The Great Resignation was a wake-up call for employers as an alarming 50 million US workers quit their jobs in 2022. The UK, France, Germany, Singapore, and Australia experienced similar upheavals as employers were forced to rethink how they engage and entice talent.

One of the best strategies is to enrich individual job roles by aligning the required work with employees’ strengths and passions. It’s not rocket science — morale, productivity, and retention naturally rise when work feels more engaging and fulfilling. This guide explores the concept of job enrichment in more detail, including its benefits, challenges, and strategies for enriching jobs in your organization.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• American psychologist Frederick Herzberg designed the two-factor theory, identifying two main influences of job satisfaction: hygiene and motivation.
• Job enrichment increases employee satisfaction and productivity, lowers employee turnover rates, and creates more innovative companies.
• Job enrichment strategies will likely fail without leadership buy-in or a willingness to experiment with change.
• Toggl Hire has identified five successful job enrichment strategies: employee autonomy, training, role variety, recognition, and aligning tasks with individual strengths.

The history behind the job enrichment theory

Job enrichment wasn’t much of a conversation topic until American psychologist Frederick Herzberg introduced the two-factor theory. In his 1959 book, “Motivation to Work,” Herzberg identified two influences affecting job satisfaction: hygiene and motivation factors.

• Hygiene factors, like salaries, workplace policies, and coworker relationships, may prevent dissatisfaction, but they can’t create true satisfaction.
• Motivation factors, like role significance and increased autonomy, truly drive employee motivation. Herzberg’s theory laid the foundation for current job enrichment strategies that focus on making jobs more fulfilling and meaningful. 

As businesses focus on creating more human-centric workplaces, job enrichment plays a huge role. Employers invest in keeping their workers fulfilled because when employees are happy, the whole organization thrives.

3 real-world examples of job enrichment

So, what exactly does job enrichment look like in the real world? Here are some examples of companies doubling down on this important concept:

Amazon commits to skills development

Amazon pledged $1.2 billion to offer 300,000 employees access to education and skills training programs. Workers can learn more about machine learning, join technical apprenticeships, or even participate in on-the-job training to improve their skill sets. All these initiatives are designed to improve employees’ skill sets and prepare them for advanced roles within the company.

DotActiv empowers individual decision-making

Software company DotActiv includes independent decision-making as one of its core values. Company leaders trust employees to make their own decisions because they’ve empowered them to do so. They also accept feedback and suggestions from their workers on how to improve functions within the company. Account Manager Yolande Beumer explains,

“We have a Software Acceptance Committee. Every week we test a function on the software and if you feel that there is a way to improve that function, you can raise it to the IT team and they can work alongside you to better improve that function.”

When employees feel their voices are being heard and their skills are being developed, they’re more likely to become invested, capable team members. 

Google gives space for side projects

Search engine giant Google famously offers 20% time — a policy where employees spend 20% of their paid employment time on personal projects they feel jazzed about. And with excellent results, too — Google AdSense, Google News, and Gmail have all come from this company initiative.

While the policy has evolved over the years, it still exists in various forms, encouraging innovation, autonomy, and skill development. Beyond this, Google fosters job enrichment through other key programs, such as its Internal Mobility program and the Area 120 idea incubator.

Job enrichment vs. job enlargement (yes, there’s a difference)

Don’t get job enrichment and job enlargement confused. They serve very different purposes:

• Job enrichment involves adding depth and meaning to an employee’s role, such as by granting more autonomy, providing opportunities for personal growth, or involving them in decision-making processes. Example: A marketing specialist designs and leads a new campaign, which significantly boosts their engagement and job satisfaction.
• Job enlargement expands the role’s number of tasks or new responsibilities without adding meaningful depth. Example: You ask your customer service representative to handle more calls without providing additional support or training.

6 benefits of job enrichment in the modern workplace

It pays (literally) to invest in employee satisfaction and a great work environment. If you want to gain more, you have to give more. Here are the specific benefits you can expect when you commit to job enrichment as an employee experience strategy:

1. Increased employee satisfaction

Right now, the average workplace is struggling. A staggering 53% of workers in a typical organization are either disengaged, disruptive, or planning their exit. In other words, more than half of the workforce is doing the bare minimum — or worse, actively working against company goals. Yikes.

Here’s the thing: a pay raise will only do so much to motivate these workers. Long-term engagement requires more — autonomy, meaningful work, and clear career growth. And that’s exactly what separates thriving employees from the rest. According to McKinsey, only 4% of workers drive innovation, add value, and uplift their teams. This elite group stands apart from the majority largely because they have the autonomy and opportunities that most employees lack. Imagine what would happen if employers extended these benefits to the rest of their workforce.

2. Improved productivity

Adding more depth to a job role and recognizing the incredible contributions of each employee in the role can significantly boost employee focus and motivation. It’s human nature — if employees feel a sense of accomplishment when they complete their new tasks, they’re more likely to stay motivated and perform better.

Need proof? A whopping 77.9% of employees admit they would be more productive if their job efforts were recognized more frequently. When companies invest in meaningful recognition and job enrichment, they maximize their company’s labor investment efficiency by ensuring employees operate at peak performance.

3. Higher retention rates

People spend one-third of their lives at work — so if that time feels meaningless, they won’t stick around. It’s that simple. On the other hand, people who feel challenged and supported don’t need to job-hop to find fulfillment.

When employers take the time to enrich jobs and provide developmental opportunities, they’ll reap the rewards. For example, LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report finds that companies with a moderate learning culture enjoy a 27% employee retention rate. This skyrockets to a 57% retention boost for companies with a strong learning culture.

So, if you’re the one currently dissatisfied with your retention rates, that’s a sign to invest more in job development and provide reasons for your workers to remain loyal.

4. Better employee skill development

When your employees grow — professionally or personally — it only helps your company. And job enrichment is all about growth. Giving your team the time and resources to tackle challenging tasks or learn new skills means they’re likely to improve at their job. 

But lack of skill variety is currently holding businesses back. For example, 63% of IT leaders say the tech skills crisis is delaying digital transformation — some by nearly a year. And the problem is only getting worse. Companies that don’t invest in job enrichment are actively falling behind.

The fix? Give employees new challenges, access to skills training, and a voice in shaping their roles. When you allow your people to grow, you’ll add value to the individual and your business.

5. Enhanced innovation and creativity

Innovation isn’t a given; when this is missing, companies fall behind. In fact, 87% of companies cite turning ideas into business outcomes as a top obstacle.

If you want your business to stay competitive, giving employees time to flex their creative muscles in their roles is the solution.

For example, 3M has a “15% culture” that allows employees to set work time aside to pursue innovative ideas that excite them. And thanks to this culture of innovation, the Post-It Note was born. 

“Hire good people and leave them alone,” says William McKnight, former 3M president and chairman of the board. “Delegate responsibility and encourage men and women to exercise their initiative.”

