

Cons

• The free plan is limited to just five users
• Manual start-stop timer

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	$0	Personal use
Starter	$9 per user/month	Smaller teams with basic time tracking needs
Premium	$18 per user/month	Teams needing online and offline functionality for tracking time and profitability.
Enterprise	Custom pricing	Enterprise teams with custom functionality and account management needs

🌟 G2: 4.6 (1,571), Capterra: 4.7 (2,385)

2. Hubstaff

📌 Best for those looking for a low-admin tool.

Hubstaff is the ultimate employee monitoring tool. It offers URL and screenshot tracking and automates time entries. It’s an easy-to-use time tracking solution that gives employers lots of visibility — perhaps too much, in our opinion (we’re very anti-surveillance, you see).

Top features

• Real-time tracking: Measures time and productivity metrics with screenshots, app usage, and activity rates
• GPS and geofencing: Ideal for mobile teams who work between the field and the office
• Payroll and invoicing: Built-in payroll integrations for simplified payments and invoicing
• Project management: Task management and budgeting tools to streamline projects
• Integrations: Connects with over 30 tools, including Trello, Asana, and QuickBooks

Pros

• Automatic timesheet approval
• Lots of integrations
• Built-in payroll

Cons

• Real-time tracking feels intrusive
• Only offers a 14-day free trial, no permanent free plan

Plan	Cost	Best for
Starter	$4.99 per user/month	Basic tracking and occasional use
Grow	$7.50 per user/month	Frequent users who want comprehensive time data
Team	$10 per user/month	Team leads who want a detailed employee monitoring solution
Enterprise	$25 per user/month	Enterprise clients who want full customization and location tracking

🌟 G2: 4.5 (1,233), Capterra: 4.6 (1,500)

3. TimeCamp

📌 Best for teams seeking deeper data and automation.

TimeCamp is a fully automated time tracking tool. It offers more advanced productivity insights and project budgeting features than Harvest, making it ideal for those who want a detailed view of their team’s time and effort.

Top features

• Automatic time tracking: Records work time seamlessly across apps and devices
• Project management integration: Syncs with tools like Trello, Jira, and monday.com
• Productivity insights: Offers detailed reports on time usage and efficiency
• Budgeting and invoicing: Tracks budgets and creates invoices directly
• Timesheet approval: Delivers easy team management with approval workflows
• Attendance tracking: Tracks absences, overtime, and holidays

Pros

• Timesheet tracking is intuitive
• Adaptable to suit different workflows

Cons

• No free version, just a 14-day free trial
• Very few integrations
• Some report frequent errors and downtime

Plan	Cost	Best for
Starter	$1.99 per user/month	Individual use
Premium	$3.99 per user/month	Established freelancers or solopreneurs
Ultimate	$5.99 per user/month	Businesses optimizing team time
Enterprise	$14.99 per user/month	Big teams who need personalized support

🌟 G2: 4.7 (321), Capterra: 4.7 (598)

4. Clockify

📌 Best for budget-conscious teams with flexible needs, thanks to their “build-as-you-go” model.

Clockify’s free plan immediately distinguishes it from Harvest. And when you upgrade to the paid version, it’s available for unlimited users and projects. While Harvest boasts more advanced invoicing and expense tracking, Clockify wins in simplicity and ease of use.

Top features

• Set billable rates: Track all time effectively and never have a single minute unaccounted for
• Detailed reports: Generate customizable reports for detailed insights
• Automatic invoicing: Simplifies billing based on tracked hours and expenses
• Kiosk feature: Allows employees to clock in and out from a shared device using a specific PIN

Pros

• Timekeeping software is intuitive and simple to use
• Budget-friendly
• Can have unlimited users
• Ability to customize for both on-site and remote teams

Cons

• Not suited to big teams or complex organizations
• No invoicing features on Free or Basic plans
• Not many options to customize reports

Plan	Cost	Best for
Basic	$4.99 per user/month	Individual users with simple time-tracking needs
Standard	$6.99 per user/month	Small teams with more complex time-tracking needs
Pro	$9.99 per user/month	Teams who need a solid project and time-tracking tool
Enterprise	$14.99 per user/month	Larger teams with complex client projects that require advanced time-tracking features

🌟 G2: 4.5 (172), Capterra: 4.8 (9,080)

5. DeskTime

📌 Best for small businesses looking to optimize productivity through better time management.

DeskTime is designed for teams that prioritize productivity and team performance over traditional time tracking methods. It eliminates manual time entries and offers fully automatic time tracking and productivity analysis instead. Users rave about its insights into employee efficiency and real-time project monitoring.