6. Positive workplace culture

Relationships in the workplace significantly influence employees’ satisfaction — especially those with their managers. 39% of an employee’s job satisfaction is attributed to their workplace relationships. And, 86% of workers’ satisfaction with their interpersonal connections is specifically tied to their relationships with management, McKinsey found.

When employees feel more connected and valued, their sense of purpose and overall well-being increases. That’s how you get healthy, supportive company cultures where employees are productive and want to progress within the organization rather than beyond it.

Why do so many businesses struggle with job enrichment?

It sounds pretty simple. Give employees more meaningful work, and they’ll be more engaged, work harder, and produce those business results. But in reality, many companies hit a few bumps when trying to implement job enrichment. Here are a few common challenges you might encounter, and tips to overcome them (because we’re good like that!)

Resistance to change

🤔 Challenge: It’s hard to shake things up, even when you’re confident your employees will benefit from planned change. Fear of disrupting current workflows, role hierarchies, or the general vibe can stifle growth and innovation and prevent your company and its workers from achieving their best. 

💡 Solution: Try starting with small-scale enrichment initiatives to overcome this paralysis. Pilots can minimize risk and give you insights into what works best with your team. You can build confidence among yourself and your employees and gradually implement more job enrichment strategies.

Limited leadership buy-in

🤔 Challenge: Without leadership support, even the most promising job enrichment initiatives can miss the mark. If decision-makers don’t see the value or understand the impact, your efforts won’t get the resources or traction they need to succeed.

💡 Solution: Make the case with hard facts. Share data and compelling articles (like this blog post you’re reading right now) to highlight how job enrichment directly improves business outcomes. Focus on measurable impact — faster project completion, lower turnover, and increased employee engagement. When leaders see clear, bottom-line benefits, they’ll be far more likely to get on board.

Misaligned roles and skills

🤔 Challenge: If you don’t have the right people doing the right tasks, job enrichment is nearly impossible to achieve. When employees are mismatched, they’ll struggle to take on additional responsibilities or find meaning in their work. That’s why we’re seeing organizations largely shift towards a skills-based hiring approach.

💡 Solution: Toggl Hire helps you align every team member with their role. Our hiring software empowers teams to identify high-performing individuals and even fine-tune the new employee’s role based on the top skills identified in the hiring process.

Poor communication and collaboration

🤔 Challenge: Even the most well-meaning enrichment strategies can fall short if there’s any misunderstanding of expectations between teams. When there’s a disconnect between what’s expected and what’s delivered, employees might feel frustrated and disengaged — the opposite of what you intended.

💡 Solution: Communication is key in this process. Try incorporating regular feedback sessions to clarify expectations and give a platform for open communication. And ask employees how it’s going during performance reviews. This will help everybody maintain alignment and feel more engaged in their work.

A few of our favorite job enrichment strategies

At Toggl Hire, job enrichment is a concept we live and breathe. We continuously test and refine strategies that make work more meaningful and rewarding for our teams. And (luckily for us) we’ve seen firsthand how the right approach boosts the entire employee experience.

Now, we’re sharing the greatest hits of what we’ve learned, along with practical tips you can use to implement these strategies within your own organization. Try these ideas out for size:

Encourage employee autonomy

Remove those eagle eyes and take a step back from micromanaging (trust us, it’s doing more harm than good). You should delegate decision-making tasks to the team members you hired to perform in their roles. For example, instead of dictating every single step to your software developer and subjecting them to a workday full of monotony, give them the freedom to choose the best coding approach. 

This autonomy lets employees’ skills and creativity shine through while fostering trust and accountability — two things every healthy workplace has. You’ll build a team of go-getters rather than simple task followers.

Offer training and development opportunities

Helping employees improve their skills through development programs and cross-training benefits them and your business. Workers can contribute more to the organization when they acquire new skills and knowledge. At the same time, they’re progressing professionally and advancing their career, which is also great for them. Your business will remain competitive as you develop internal talent — it’s a win-win.

Introduce variety into your job roles

Keeping work fresh and engaging is key to boosting motivation and skill development. One way to do this? Periodic task or role rotations. Diversifying responsibilities allows employees to stay challenged, expand their skill sets, and avoid the monotony that leads to disengagement.

If your organization is dynamic and cross-functional, this approach can be great as employees benefit from exposure to different tasks and departments.

However, if all your job designs are highly specialized and require a lot of expertise and experience, rotations may not always be practical. In these cases, consider gradual skill expansion — introducing new challenges within existing roles to keep employees growing without disrupting key workflows.

Recognize and reward contributions

Keep your team motivated by recognizing their successes. Promotions, bonuses, and even simple shoutouts are a great way to recognize workers and improve morale. To make recognition effective, be timely and specific, highlighting exactly what the employee did well.

Recognition should be consistent and fair — your efforts can have the opposite effect if employees feel that acknowledgment is biased or unbalanced between team members. 

Align tasks with individual strengths

To create perfect fits for individuals and your team, tailor your roles to match employees’ unique abilities. Toggl Hire helps you identify their strengths through skill-based assignments so you can see what each successful candidate brings to the table. When you align tasks with natural talents, employees naturally feel more engaged, fulfilled, and want to succeed. What could be better?

Plus, taking a personalized approach maximizes each person’s potential while simultaneously fostering a high-performing work environment. 

Employee satisfaction starts with hiring the right employees in the first place

You can’t enrich jobs if you’re hiring the wrong people from the start. Employees thrive when their skills and potential align with their roles, not when they’re hired on a resume buzzword match.

And that’s exactly what Toggl Hire is for. Our platform excels at identifying top talent through skills-first assessments, making it easier for businesses to match employees with duties. 

With data-driven hiring, organizations can place candidates in the right roles and fine-tune their tasks to keep them engaged. We live in a time where employee satisfaction and productivity are necessary to build a competitive business.

Make this work for you by trying Toggl Hire for free and build a workforce that’s skilled, deeply engaged, and ready to drive your business forward.

Ever sat down to start a project only to remember you wanted to check the price of something on Amazon? 20 minutes and three unnecessary purchases later, you’re still not working.

92% of employers say lost focus is the top productivity problem in the modern workplace. And when employees are distracted, this affects overall team performance, morale, company profitability, and overall business success. The list goes on.

The good news? With the right strategies, we can reduce or eliminate workplace distractions entirely. This guide takes a closer look at the biggest distractions employees face in 2025 and some practical tips on how to reclaim everyone’s focus.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• The average employee takes 23+ minutes to recover from an interruption or distraction. This is known as the “cognitive switching penalty” — and it costs businesses billions.
• The biggest culprits are chatty coworkers, work-related notifications, cell phones and social media, and burnout.
• Remote work is not a distraction playground — 62% of managers feel their teams are more productive when working remotely or in a hybrid model.
• Time tracking tools can help time block and protect deep work while providing insights into interruptions or distraction patterns.
• Toggl Track can optimize your time and minimize distractions, no matter your work environment.

How distracted are workers these days?

The answer might shock you. 90% of employees are interrupted once per day, with almost one in four employees reporting being distracted over six times daily.

What might seem like an innocent interruption from a well-meaning colleague costs significantly more than the two minutes it took to answer their question. Research from the University of California Irvine shows it takes our brains about 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after an interruption. That’s because of what brain scientists call the “cognitive switching penalty”.

Basically, every time our brains are interrupted, we must regain context on the task we were working on. Think of it as a cognitive “loading” time. This is also why multitasking is notoriously inefficient — the same concept applies when switching unrelated tasks. Over the day, this “context-switching,” as it’s called, places a huge energy toll on our brains.

Big picture: Companies are losing small fortunes to distractions, an estimated $650 billion per year in the US.

The most common distraction in the workplace is…

……chatty coworkers. Workers contend with a host of different distractions. But 70% of workers say social yapping drained their focus more than anything else, according to Insightful’s report on “Lost Focus: The Cost Of Distractions On Productivity In The Modern Workplace.”

In an office, this might look like a colleague coming up and asking for help with a certain tool or document. They’ve already interrupted you — but they mean well and need help, so you invite them to sit. They settle in next to you, and you start resolving together. But as you’re discussing the work, you start chatting about other things (you know…the weather, the weekend, the kids), and suddenly, you’ve spiraled into a concentration dead zone, likely distracting those around you, too.

Unfortunately, there’s a virtual version of this for remote workers. An invite to a spontaneous Slack Huddle or repetitive notifications from colleagues who don’t understand digital boundaries can kill your focus instantly. If the team group chat starts diverging into gifs and memes, it’s hard to get back on track.

Other common workplace distractions

Losing focus at work isn’t always as obvious as a coworker stopping by to chat. Sometimes, distractions creep in without us even realizing it, pulling our attention away bit by bit. Here are some more to watch out for:

Constant notifications

48% of workers are interrupted by a notification every 30 minutes, and 45% of these notifications aren’t relevant to their jobs.

Our reliance on digital tools to complete our work means we’re juggling dozens of apps and tabs simultaneously. Slack, social media, a project manager, email, calendar, analytic tools, databases — our workflow is littered with software — and it comes with a lot of noise.

AI is an obvious solution many companies are exploring. According to Unily’s Digital Noise Impact report, 62% of employees believe AI can help them prioritize workplace notifications. Unily is looking at building an intranet super-app that consolidates and organizes your notifications.

Social media temptations

15% of workers admit to losing three to five hours daily to smartphone notifications and social media feeds. The lure of social media and ‘just checking’ what’s happening make platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok a quick escape that derails productivity.

Social media is designed to hook us — but beyond that, the curiosity around an unresolved notification carries mental weight. That cognitive mental load can lead to low-level anxiety, mental clutter, more procrastination, and less productivity.

Aside from the obvious strategies, like monitoring usage, activating “do not disturb” mode, turning off notifications, or deleting the apps themselves, companies can take more systemic and proactive approaches to combat this.

In an interview with People Management, managing director of Executive Connexions Steve Nicholls, suggests, “Foster a workplace culture that respects personal boundaries and encourages regular digital detoxes,” adding: “Leaders should model these behaviors, showing that it’s okay to disconnect from digital tools to concentrate on important tasks.”

Multitasking

Multitasking has the same effect on your brain as interruptions — research has shown humans can’t really do it. That’s because switching tasks drain focus and increases errors (in fact, studies show it takes longer to complete tasks when multitasking).

Instead, train yourself to maintain focus on a single task to deliver high-quality, error-free work. This can be hard since it’s easy to fall into the “busy, therefore productive” trap. But it’s a TRAP. Try these instead:

• Adopt the Pomodoro method (25 minutes of work, followed by a five-minute break) to stay on task
• Use the Covey Matrix to eliminate non-essential tasks from your to-do list and prioritize the rest effectively
• Take breaks every 90 minutes. Research into human cognition suggests the ideal length of time for concentrated work is around 90 minutes, followed by a 20-minute break. This aligns with our brain’s natural basic rest-activity cycle (BRAC.)

Unnecessary meetings

Let’s be clear: Standing meetings for the sake of standing meetings aren’t doing anyone any good.

If your meetings lack:

• An objective
• An agenda
• Action points and ownership

…they’re probably a waste of time.

Employees waste 79 hours a year in inefficient meetings, which tank their morale and productivity and cost the company about $9,000 per employee per year.

Intriguingly, meetings are more distracting in person (cited as the fourth worst distraction) than remote settings (considered the eighth worst distraction).

Ideally, organizations should normalize having boundaries around time blocks designed for deep work. Try implementing these “do not disturb” periods throughout the work day. Another approach is to try a company-wide “No Meeting Mondays” day.

If you really can’t avoid scheduling a meeting, make sure it’s short, well-defined, with a clear aim and agenda, and aligns the next steps with your expected outcomes.

Cluttered workspaces

Have you ever felt like you just can’t think in a messy space? There’s neuroscience to back that up.

Our brains like order and predictability. When visual clutter exists, the disorder competes for your attention. This means messy spaces can significantly reduce your ability to focus. Even something as simple as devoting five minutes to organizing your things and clearing away any mess could help you finish your project faster.

Political changes (or news in general…)

Non-stop news cycles can distract employees with breaking news, especially during major political or global events. In fact, 61% of employees agree that changes in their country’s political environment make them less engaged and more distracted at work.

Be mindful that employees have an increased risk of burnout during times of political turmoil or important election years.

With sensitive topics like politics, it’s important to design a clear company policy. For example, you might signpost 1:1 support for employees feeling distressed about current events. You might also clarify that employees should not discuss political events with their peers. The right balance depends on your organizational values and culture.

Burnout

82% of employees say they felt burnt out to some degree in 2024, with younger generations bearing the brunt — 87% for Gen Z, 85% for Millennials, and 57% for Baby Boomers, respectively.

Burnout makes workers more susceptible to workplace distractions and can lead to decreased productivity and morale across the team.

The main causes of burnout are systemic — long hours, overwhelming workloads, and difficulty balancing work and personal life. Broader solutions are needed to address this, such as:

• Creating holistic benefits packages, including mental health budgets and personal days
• Building a culture of openness and support around burnout, not fear and shame
• Setting realistic work expectations for employees
• Ensuring leaders value work-life balance and set a good example

Spoiler: Remote work isn’t to blame

Contrary to what the return-to-office crowd might have you think, remote work isn’t the root of all evil — in fact, it’s less distracting than in-office work.

A recent analysis showed remote work protects 62 hours’ worth of work that in-office teams lose to interruptions.

Major distractions in the office (think noisy coworkers, pointless meetings, and snack breaks) are the main culprits behind lost productivity. Open offices once praised for collaboration, are actually a breeding ground for short breaks and office gossip.

When structured well, remote work can boost productivity and well-being. Employees can eliminate office distractions and control their environment and work hours, resulting in better focus.

Can time management solve digital distractions?

Poor time management makes us more susceptible to digital distractions because our brains seek immediate rewards. Without a plan, we react to emails, notifications, and social media and put important work on the back burner.