Top features

• Project progress and tracking: Teams can assign tasks and monitor time spent efficiently
• Automatic time tracking: No manual input is needed to track hours
• Productivity analysis: Allows you to mark applications as productive or unproductive
• URL tracking: Employee management features automatically track all computer activity (with higher-tier plans, employers can also screenshot employee’s devices remotely)

Pros

• Automatic time-tracking
• Improves efficiency
• Time tracking is a breeze

Cons

• Users report frequent software bugs
• Some claim inaccurate time tracking after some period of time
• App performance has been criticized; for example, it may need refreshing if left idle for too long

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	Free	Individual URL tracking
Pro	$7 per user/month	Basic functionality, reports, and time tracking
Premium	$10 per user/month	Teams who want a good time-tracker with integration capabilities
Enterprise	$20 per user/month	Larger teams who want unlimited use of the tool and extra perks like personalized onboarding

🌟 G2: 4.5 (309), Capterra: 4.6 (524)

6. Replicon

📌 Best for bigger businesses needing comprehensive compliance tracking and field offices.

Replicon is a great Harvest alternative if you’re looking for advanced compliance management and labor law adherence features. It provides extensive tools for managing project costs and employee attendance, making it ideal for organizations with complex regulatory needs.

Top features

• Comprehensive time tracking: Tracks billable hours, projects, and attendance
• Advanced project costing: Real-time budget insights for precise cost management
• Compliance management: Ensures adherence to labor regulations globally
• Mobile accessibility: Time tracking on the go with mobile apps
• Real-time analytics: Instant access to productivity and profitability metrics

Pros

• Smart use of AI saves time
• Flexible timesheet options for every location
• 100+ integrations
• Intelligent compliance tools

Cons

• Frustrating reporting limitations
• Steep learning curve
• No free plan, just a 14-day trial
• Expensive if you use all the features

Plan	Cost	Best for
Project Time Tracking	From $29 to $39 per user/month	Time and project management needs
Time & Attendance	From $6 to $30+ per user/month	Managing paid time off and employee scheduling
Polaris PSA & PPM	From $29 to $49 per user/month	All-in-one employee time and HR management

🌟 G2: 4.3 (767), Capterra: 4.5 (531)

7. Everhour

📌 Best for team collaboration and project management with seamless time tracking built-in.

Everhour is a project management tool first and a time tracker second. It basically works like an extension that embeds itself into tools like Asana or Trello to measure how much time you spend on different tasks. Everhour also offers comprehensive budget tracking and detailed reporting, making it perfect for teams focused on collaborative project management.

Top features

• Budgeting and forecasting: Helps manage budgets and predict future costs
• Invoicing and payroll: Automatically creates invoices and calculates payroll
• Task and project management: Organizes tasks within projects for easy tracking
• Browser extension: Offers both Chrome and Firefox plugins
• Team availability tracking: Monitors who’s available and who’s not

Pros

• Free forever (up to five users)
• Real-time progress overview
• Natively track time from different tools

Cons

• Only two plans to choose from
• Not built for different time zones, making it challenging for distributed teams

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	Free for up to five users	Individual use
Team	$10 per user/month	Small teams

🌟 G2: 4.7 (174), Capterra: 4.7 (425)

8. Wrike

📌 Best for teams needing solid project management abilities.

Similar to Everhour, Wrike combines project management with time tracking. While Harvest is mainly a time tracking and invoicing tool, Wrike offers extensive features for task management and collaboration, making it a great choice for teams that need comprehensive project oversight alongside time tracking.

Top features

• Project and task management: Full suite for task assignment, tracking, and deadlines
• Built-in time tracking: Track time spent on tasks within the project
• Collaboration tools: Real-time file sharing, comments, and notifications
• Workload management: Balance workloads with drag-and-drop scheduling
• Comprehensive reporting: Visual reports to monitor progress and productivity

Pros

• All-in-one project management platform with built-in timekeeping
• Cross-functional visibility and accountability

Cons

• More complexity than needed
• Some report a steep learning curve
• Not very user-friendly

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	Free	Individual use
Team	$10 per user/month	Small teams of up to 15 people
Business	$24.80 per user/month	Larger companies with multiple teams
Enterprise	Custom pricing is available on request	Corporates who want extra security
Pinnacle	Custom pricing is available on request	Teams with complex and advanced needs

🌟 G2: 4.2 (3,726), Capterra: 4.3 (2,713)

9. QuickBooks Time

📌 Best for businesses already using QuickBooks for accounting.

QuickBooks Time is built to integrate with QuickBooks accounting software. It also offers great time tracking, employee scheduling, and resource management features. If you want to see how your team’s time turns into finances, this might be the tool for you.

Top features

• Job scheduling: Create and manage shifts to organize work hours effectively
• Payroll and invoicing: Tracks time and converts billable hours into invoices while integrating with payroll and accounting software
• Geofencing and GPS location tracking: Only with the Elite plan. This feature could be a good fit for mobile workforces, removing the need for manual clock-in and clock-out
• Time off management: Centralized management for leave requests and reports

Pros

• Easy to use
• Great functionality on the mobile app
• Seamless integration with QuickBooks accounting and payroll software

Cons

• Clocking limitations lead to inaccurate time entries
• Considered expensive compared to other options
• Some users are unsatisfied with the customer support

Plan	Cost	Best for
Premium	$20 per month + $8 per user/month	Teams with basic time tracking needs who also want payroll and invoicing features
Elite	$40 per month + $10 per user/month	Teams who need geofencing and mileage-tracking features

🌟 G2: 4.5 (1,430), Capterra: 4.7 (6,927)

10. Timely

📌 Best for teams who want fully automated time tracking.