Minimizing distractions is an uphill battle — we’re literally fighting against our brain’s reward system. Get around this by setting focus blocks or batching similar activities to boost efficiency. For example, you could limit email or Slack checks to scheduled times to prevent constant interruptions.

Effective time management is a skill and mindset shift that helps us regain control over our work, attention, and focus.

Create time blocks with Toggl Track

Toggl Track enables you to prioritize focus-heavy tasks while keeping interruptions manageable. Our platform empowers distracted teams to:

• Identify and manage distractions by seeing exactly where time is spent productively and not.
• Pinpoint repetitive interruptions or excessive multitasking habits in real-time.
• Reduce the temptation of distraction by keeping you accountable through transparent team time-tracking.

How much will you grow in a distraction-free workplace? Implement the tips we shared here and find out!

If you’d like to take it a step further, take your team’s time into your own hands with a free demo of Toggl Track.

64% of HR professionals say it’s getting harder to find qualified talent. Our take? The right candidates are out there, but your recruitment strategies may attract the wrong profiles.

Passive candidates are skilled professionals who aren’t actively job hunting, but you can probably entice them with the right offer. They’re usually well-established in their current roles, which makes them less likely to apply to your everyday job postings.

To attract these top-tier candidates, you need to refine your sourcing techniques and get creative. Not sure where to start? Here are 23 creative sourcing strategies to land these qualified candidates.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• Only half of the US population is extremely satisfied with their job, which means a lot of workers are open to new positions.
• Being visible on platforms like Tinder, TikTok, or YouTube can help you appeal to different generations of job seekers.
• Before getting creative, it’s important to nail the basics of a good job posting — a clear description, salary range, and benefits.
• Toggl Hire makes it easy to turn passive leads into engaged employees.

Hold on, why focus on attracting passive candidates?

One of the most commonly asked questions when discussing passive candidate sourcing strategies is, why even bother?

Here’s the deal: 73% of the global workforce is passively looking for another job and would be open to a change in their work situation. If you focus solely on active candidates, you’ll miss out on the majority of the global talent pool.

Need some more persuasion?  

• Passive candidates aren’t actively pursuing a new position, so they won’t be interviewing with anyone else. This means less competition for you when it’s time to extend a job offer. 
• They’re also highly unlikely to lie or exaggerate on their resumes as they’re reasonably content with their job (for the most part) and aren’t desperate to find their next gig.
• And finally, when you target passive candidates, you can zone in on their specific skill sets. You know exactly who you’re hiring and what they currently do in their position. So, you’ll spend less time and resources on training.

23 creative candidate sourcing strategies

There’s a vast pool of excellent candidates for your next opening — you just have to know how to reach them. If your same old, same old sourcing techniques haven’t been working, try these creative strategies out for size. 

1. Find professional talent on LinkedIn with carousel posts

LinkedIn is still the best place to find professional candidates. But what’s the best way to attract candidates on the platform, rather than manually browsing through endless impressive LinkedIn profiles?

Embrace your creative side and try carousel posts. You’ve seen them around LinkedIn: They’re basically pages of a PDF that you can easily click through on a post. Create one that highlights the skills needed for a specific job or advice from current job holders.

2. Use Facebook paid ads to source passive candidates

This may surprise some, but 39% of recruiters use Facebook to seek out top talent. Why? Compared to LinkedIn, job boards, and other sourcing channels, sourcing candidates on Facebook is often cheaper, faster and can reach more (passive) high-quality candidates. For example, you might catch the eye of a passive job seeker doom-scrolling Facebook during non-working hours. 

There are many ways to find candidates on Facebook. You can:

• Source candidates manually using creative search queries. 
• Create an appealing Facebook job post and share it with your followers. 
• Boost your job posts to reach a wider audience. 
• Share your job posts on Facebook groups and communities. 
• Turn your job posts into an advertising campaign to specifically target the right kind of people (the most efficient tactic.) 

For example, software development company Mooncascade received close to 250 candidates in a few days simply by advertising the post on Facebook and Linkedin.

3. Use podcasts to stand out

Getting on a relevant podcast gives you a chance to introduce potential candidates to your work culture and employee benefits in more detail.

Find Your Dream Job, Career Cloud, and The Job Hunting Podcast all focus on helping candidates land their next position. Reach out to shows like these to ask about sponsorships or if they can mention your organization. They already have a captivated audience of people hunting for their next position. 

4. Attract candidates with work culture videos on YouTube

What better recruiting strategy than to meet your target candidates where they’re already hanging out online? For WizzAir, that place was YouTube. Under the umbrella campaign of #IamWIZZcrew, WizzAir used its YouTube channel to easily connect with anyone interested in pursuing a career at WizzAir. The employer posted details about the company’s aviation careers, and tips on pilot and cabin crew recruitment.

Potential applicants can also find thousands of pictures, posts, and tags on various social media channels created by many of the enthusiastic crew members showing their dedication to the company, passion for aviation, and WizzAir’s company culture.

5. Use Tinder to attract millennials

Okay, before you close this tab, hear us out…This one might sound too “far-fetched” for most, but creative agency Fetch used Tinder to find an intern — with great results. In one day, they received 270 potential applicants (Tinder matches) from whom they asked for their best pick-up line. Next, they spent three weeks talking to ‌applicants and narrowing the talent pool down to the five best candidates.

Fetch explained the rationale behind its unusual recruitment choice:

“New York City is a very crowded space, with every agency looking for top talent. We needed an intern, and we didn’t just want to be another posting on one of the numerous job boards. So, we thought Tinder would be quite an innovative way of looking for an intern.”

If this piques your interest, why not try Bumble, OkCupid, eHarmony, Match, Kippo, or one of the other top-rated dating apps to engage candidates?

6. Use Snapchat to better appeal to young candidates 

JPMorgan created its own geo-filters for UK and US high school and university events. Its strategy demonstrated to students that you don’t need to follow a traditional path to start a career in banking. The employer highlighted different roles and jobs candidates might not have considered when looking at the banking industry. Doing this on a platform that millennials trust made this even more powerful for JPMorgan.

7. Leverage TikTok to appeal to Gen-Z 

Many companies use TikTok to increase brand recognition. From Duolingo making entertaining content around its beloved owl mascot to RyanAir’s self-deprecating posts, brands have used this popular social media platform to gain a cult-like following.

TikTok is also a great channel for recruiting potential candidates from a younger, tech-savvy (and mostly Gen-Z) demographic. You might film your staff taking part in challenges, participate in the latest trending hashtags, or partner with employees and influencers to boost your presence.

8. Join public Slack channels

Beyond being incredible for team communication, Slack is also great for connecting with like-minded people and potential passive candidates. Many public Slack groups function as professional networks, and you can join and share your job posts in some for free.

For example, Superpath has a Slack community with more than 20,000 content marketers. You can interact with job seekers, network passively, and even post your job openings in forums.

9. Sponsor a niche newsletter

Sponsoring newsletters tailored toward a niche market can be a great way to find new hires. By targeting an industry or interest group, you’re more likely to engage potential job seekers who aren’t actively seeking job openings.

Just like with a Slack group, check the newsletter aligns with your company’s values and goals. This will help you gain the right exposure and promote your job openings directly to the most relevant candidates.

10. Host a competition

To target passive job seekers, get creative and hold a competition related to the role you need to fill. For a writer, host a short story competition. Need a new graphic designer? Put out a request for a specific design. Reward the winners with a cash prize, and connect with them to see what their professional future looks like (and whether you might be part of it.)

Spotify took things even further by incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into its competition-related recruiting strategy. They held a diverse hackathon with an equal number of male and female participants. Not only did this help them build a diverse talent pipeline, it also showcased their company values. 

11. Grab applicants’ attention with short skills challenges

Another creative strategy for sourcing passive candidates is to make the application process simple, fun, and competitive with a skills test.

Instead of asking applicants to send in their resumes, start the recruitment process with a short skills quiz. This pre-employment testing is also popular among workers themselves, with seven out of 10 believing employers should focus on skills and work experience over degrees. 

Use skills challenges to simplify your application process and source passive, qualified candidates.

The beauty of using a 10-15 minute skills challenge in the first part of the recruiting process is speedier candidate screening. But it also helps you attract those candidates who aren’t actively looking for a new job. Drafting up a resume and a cover letter takes a lot of time and effort. However, taking a short test to figure out your skill level and learn more about the job opportunity removes the barriers to applying for jobs.

12. Offer your employees referral bonuses

Try motivating your employees to share any open roles on social media. You can even create an internal employee referral program leaderboard to gamify the incentives for more referrals.

To make life easier, there are even special platforms focusing on employee referrals. Try out ERIN for free software setup and integrations, or pick Boon if you want to allow your employees to make referrals through Slack.

Experiment with different types of rewards. If cash isn’t working, try offering an exclusive trip — or even follow in InMobi’s steps and offer the chance to win a Vespa.

It was a while ago now, but after switching from cash rewards to trips and motorbikes, InMobi saw a significant boost in employee referrals, doubling the number of workers sourced through this method. They parked the InMobi-themed Vespa in front of their San Francisco office as a physical reminder that they could win the bike simply by referring someone. 

13. Set up a happy hour 

Happy hour doesn’t have to be all about cocktails and appetizers. You can also host a more relaxed and inviting event with pastries and coffee. It’s a great, low-pressure way to tell interested job seekers more about your company. No matter what the event is, you’re at a competitive advantage when you get ‌prospective talent in the room.

Post about the meet-up on your socials and encourage your current team members to attend as well. These events can also serve as a casual time for informal interviews. Companies like Salesforce have successfully hosted happy hours during conferences to connect with potential candidates in a more relaxed environment.

14. Host a virtual event

If you’re a remote company, it might be hard to encourage qualified candidates to engage with you in person. So, meet them where they’re at with your sourcing efforts and host a virtual event on Zoom. 

Make sure there’s a good balance of social and professional. You don’t want it to feel like boring online office hours, but you also want enough time to promote your company. Take inspiration from Verizon, who collaborated with Women’s CoLab to host a virtual event in honor of International Women’s Day. 

15. Set up a booth at college job fairs

One of the most effective ways to enhance your recruitment efforts is to attract fresh, young talent at college job fairs. This is a great talent-sourcing opportunity that allows you to grow your brand with a younger demographic that’s looking for new job opportunities. 

Remember, you’re pitching yourself among a sea of other companies. Take the time to prepare thoroughly and find a unique way to engage students. Consider offering freebies like custom pens or T-shirts to make a lasting impression. You can also put up your company’s slogan or motto, like New York Life, to give prospects an immediate glimpse at what your company stands for.

16. Organize community service projects

Organize community service projects and invite potential candidates to join. This builds a positive employer brand and allows you to connect with the right candidates in a meaningful way. In such a crowded job market, doing something meaningful like this can help your organization really stand out and even improve retention rates.

Best Buy employees volunteer at everything from museum fairs to after-school programs. This approach also engages current team members in the recruitment process. They get to chat with potential job seekers while also partaking in new opportunities that give back to the community.

17. Go bold with out-of-home advertising

Place ads in public spaces like billboards, bus stops, or subway stations with eye-catching visuals and succinct messaging to communicate your company’s culture and values. Target high-traffic areas that are industry-specific to you or your target demographic. 

Place them around your head office and — to be a little bit cheeky — around your competitors’ offices.

Use technology, like QR codes, on signs placed at eye level — like posters or bus-stop advertisements that the user can scan. These QR codes should link to the open position or jobs portal.

18. Post content on Medium

Expand your audience and attract top talent by publishing on the blogging platform Medium. Basecamp CEO Jason Fried used Medium to generate interest in Basecamp while sharing his thoughts on design, business, and technology. 

Encourage your co-founders and team leaders to post about challenges and their solutions. This strategy allows potential candidates to learn more about your team and organization without any strings attached. With this approach, you might catch the attention of a passive candidate unhappy with their workplace and intrigued by how you run and structure yours.

19. Showcase your employees, managers, and C-suite

Promote employees’ personalities, talents, and stories on social media and your website. For example, Automattic features employees in videos on their YouTube playlist, Harvest showcases employee stories on their website, and HelpScout’s blog is primarily written by employees. 

This kind of recruitment sourcing strategy is typically low-effort, great for brand recognition, and appeals to a younger crowd. Gen Z enjoys short-form, authentic videos, so a day-in-the-life or behind-the-scenes might just be the perfect way to reduce your time-to-hire with the younger generation.

20. Use your own product as a sourcing tool

Spotify’s hiring manager, Andre Hellström, uses the platform creatively to find new talent. He created a public playlist called “Join the band?” where the order of the song names makes up the job posting description for a frontend developer position. Listen to the playlist here.

Non-Spotify recruiters can rely on other creative ways to use their product to source candidates. If you’re a food and beverage company, you could list your hiring needs on your product packaging. A tech company could create a public GitHub repository with a README file that outlines the job description and requirements.

21. Promote dev jobs on your site’s browser console

When a developer wants to check the code behind any website, view the site’s CSS files, or check anything else code-related, they’ll open the site’s console. So, what better way to grab their attention than adding a big “We’re hiring” message right in the console?

Take a look at Reddit, for example. They’re well aware that many people browse their site when they should actually be working. So, they came up with a clever tagline and promoted their open jobs in the site’s console.

22. Attract talents with a catchy Wifi name

If people connect to your office WiFi regularly, why not change your network name to a catchy recruiting headline and see if you get any new applicants this way? You never know who might stumble upon it.

23. Put up a photo booth

Who doesn’t love a fun, themed picture? You can set up an interactive photo booth with props related to your industry. Candidates sharing their photos on social media will increase your visibility and make for a strong employer brand. 

NETZSCH Pumps & Systems put up a “social branding wall” and encouraged visitors to take pictures. To encourage social sharing, they also ran a raffle for AirPods. 