Timely differentiates itself from Harvest by focusing on AI-driven time tracking without manually starting or stopping a timer. Timely also offers a unique visual timeline and automatic categorization of tasks for increased efficiency and reporting accuracy.

Top features

• Background time tracking: Automatically logs time without user intervention
• Total privacy: Employees can choose which entries to include in their timesheets
• One-click invoicing: The integration syncs directly with QuickBooks accounting tool
• AI tools: Automatically track both active and free time. An AI Assistant also categorizes tasks and optimizes work scheduling

Pros

• Automatically turns the timer on and off with no manual input required
• Empowers employees by offering privacy options
• Saves time

Cons

• Time tracking issues when switching clients
• Many users report software bugs
• Issues with integrations are reported regularly

Plan	Cost	Best for
Starter	$11 per user/month	Teams of up to five
Premium	$20 per user/month	SMEs with specific time tracking needs
Unlimited	$28 per user/month	Large businesses who want unlimited seats and extra customer support

🌟 G2 4.8 (424), Capterra: 4.7 (702)

11. Paymo

📌 Best for freelancers and small teams needing financial and invoicing features.

Paymo focuses on invoicing, budgeting, and expense tracking features. It’s designed to help individuals and teams get a better grip on their finances and understand how their time management impacts their revenue.

Top features

• Time tracking: Easy manual and automatic time tracking for projects
• Invoicing: Customizable invoices with expense tracking for billing clients
• Project management: Comprehensive tools for planning, scheduling, and managing tasks
• Reporting: Detailed reports on time, costs, and team productivity
• Task management: Organize tasks with deadlines, priorities, and assignments
• Mobile apps: Track time and manage projects on the go with mobile access

Pros

• Comprehensive project management tools
• Invoicing and budgeting features
• User-friendly interface
• Big discounts if paid annually

Cons

• Limited integrations compared to other tools
• No mobile offline access and limited features
• Expensive for larger teams

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	Free	Infrequent use or few projects
Starter	$9.90 per user/month	Consistent use by busy freelancers
Small Office	$15.90 per user/month	Small teams who want to streamline efficiency
Business	$23.90 per user/month	Bigger teams who need extra assistance and employee scheduling

🌟 G2: 4.6 (588), Capterra: 4.7 (689)

Try a Harvest time tracking alternative for free

Picking the wrong time tracking tool can cost you time, money, and, in the worst cases, your team’s trust.

Toggl Track offers a simple time tracker your team will actually use. With a minimal learning curve and a strong distaste for “Big Brother” vigilance, Toggl Track believes in empowering employees to take back their time on their own terms.

It’s intuitive yet flexible — designed to work with automatic time tracking, start/stop timer, and manual time entry options. Generate invoices based on tracked billable and non-billable time, and with over 100 integrations, you can slot it into your workflow however you like.

Sign up for a free Toggl Track account today!

In 1776, modern economist Adam Smith dropped a truth bomb about productivity, introducing us to the idea that some kinds of work are “productive”….and others are not. 

Nowadays, many of us try to construct the perfect productive day using various methodologies, devices, and technologies. And yet, no one has invented the end-all-be-all productivity tool. Because it doesn’t exist. 

Like health or personal development, productivity is a compounding process shaped by various factors. You won’t become the best version of yourself just by exercising regularly but not keeping a good diet. Likewise, no single productivity app can fix all your time or task management problems.

For that reason, most people settle for a productivity stack — a collection of productivity apps working together to make the most of your time.

The best productivity apps at a glance 

• Todoist: Best for streamlined task management. Quickly add, prioritize, and manage your commitments using natural language commands. 

• Reclaim.ai: Best for setting your daily planning on auto-pilot with intelligent tools for time blocking, meeting management, and task (re)scheduling. 

• Freedom: Best for blocking distractions. You’ll customize blocklists to escape the pull of digital interruptions and reclaim your focus time. 

• Airtable: Best for automating project management. You’ll combine the simplicity of a spreadsheet with powerful automation features to streamline complex workflows.

• Trello: Best for visual task management. Drag-and-drop boards make it easy to plan, collaborate, and execute simpler projects. 

• Caveday: Best for guided timeboxing sessions, enabling you to power through an important mono-task with shared accountability. 

• Toggl Track: Best for managing your focus. Simply analyze how you spend your day to unlock opportunities for higher productivity. 

• Zapier: Best for automating steps in recurrent workflows. Link two (or more!) popular business apps in one click to set repetitive tasks on cruise control. 

• Otter.ai: Best for managing audio files and meeting memos. The platform converts speech to text and organizes transcripts for easy search and collaboration. 