Expert tip: Don’t forget the basics

This article is all about creativity, but let’s not forget the basics. If you’re not already doing these, you really need to refine your hiring process before you start getting fancy. Here’s what you should have nailed down first:

• Write descriptive and catchy job descriptions: A well-written job ad is your first and best chance to grab attention. If your job descriptions are bland and generic or have subtle biases, you’re already losing out on top, diverse talent. It’s important to avoid masculine-coded language, like “assertive” or “dominant.” Use this free gender decoder tool to double-check your descriptions for biased language.
• Add the salary range to your job posting: Excluding the salary range from the job posting is a rookie mistake. It’s a surefire way to attract a flood of candidates whose expectations are way off base. Many US states have pay transparency laws requiring employers to post expected salaries. Failure to do so can result in fines.
• Mention the company’s perks and benefits: Even the smallest perks can make a big difference. Whether it’s free coffee and snacks, flexible hours, or a relaxed dress code, highlight these in your job postings. If you’re not doing this, you’re missing out on a simple way to stand out from the competition.
• Use your public website to let people know you’re hiring: A great way to inform people about your job openings is to advertise it on your website’s front page. Make it clear and easy for potential candidates to find and apply to your jobs.

Get these basics right, and then you can start thinking about the fun and creative stuff (like filming the CEO doing silly dances). But seriously, if you’re not doing these, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

How to build a great employer brand with Toggl Hire

A strong employer brand attracts both passive and high-quality active candidates. Yet, too many companies struggle because they either botch the basics‌ — ‌like writing vague job descriptions or omitting salary ranges‌ — ‌or they simply don’t know how to engage candidates. 

That’s where Toggl Hire can help. We’ll help you nail the fundamentals of a great brand by engaging and converting those passive jobseekers with a fantastic candidate experience. Applicants love taking our tests — they’re quick and user-friendly, and feedback is instant, so no one is ever kept in the dark about their progress. For recruiters, features like ready-made skills tests, automated shortlisting, and objective candidate filtering make it quick and easy to source the best talent using a fair process. 

Ready to elevate your hiring efforts? Try Toggl Hire for free today and turn passive job seekers into satisfied, engaged employees. 

We are unifying the reporting experience within Toggl Track! Our goal is to provide deeper profitability and productivity analysis, greater flexibility in how you analyze data, and easy ways to customize reports you need.

Key Changes Coming Soon

• Reports, Analytics, and Insights will now be organized into dedicated tabs: Summary, Detailed, Workload, Profitability, and My Reports.
• “Weekly” reports will be renamed “Workload” reports. You will be able to analyze your workload data with custom date ranges, going beyond weekly timesheets.
• “Insights” will be part of the “Profitability” tab, offering a more powerful and multi-level profitability analysis. Break down profitability by member, project, client, and more properties.
• “Analytics” will move under “My Reports” tab, where you can access past custom reports, create new ones, and manage all saved reports in one place.
• Updated Filters will enable you to analyze data right in Toggl Track, without time-consuming exports. Use 11+ properties, 8 condition options, and AND/OR logic for deeper insights.
• You will get more flexibility with expanded properties to group and stack your data.

Click through the demo to explore all the key upcoming changes.

Let’s explore what you will be able to do in each Reports tab.

Summary Report

👉 Get a quick high-level overview

Instantly access key productivity and profitability metrics, including total tracked hours, billable vs. non-billable work, total billable hour value, and performance trends.

Example of the Summary Report

Detailed Report

👉 Get a comprehensive view of all Time Entries

The Detailed Report provides a full view of time entries. Using Filters, you can conduct a comprehensive time entry audit, verify billable hours, and prepare accurate invoices.

Here’s how to make the most of it:

• Identify missing data in time entries by using the “is empty” condition in Filters.
• Exclude non-billable activities by applying “Does not contain” or “is not” filters — perfect for omitting meetings or internal admin time.
• Review related time entries together with the “Starts with” condition.
• Detect anomalies by filtering out time entries shorter than 1 minute or longer than 8 hours using the Duration filter.

Workload Report

👉 Timesheet view to evaluate your resources

Workload reports help you understand how time is distributed across your team, projects, and clients.

• Visualize workload by time or revenue: Assess team workload based on tracked time or revenue generated.
• Break down workload by Member or User group, Project, Client, Task or Tags. See where resources are allocated and optimize distribution.
• Revenue-based workload analysis: Identify high-revenue contributors and balance workload for improved profitability.

Profitability Report

👉 Get multi-level profitability analysis

We’ve made significant improvements to how you can analyze profitability. Analyze profitability, revenue, and labor costs — breaking it down by Members, User Groups, Projects, Clients, Tasks, or Tags for a more detailed view.

This way, you are now more equipped to improve pricing, staffing, and project budgeting decisions.

My Reports

👉 Build custom reports to fit your stakeholders’ specific needs

Here you’ll find all your saved and custom reports, including those previously created with Analytics.

• Customize reports to display only the most relevant data.
• Visualize your data with a range of options to present insights clearly.
• Share reports from Toggl Track directly with your team and stakeholders.

A custom report: End-of-month financials, featuring client data

Want Early Access to the New Reports Experience?

Join our Beta program!

We’re rolling out this new reporting experience in phases, starting with our Beta users. Want early access? Join the Beta program by going to your Profile settings and enabling Beta features.

Keep in mind that Beta users will also receive access in batches — so if you don’t see it right away, new Reports experience will be available to you in the upcoming weeks!

Reports Pricing

With the new experience rolling out, here’s how reporting features show across different plans.

Note for Free users: Custom report creation will no longer be available on the Free plan. You’ll still see the titles of your previous custom reports, but they won’t be accessible or editable. Upgrade here to unlock full control and create reports your way.

Here is a detailed Reports pricing breakdown.

Help Us Make Toggl Reports Better

It’s your feedback that helps us create a more powerful time tracking experience for you. Share your thoughts on the new Reports experience by answering three quick questions here.

Global productivity has jumped sixfold in 30 emerging economies over the past 25 years, which sounds great — but it doesn’t tell the whole story. 

In many other economies, McKinsey reports that productivity growth has stalled since the global financial crisis, and some risk never catching up. As organizations face mounting challenges, from economic uncertainty to shifting workforce dynamics, the key to staying competitive lies in unlocking the full potential of your workforce.

But that’s easier said than done. Unproductive employees exist, and trying to motivate them can be seriously frustrating for managers. This guide explores the cost of low productivity in more detail and provides actionable strategies to identify, measure, and improve it. 

TL;DR — Key Takeaways 

• Productivity baselines provide a clear benchmark for measuring employee performance so companies can easily identify inefficiencies and set realistic targets to improve. Each industry and business relies on different metrics, such as billable hours or units produced, to track success.
• Low productivity costs are unique to your company, but any dip beneath your baseline expectations could mean thousands in lost revenue over a year.  
• Spotting unproductive employees involves recognizing clear signs, including “fauxductivity,” a growing TikTok trend in which employees appear busy but don’t achieve meaningful output. Managers must approach these signs with curiosity and support rather than point fingers at their talent.
• Micromanaging is never the solution to overall productivity issues. Instead of stifling employees with constant oversight, managers should provide clarity, trust, and the right tools to set them up for success. 
• Unproductivity sounds like an employee issue, but employers and business owners can turn the situation around by building supportive environments, setting clear goals, and creating continuous development opportunities.
• Time tracking tools like Toggl Track transform productivity by providing clear insights into time management. Managers can use this information to make data-backed decisions without invasive monitoring.

What’s a ‘good’ productivity baseline?

A productivity baseline is a standard or benchmark companies can use to measure employee performance against expected output. When this baseline is well-defined, it helps managers objectively assess individual and team productivity as either above or below the target level. From here, they can spot any bottlenecks and work out how to improve the situation.  

But how do you define what “good” productivity looks like in your organization? The right baseline will depend on your specific goals, employee roles, and industry standards. There are no cookie cutters here; productivity baselines must be tailored to your company. 

Examples of how productivity baselines are measured in different industries

Each industry’s productivity baseline is influenced by its unique workflows, challenges, and goals. By identifying industry-specific metrics, companies can establish realistic expectations and continuously improve their business productivity: 

• Technology: Software firms might use agile metrics, such as code commits, resolved tickets, or feature deployments, to set productivity standards. 
• Healthcare: Hospitals and other healthcare institutions could focus on patient outcomes by measuring patients seen per hour, successful procedures, or accurate diagnostics. 
• Sales: Teams often set targets based on quarterly or annual goals, such as the number of closed deals, revenue generated, or calls made. 
• Customer support: Teams aim for high service levels and quick resolutions by tracking metrics related to resolved tickets, response time, or customer satisfaction scores.
• Manufacturing: Top-performing factories set baselines based on machine capacity, workforce efficiency, and output data, such as units produced per hour. 
• Consulting: Firms might measure by billable hours logged per consultant, often benchmarking against industry averages and internal targets to ensure profitability and client satisfaction.
• Marketing: Think completed campaigns, leads generated, or conversions achieved, with agencies setting baselines by analyzing previous campaign data and client expectations.

How much is low productivity really costing you?

Low productivity (and the disengagement that causes it) comes at a cost. Collectively, McKinsey puts this cost between $228 million and $355 million per year for a median-sized S&P 500 company. Stretch that over five years, and you’re looking at $1.1 billion in lost value. 

But the real impact of low productivity is felt in the heartbeat of your daily business. 

• Low team morale: Nothing deflates a high-performing team faster than watching their efforts get drowned out by underperformers who fly under the radar. 
• Delayed projects: When productivity dips, deadlines slip — and so do key business opportunities and client trust.
• High turnover rates: Employee burnout spreads quickly when top talent picks up the slack for disengaged teammates, pushing them to seek opportunities elsewhere. The proof? Some 3.2 million US employees quit their roles in December 2024, leaving countless teams scrambling to manage the extra work and wondering if it’s worth the effort.
• Decreased revenue: Poor productivity means lost sales, diminished service quality, and a shrinking bottom line.
• Missed innovation opportunities: Every minute patching your productivity gaps is a minute stolen from your company’s ability to innovate.

How to spot unproductive employees

Unproductivity doesn’t always announce itself loudly — often, it’s a slow, annoying drip you can’t ignore. Spotting it early is key, but remember that it’s not about pointing fingers; it’s about recognizing the signals, digging deeper, and understanding the root cause before taking action.

Be aware of “fauxductivity” 

Fake activity is a work trend flooding social media. This “fauxductivity” is the practice of employees appearing busier than they are. For example, by loudly typing at their computer, exhaling loudly as though exasperated, or walking quickly around the office as if in a rush to their next meeting. 

@thelendingtree

Look busy do nothing😂 . . . #lookbusydonothing❗️ #busy #actbusy #donothing (office, funny, memes, funny memes, office memes, officefun)

♬ original sound – The Lending Tree | Dubai 🇦🇪

Workhuman’s analysis of 3,000 employees in the UK, US, and Ireland reports that Fortune 500 CEOs rank low productivity as the biggest organizational challenge, and 48% of managers believe fake work activity is a common issue on their team. Yet, managers are more likely to indulge in fauxductivity than their direct reports.

Some 38% of C-suite execs and 37% of managers admit to engaging in this behavior, compared to just 32% of non-managers. Clearly, managers need to take a closer look at the behavior they’re modeling. 

Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) Amanda Augustine explains that fake work may be easier to spot in employees who have been forced to return to the office and are trying to regain some semblance of work-life balance. 

“Companies that demand their employees return to the office are sending a message that presence equals productivity; however, the latest TikTok trend indicates this is not the case. The ‘task masking’ trend has come as a reaction to return-to-office mandates; it’s important to recognize that this reflects young professionals’ beliefs that ‘face time’ at work isn’t equal to their outcome and impact.”  

Track missed deadlines 

When employees regularly miss deadlines, this often indicates deeper issues like poor time management, lack of clarity, or disengagement. 

Unfortunately, only 34% of companies currently manage to meet their project deadlines on time, suggesting this is a widespread problem. Keep a close eye on patterns and use tools like Toggl Track to identify bottlenecks and support struggling employees.

Pay attention to disengagement 

Disengaged employees often fly under the radar, but the signs are there: minimal participation in meetings, lack of enthusiasm, and reduced collaboration. 

Gallup finds only 23% of the global workforce is engaged, with disengagement costing companies $8.8 trillion globally. Frequent employee pulse surveys and honest conversations during regular check-ins can help managers re-engage with teams. 

Look out for increased absenteeism 

Every employee needs paid time off to rest and replenish throughout the year. But persistent absenteeism can be a warning sign their well-being is suffering. Burnout, dissatisfaction, and personal challenges can all play a role. Track attendance patterns and offer support to keep your team healthy and present.

Spot declining quality of work 

When top performers start delivering subpar work, it’s time to investigate. Declining quality could signal burnout, lack of motivation, or skill gaps. Some examples include:

• Increased errors in reports
• Inconsistent attention to detail
• Incomplete tasks
• Drop in creativity or innovation
• Missed quality benchmarks
• Negative client feedback
• Lack of initiative

Provide regular feedback, training opportunities, and clear expectations to help employees maintain high standards.

7 reasons employee performance suffers 

Low productivity is often rooted in systemic or leadership challenges. Before jumping to conclusions that your employees are “slacking off,” it’s crucial to examine the bigger picture. Here’s why poor performance can set in and what leaders can do to fix it.

1. Employees have too much busy work 

Busy work refers to tasks that give the illusion of productivity but have little to no meaningful impact on company goals. The endless email threads, redundant meetings, and manual data entry leave employees feeling drained without producing tangible results. Unfortunately, 51% of employees say their work “often” or “always” involves busy work. Alarmingly, 29% estimate that these low-value tasks consume at least a quarter of their week.