• Evernote: Best for keeping the information you need at your fingertips. Collect, store, and review your knowledge across devices. 

• Obsidian: Best for building digital knowledge systems. You’ll create a visual canvas of interlinked notes and ideas to drive your thought process and learning. 

How we evaluated each app

To rank the best productivity apps, we first brainstormed the main sub-categories: task management, scheduling, distraction blocking, project management, focus work, process automation, and note-keeping. 

Our internal team contributed ideas, and we ranked all options across set criteria: user experience, feature set, flexibility, and pricing. The apps with the highest scores made it to the final list. 

The best productivity app for managing your to-do list

Todoist 

Todoist is a strong alternative to complex project management tools. This app sorts your tasks across different projects, teams, and nested subtask views. Depending on your preference, you can view your commitments as a list, board, or calendar. From here, it’s a cinch to track your progress with features like priority levels, time-based reminders, and recurring due dates. 

Todoist also offers some powerful collaboration features for teams. You can create multiple filter views, assign tasks with custom durations, exchange files and comments, manage roles and permissions, use pre-made project templates, and visualize everyone’s progress in a beautiful chart. 

The vendor also recently added an AI assistant for Pro and Business Plans to help you manage tasks by: 

• Breaking down complex tasks into more manageable subtasks
• Creating more actionable task descriptions
• Giving tips on powering through delayed items 

You can also experiment with custom prompts to chat with your virtual assistant about your goals and priorities. 

Todoist pricing:

• Free plan: Covers five personal projects 
• Free trial: Not available 
• Paid plans: Start from $4/month per user 

The best productivity app for scheduling

Reclaim.ai 

Reclaim.ai, by Dropbox, uses the power of algorithms to improve your time management. The app automatically slots tasks, meetings, and focus time and breaks into your available time. 

The Calendar Sync feature, available with Google Calendar and soon Outlook, also merges all events across unlimited calendars (personal, work, etc) to save you from double-booking.

Thanks to smart scheduling links, similar to Calendly, you can also invite multiple people to book available time slots. If there’s a scheduling conflict, Reclaim will auto-reschedule. The same goes for added tasks. The app helps you build a better schedule using priority markets, urgent task queues, and built-in time-tracking. 

Reclaim.ai pricing

• Free plan: One user with limited integrations
• Free trial: 14 days for premium plans 
• Paid plans: From $8 per seat/month

The best productivity app for blocking distractions

Freedom 

Freedom can be a great aid if you’re struggling to get into a productive groove because of constant distractions. You know the ones — the familiar ping on your iPhone, Slack notifications, or those silly cat videos on YouTube. This app slams the door shut by blocking all selected websites, web and mobile apps, or even the entire Internet for a set time.  

Better yet, you can schedule focused work blocks across devices, so if you’re blocking social media on your phone, it’s blocked on your laptop, too. Plus, you can create custom blocklists, making it easy to keep distractions out during work hours while letting yourself check your favorite sites later. Locked mode prevents you from caving in before your Freedom session finishes. 

Overall, Freedom is an excellent app for trying Monk Mode — a deep work technique for cultivating intense focus and discipline for productive work sprints.

Freedom pricing:

• Free plan: Free browser extension with limited features
• Free trial: Seven days 
• Paid plans:
  • From $3.30/month when billed annually or a one-time payment of $99.50
  • Team plans start from $99/month for 10 to 100 members

The best productivity apps for project management

Airtable

As it says on the tin, Airtable is a database-like project management app that allows you to create end-to-end business processes across functions.

You can build databases, pre-populated with data from popular business apps like Gmail, Google Drive, Jira, and Salesforce, or connect custom data sources from your infrastructure (e.g., Snowflake data warehouse or an Azure-based data lake) using available APIs. All relevant fields will be updated based on pre-programmed data sync rules. 

Next, you can build automation — custom trigger-action workflows for repetitive tasks. Set up once and maintained occasionally, Airflow automation saves teams hundreds of hours on data entry, synchronization, and verification. Airtable Cobuilder also lets you build low-code apps to automate more complex processes. 

Airtable’s strength is its versatility. You can adapt It for virtually any workflow — inventory management, expense tracking, event management, customer relationship management, and more. Toggl’s marketing team, for example, uses it to manage editorial planning and collaboration on content production.

While there’s definitely a learning curve, it’s worth the effort. Once you’ve set things up, you can run many processes on autopilot to improve business productivity. 

Airtable pricing:

• Free plan: For one user with up to 1,000 records per base
• Free trial: 14-day complimentary trial of the Team plan
• Paid plans: From $20 per seat/month

Trello 

Trello is an excellent project management tool for smaller teams. Compared to Airtable, it has fewer nuts and bolts and a gentler learning curve. The board setup process takes a few minutes, especially when you grab one of the pre-made templates. There are loads of options for everything from new hire onboarding to design sprints and customer success program management. 

Drag-and-drop Kanban boards provide the big picture for tracking progress and give ample room to communicate and collaborate on individual cards through features like deadlines, sub-tasks, file sharing, checklists, and more. If you need some extra functionalities, check Trello’s ecosystem of Power-Ups — pre-made product extensions and integrations with other tools you know and love. 

That said, if you’re a professional project manager running complex programs, Trello may not be the best app for you. It lacks advanced task dependencies, built-in analytics for productivity metrics, and resource allocation and budget tracking tools. 

Trello pricing:

• Free plan: Covers unlimited cards for 10 boards 
• Free trial:  14 days 
• Paid plans: From $5 per user/month

The best productivity apps for focus

Caveday 

Caveday isn’t so much of a productivity app. It’s more of a community of deep work enthusiasts who meet on Zoom to accomplish one big thing. Think of it as a digital version of going to a solitude mountain retreat to work on your chops without changing out of your PJs. 

Instead of a solo grind, Caveday brings accountability, structure, and a sense of community. You’re not just setting a timer and hoping for the productivity to strike. Instead, you’re entering a focused, guided space designed to help you get real work done. 

Each focus session is led by a Cave Guide — a mediator who sets the ground rules, leads introductions, and gives prompts. By taking slot bookings across time zones, cave sessions attract people worldwide and from all backgrounds. You may be working alongside an academic, powering through a research paper, a fellow freelancer, or a busy executive. The sessions are time-limited to one to three hours, with optional break times available and check-in prompts from the host to keep you grounded in your work. 

Caveday promotes the idea of focused timeboxing — deep work sessions where you build momentum to power through procrastination and accomplish your task du jour. If you’re someone who thrives on gentle accountability and likes the idea of a group-focused flow, Caveday may be a great tool for you.

Caveday pricing:

• Free plan: Not available 
• Free trial: 1-month 
• Paid plans: From $18/month when billed quarterly 

Toggl Track

Toggl Track helps you figure out where your focus lingers throughout the day. Available as a web app and with dedicated apps for Windows, MacOS, and Android, Toggl Track syncs across devices, so your time data is always up-to-date.

With over 100 integrations (Google Calendar, Asana, Notion, and Trello, to name a few), Toggl Track also embeds time tracking into every workflow, providing you with insights into how much time you spend on different tasks. 

You can fire up the timer manually or let it run automatically based on preset rules, like a specific time of day or desktop app launch. Speaking of the desktop, the Timeline feature automatically logs activity for any app or website you view for more than 10 seconds, keeping the data private to only you.

For those who prefer to time-block, Toggl Track also syncs with popular calendar apps, so you can turn events into time blocks for a structured day. Add the Pomodoro timer, and you have a perfect setup for managing deep work and break times. 

The app is also loaded with analytics to give you deeper insights into improving your operational efficiency. Customizable dashboards allow you to see detailed time logs, project performance, and profitability. For businesses, this means spotting bottlenecks or tracking estimated vs. actual time on tasks, while freelancers can monitor time spent on billable work vs. admin tasks for greater efficiency.

You can also streamline tedious tasks like timesheet management (for payroll and compliance), invoicing (based on billable hours!), and project planning. 

Toggl Track is ideal for trust-based teams who want to empower their members with productivity insights without intrusive monitoring. And for solo users? It’s a practical way to improve focus, optimize work habits, and even set goals around time management.

Toggl Track Pricing:

• Free plan: Unlimited, automated personal time-tracking 
• Free trial: 30 days 
• Paid plans: From €9 per user/month

The best productivity apps for automation

Zapier 

Zapier has become almost synonymous with simple workflow automation. With pre-made connectors to over 7,000 apps, you can set automatic workflows by linking a trigger from one app to an action in another to enable: 

• Data sync between different apps 
• File backups to cloud storage 
• Email follow-ups 
• Task status updates 
• Leads segmentation 
• Support ticket routing 
• Order processing 
• And much more! 

Neither of the above requires coding knowledge. Instead, you can use natural language or a drag-and-drop process to build a whiteboard canvas. But if you’re tech-savvy or have an IT team behind you, there’s an even greater array of automation scenarios available. For example, you can program actions with conditional logic using filters and paths or add webhooks for custom data exchanges. 

The new AI Actions also let you incorporate large language models like GPT into different workflows (for example, to summarize content automatically). Or add AI-powered tasks into Zaps, such as auto-transferring incoming support tickets from French to English. 

Zapier pricing:

• Free plan: Automate basic workflows with 100 tasks per month
• Free trial: 14 days 
• Paid plans: From $19.99/month

Otter.ai 

Otter.ai automates audio transcriptions. You can power it up in Chrome (or another browser) during video calls to record audio and transcribe the conversation either in real time or after you hang up. 

Real-time captioning is handy if you have diverse teams and speak multiple languages. Otter can also automatically take notes, capture slides, and generate summaries for Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meets for team members who can’t join live. The platform supports English, French, and Spanish. 

Audio and text data are then accessible via your workspace. You can also drag and drop other audio and video files for transcribing (limited to three in total on a free account). Then, auto-export transcriptions to apps like Google Docs, Microsoft Sharepoint, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Snowflake. Or work with them in the Otter web app, which has some handy AI-powered features like:

• Auto-generated email summaries, memos, and status updates based on the meeting recording 
• Natural language searches through the conversation for specific speakers, concepts, or sentiment 
• Auto-summaries sharing to private Slack channels and other business apps 

In other words, Otter keeps everyone in the loop about recent discussions, regardless of whether they attended the meeting.

Otter.ai pricing:

• Free plan: Covers 300 monthly transcription minutes at 30 minutes per conversation (plus three audio/video file transcripts per user for a lifetime)
• Free trial: Seven days for business plans
• Paid plans: From $8.33 per user/month

Other productivity apps for note-taking

Evernote 

Evernote is a beloved classic for building digital filing systems (aka your second brand). The note-taking app offers a convenient interface for organizing text, audio, and drawn notes, plus clipping images, PDFs, and URLs. The Optical Character Recognition feature also lets you digitize hand-written notes and run searches against scanned documents.

The platform enables you to organize all notes by subject, keyword, location, or time. Thanks to its new AI feature, you can also look up information using natural language, e.g., “What was the article about talent management I read on Monday, 11th, at Central Park?”

Built-in task management features also allow you to create to-do lists alongside notes. Or lay your tasks out on a calendar view in Kanban style. You can also forward emails directly into Evernote and turn them into notes. By integrating Evernote with Outlook or Google Calendar, it’s possible to generate automatic notes related to the meeting with linked documents, files, and emails. 

Overall, Evernote is great at resurfacing the information you need, but it does require you to build a habit of tagging and organizing your data.  

Evernote pricing:

• Free plan: Up to 50 notes in one notebook on one device 
• Free trial: Seven days 
• Paid plans: From $14.99/month

Obsidian 

Obsidian is a great alternative to Evernote if you want to mesh note-taking with mind mapping using the Zettelkasten method. A Zettelkasten (German for ‘note box’) is your web of thoughts — a connected wheel of singular notes and ideas interlinked to form a system of references. This knowledge management method builds connections between different topics, finds new interrelated concepts, and tracks how your thinking evolves. 

Obsidian helps you build your Zettelkasten using text Markdown note files, smart linking, visual knowledge graphs, and whiteboard canvases. Unlike other popular knowledge-based products, Obsidian stores all notes on your device(s), meaning greater data security. The app is available for Windows, Apple, Android, and Linux devices. Note syncing across devices, however, is a premium feature, starting at $4/mo per connected device. There’s no web version, FYI. 

You can also extend the app’s functionality using community-made plugins to gain extra features like converting text to speech, natural language for search, and summary paragraph generation. Obsidian can also double as your personal website. For $8/month, you can access website themes to publish notes online on a fast, mobile-friendly, and SEO-optimized website. 

Obsidian pricing:

• Free plan: Forever-free access to all product features 
• Free trial: 14 days for commercial licences 
• Paid plans:
  • $4/month per user to sync notes across devices
  • $8/month per site to publish notes online
  • $50/month per user for a commercial use licence 

Other productivity apps worth checking out

There are a myriad of other amazing productivity apps that haven’t made it to this list. Each is nonetheless absolutely ah-mazing at saving you time and mental energy on task management. 

But you have to stop somewhere. To round this up, here are several more important shoutouts to genuinely helpful business apps: 

• Zoom—Although there are plenty of video conferencing tools available, I love Zoom’s iOS app and whiteboard mode.  
• Slack is great for staying in sync with multiple teams and communities without getting constantly bombarded with notifications (as long as you’ve properly configured them!). 
• Pocket stores a medley of interesting reads I come across throughout the day. I use it to clip the most interesting data to my Evernote or Notion database. 
• Loom is a great compromise between sending a long email and finding a time for a 1:1 meeting. It’s also a great tool for recording and sharing video walkthroughs and instructions. 
• 1Password—I don’t have to remember a gazillion passwords for all my accounts (personal, business, client-supplied), and I don’t have to worry about getting hacked. 

Need even more ideas? Check more recs from the Toggl Team. 

Why you should look for productivity tools offering time tracking

To truly be productive, you must be deliberate about how you spend your time. On average, we have only three to five hours of daily deep work capacity — the ability to stay in full concentration mode to accomplish cognitively challenging tasks. 

The more you cave into distractions, the less focus time you have. That’s because our brain needs an irritating 23 whole minutes to regain focus after each interruption, large or small. 

Time-tracking features in productivity apps reveal where your focus lingers and when you’re in your top productive state. Toggl Track automatically logs this activity and provides insights into your daily behavior. You can identify when you’re interrupted the most or engage in low-value activities that suck away valuable time (e.g., manually copy-pasting data between apps.) 

Based on these insights, you can better allocate time towards different commitments and carve back hours for focused, deep work. 

In a successful team, each person works in productive harmony to reach their team’s shared goals on time. In reality? Team time management is tough. Different schedules, locations, and productivity approaches make it challenging for managers to get the most from their team members without burning anyone out.

To help you get on track (pun intended 😏) for 2025, we’ve asked our own team what helps with time management to bring you these 11 proven team time management strategies you should start using today to keep your people motivated and in control of their time.

TL;DR—Key Takeaways

• Team time management involves planning employee time to meet project goals, optimize productivity, and maintain team morale.
• Effective time management boosts transparency and collaboration. It reduces stress, cutting the risk of burnout. Intelligent use of time improves work quality and makes missed deadlines far less likely.
• Essential time management tips include tracking time to understand how teams work and assign tasks effectively. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is vital to keep productivity high.
• The best managers empower team members to manage their schedules by setting rules and training staff to prioritize critical tasks. Employees should be empowered to decline tasks if needed, while regular check-ins promote transparency and share time management ideas.
• Software tools make team time management easier. Collaboration tools and project management software enhance visibility and communication. Time tracking tools also encourage better time management practices, both for individuals and teams.

Why time management is so important for teams

Anyone who manages projects knows time is precious. Every project has a timeframe, and clients hate slippages. At the same time, quality is all-important because no one really cares if you’ve met a deadline if the result is sub-substandard.

So, the key is to learn how to balance efficiency with quality — essentially, how to manage your time without becoming so rigid with your hours that you forget to focus on the end results. Team time management can help with this by keeping everyone on the same page and accountable.

That’s not all, though. Here are a few other benefits you can expect when you commit to team time management.

👀 Time management increases project transparency

With a strong focus on deadlines, milestones, and responsibilities, time management techniques ensure all team members know what they and everyone else are working on. They’ll understand what’s causing any bottlenecks or what work is required to hit the next milestone.

🧘 Time management reduces team stress

Overworking is one of the most common causes of burnout and stress. However, managers can reduce stress levels by allocating manageable schedules that accommodate every team member’s personal circumstances and work-life balance.

🪢 Time management improves team collaboration

Structured time management encourages smooth collaboration and teamwork. When everybody is clear about what’s needed from them and their colleagues, they can align their efforts and avoid inefficiencies like mismatched schedules and duplicated work.

🌟 Time management boosts quality of work

With only so many hours in the day, managers must decide which goals to devote attention to — you know, the tasks that’ll make or break project success. By doing so, team members focus on the most important tasks, raising the overall quality and precision of their output.

⌛ Time management eliminates procrastination

As a side benefit, good time management promotes employee engagement with their work. Well-defined schedules leave no room for empty periods or procrastination (at least until everyone’s smashed their goals for the day).

11 ways to improve team time management

Now that we’ve covered the “why,” let’s move on to the “how” of implementing time management strategies and improving team performance.

Before we get started, it’s important to clarify team time management is not the same as personal time management. Sure, some of the tips below could be relevant for individuals, but the list refers to time management tips for teams, which is even more complex.

1. Start tracking time to see where you’re at

You need to know how to monitor and quantify time before you can begin to manage it. Using time tracking tools to collect high-quality data lets you see how team members spend their work hours on various workflows. Managers can use this data to stay on course with their goals.

Example: Your marketing team spends 10 hours a week responding to customer inquiries on social media, but only 5% of leads come from that channel. Your time tracking data suggests it might be more effective to allocate fewer resources here and focus on channels with higher lead generation rates.

2. Set clear and measurable goals

Effective time management is all about clarity. Team members need to know the objectives of each task you set and the deadline for each milestone.

Once you’ve set team members up with their individual goals, they should have everything they need to:

• Allocate enough time
• Plan future tasks
• Measure their own progress

Of course, managers should still be involved in overseeing task completion, but this isn’t an excuse to micro-manage. Publishing team goals is one way to solve this, so everyone has visibility into project progress, and managers won’t feel the need to request updates.

3. Introduce rules for effective time management

Time management is not a top-down exercise; it’s universal. Every team member should manage their own time efficiently, and clear rules will help them reach that goal.

We recommend creating time management guidelines before assembling project teams. These guidelines should offer guidance about setting deadlines, using calendar software, and strategies like time blocking or the Pomodoro technique.

It’s important to be realistic, though. Staff members are not machines to squeeze every last ounce of productivity from. They still need to relax between intense work periods. But it’s a good idea to set expectations on how much free time or social media usage they can enjoy within their paid work hours.

4. Teach your team how to prioritize important tasks

Team members can often get stuck on minor jobs and neglect tasks that impact project success. The trick is to know which tasks will move the needle and get you closer to your goals.

Effective time management strategies teach colleagues to prioritize their time efficiently. One of our favorites is the Eisenhower Matrix, which simplifies task management and applies to almost any situation.

The Eisenhower Matrix has two axes. One axis includes “urgent” and “non-urgent” tasks. The other axis has entries for “important” and “unimportant” tasks. You can probably sense where this is going.

Tasks map onto the matrix, creating a hierarchy of priorities. Those graded as urgent and important rise to the top, followed by important but non-urgent work. Managers can delegate urgent but less important jobs while striking off tasks deemed neither urgent nor important.

5. Create a culture of declining non-urgent tasks

The Eisenhower Matrix has another advantage: it empowers team members in decision-making.

Colleagues can slide non-urgent tasks to the back of the queue or even challenge managers and decline non-urgent tasks. They can avoid being side-tracked and remain focused on mission-critical work.

This level of empowerment doesn’t just happen. It requires a workspace culture that builds confidence and makes staff feel comfortable declining requests. Here are some suggestions about how to do so:

• React positively when people decline tasks. Ask team members about their reasons and discuss their current workload.
• Use insights from discussions to improve your delegation methods. You may be sending staff too many minor tasks before they complete tasks related to core project goals.
• Use team meetings to reassure colleagues that declining tasks is OK, and that you welcome self-management.

6. Give employees the right collaboration tools

So far, many of our time management techniques have focused on allowing team members to manage their time productively. But here’s the catch. Self-organization won’t happen without the right infrastructure, which is where collaboration tools come into play.

Project management and direct messaging software like Notion or Slack enable seamless communication within teams and encourage a free flow of ideas. Colleagues can check progress in real-time, support each other, and spot tasks requiring attention.

7. Create workload overviews

Teams also need visualization tools to implement time management concepts. Collaboration tools with built-in workload views visually represent teamwork schedules and tasks. Managers can see tasks assigned to team members, making it easier to avoid excessive workloads and balance tasks efficiently.

8. Encourage regular breaks (or different working styles)

This might sound strange, but being more flexible about employees’ work schedules and time off can lead to better time management. Whaaaat? How does that work?

As we briefly mentioned at the start, time management can suffer when staff become too focused on single tasks. When people bury themselves in work, they forget to plan their days and set achievable goals. Burnout is just around the corner.

Regular breaks and flexible work days provide space to reflect and recharge. Workers might find better ways to approach time-consuming tasks or return to work with a clear head and an energy boost.

9. Offer training to improve time management skills

Managing time is like any other professional challenge — it takes training and practice.

We recommend scheduling team time management workshops annually (or in the early stages of projects.) A few sessions on the Eisenhower Matrix or time blocking will pay huge dividends as your projects proceed.

It’s also important to organize one-on-one sessions between managers and team members to understand individual blockers. Everyone has different distractions and demands on their time. For some, it’s the pull of too many meetings, while others need flexibility to manage families and external commitments. These discussions will help you find tailored solutions for each team member.

Whatever strategy you adopt, focus on building critical time management skills, including:

• Prioritization: Leaning on the Eisenhower Matrix, or similar, to decide which tasks you need to handle right now
• Goal setting: Teaching staff to set achievable targets instead of chaotically working through a pile of tasks
• Avoiding multitasking: Stressing the need to focus on a specific task
• Setting boundaries: Suggesting ways to structure separate work and personal commitments
• Collaboration: Allowing employees to share tasks when needed, optimizing your team’s potential.

10. Conduct regular check-ins with your team

Regular meetings allow you to assess progress and let colleagues raise issues that matter to them. Make meetings friendly and open so team members feel confident asking for a reduced workload or suggesting automation ideas to reduce time spent on mundane tasks.

Your team works on the front line, and they know better than anyone if tasks are unnecessary or inefficient. Use their experience to devise better strategies that align with your business goals.

11. Use the right team time management tools

Finally, we feel it’s important to say a bit more about time management tools and how they’ll enhance your project management tech stack.

We’re obviously a little biased (just a lil), but we have seen firsthand how the right time tracking tool can help teams screen out distractions and set block lists so they don’t get sucked into scrolling Facebook, Instagram, or the latest news story.

Ideally, you’ll be able to align restrictions with time blocks, too — creating focus zones and times to let loose and relax. Tools with built-in Pomodoro timers and integrations with popular calendar tools are also a hit.

How Toggl Track can help you implement these time management strategies

Even the best schedulers can benefit from revisiting their time management strategies. After all, everyone is guilty of poor time management from time to time. Nobody is born with perfect scheduling skills, and things can quickly go awry when you’re handling time management across an entire team.

At Toggl Track, we know this from experience. When you lose track of time, stress levels rise, and team productivity suffers. That’s why we’ve created a time tracking tool to empower teams and make every minute count.

We’ve made it easy to manage employee schedules and set individual goals. Reporting functions identify potential bottlenecks or training opportunities because, well, it’s much harder to waste time with data from every team member at your fingertips.

Your team can turn on Focus Mode when they need to concentrate. Flexible time tracking also lets users blend billable hours with non-work activities. Even better, our time tracker integrates with over 100 third-party tools, allowing seamless link-ups with Jira or Todoist.