This is both frustrating and costly. According to Resume Now, 37% of people report busy work takes up 25–50% of their daily workload, while 10% say it consumes more than half of their time. Add the 44% who have experienced multiple abandoned projects without explanation, and it’s clear that inefficiencies are rife. Even worse, 54% of employees lack a voice in addressing these issues.

2. Managers don’t know how to set clear expectations

Unclear goals and inconsistent messaging are serious productivity killers. Picture a marketing team pouring dozens of work hours into a campaign that wasn’t actually a priority because their manager failed to communicate the quarterly goals. 

Managers can provide specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to avoid this misalignment and set clear expectations.

Example: A marketing manager might set a SMART goal like: “Increase the company’s social media engagement rate by 20% within six months by posting five targeted content pieces per week across LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.”

This goal is: 

• Specific: It focuses on social media engagement
• Measurable: It’s defined by a 20% increase
• Achievable: It’s realistic, based on the available resources
• Relevant: It aligns with the company’s marketing strategy
• Time-bound: It involves a six-month deadline

Without this clarity, even the most talented employees struggle to thrive. As Joel Popoff, CEO of Axwell, puts it, “The easiest way to get people moving in the right direction is to set performance expectations and clear metrics together monthly or weekly. When they take part in the goal-setting process, they feel empowered and motivated.” 

Keith Spencer, Career Expert for Resume Now, adds, “Assessing productivity means focusing on outcomes, which starts with setting clear goals and evaluating deliverables against established standards.”

3. Managers are guilty of micromanaging 

Micromanagement is a surefire way to stifle creativity, kill morale, and create an environment of distrust. According to a Monster poll, 73% of workers consider micromanagement the biggest workplace red flag, with 46% stating it would drive them to quit their employer entirely. 

This toxic management style, where every detail is scrutinized, damages employees’ confidence and autonomy. Research from IngentaConnect highlights that micromanaging managers “strip others of their self-confidence and self-efficacy, leaving them uncertain what they should think, do, or feel without permission.”

Separate research finds millennials, in particular, value autonomy, with 73% stating they prioritize manager trust and opportunities to make their own decisions. 

CEO Nate Banks emphasizes, “Micromanaging is not the same as holding someone accountable. Employees need autonomy and trust, but they also need measurable goals, frequent check-ins, and helpful feedback. Finding the right balance between independence and guidance transforms underperforming employees into productive ones.”

4. Employee burnout is rippling through your team 

The World Health Organization categorized employee burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” in 2019, with fatigue, lack of enthusiasm, and irritability as telltale signs. Long hours, unrealistic deadlines, and lack of support often fuel this chronic problem, making it much worse than a short-term slump.

Recent data is alarming: 48% of workers across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, and the US currently struggle with burnout. It’s even more common in women, LGBTQ+ employees, people with disabilities, and deskless workers, with up to 26% higher incidence rates.

Unfortunately, one in four employees experience burnout four or more times each year. 

5. The company work environment is toxic 

A toxic work environment is one of the most significant contributors to low productivity. Studies show that toxic work environments increase stress levels, leading to higher turnover and absenteeism. According to research published in the National Library of Medicine, employees in toxic environments report lower job satisfaction, diminished mental health, and decreased productivity. 

Signs of a toxic environment include: 

• Frequent conflicts
• Lack of support from management
• Favoritism
• Unclear communication
• Overcrowded spaces
• Lack of quiet areas
• Zero focus on wellness 

To foster a healthier work culture, companies must promote open communication, encourage team-building, and focus on creating an environment where team members never want to leave.  

6. Employees don’t feel rewarded for their hard work 

Recognition is the fuel that keeps employees engaged. Without it, even the most dedicated team members can lose motivation. In fact, 83.6% of employees say recognition directly impacts their motivation to succeed at work. 

Younger employees, especially those aged 18-24, are particularly driven by recognition, with 85% saying they would be more productive if their hard work was acknowledged. It doesn’t have to be grand gestures or incentives — a shoutout in a team meeting, personalized feedback, or even an opportunity to take on a new project can boost morale.

The numbers speak for themselves: 77.9% of employees say they’d be more productive with frequent recognition, and 71% admit that more regular praise would make them less likely to leave their jobs. Regular feedback matters too — 98% of employees who receive daily recognition feel valued, compared to only 37% who receive it yearly.

7. Employers have zero data on where time is spent

You can’t fix what you can’t see. When employers don’t have clear data on where time is spent, they’re essentially flying blind and left guessing about why their projects stall or their teams seem overwhelmed. Bottlenecks remain hidden, inefficiencies go unchecked, and productivity suffers. 

Tools like Toggl Track have built-in analytics that deliver real insights into how your team spends its hours — not to micromanage but to help it work smarter. Is the team locked in meetings for too many hours of the week? Are certain tasks eating up more hours than expected? Toggl Track highlights these patterns, giving managers the data they need to reallocate resources and cut unnecessary tasks.

The key to a more productive workforce

Building a productive team isn’t a magic trick. It involves practical strategies to help your team work smarter, stay engaged, and deliver results. Here are six of those strategies you can use to motivate your team. 

1. Inspire your people 

Inspiration drives commitment. Author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek puts it perfectly: 

“We have to inspire people. We have to give them that sense of cause and vision that their work is worth more. We have to make them feel like they matter — that they’re seen and heard and understood. What ends up happening is those people are not only more motivated and inspired, but if they’re offered a better, higher-paying job somewhere else, they turn it down. Because it’s not just about the bonuses and the money; it’s because they would rather be here with these wonderful people.”

One way to inspire employees is to tap into their strengths. The Six Types of Working Genius assessment by Patrick Lencioni helps leaders identify what energizes their team members. Whether it’s invention, discernment, galvanizing, enablement, tenacity, or wonder — knowing what sparks enthusiasm in your employees allows you to assign tasks that align with their natural talents, making them feel valued and motivated every 👏single 👏 day 👏. 

2. Ensure role clarity 

Unproductivity often stems from confusion rather than incompetence. According to Gallup, only 45% of employees know what they’re supposed to be doing at work! So, how can we possibly expect our teams to be productive when less than half understand what we need? 

Damien Filiatrault, CEO of Scalable Path, emphasizes, “Unproductive employees are rarely inherently so. Success starts with clarity and enablement. Make sure every team member knows what their role is, their goals, and how their individual efforts contribute to the overarching objectives.”

Achieve this role clarity by outlining clear job descriptions, setting specific goals, and explaining how each role fits into the company’s bigger picture. This isn’t a one-and-done process. As your company grows, and the scope of each role changes, be sure to update your job descriptions at least annually so they remain relevant. 

3. Monitor processes 

Teams using inefficient processes cannot be productive. Jacob Barnes, Co-Founder of FlowSavvy, puts it simply: “It’s mostly workflows that cause problems, not employees. If people aren’t motivated, there’s usually an issue with the system rather than the individual.”

Processes that are too complex, outdated, or poorly managed can overwhelm employees and reduce efficiency. Sometimes workloads are unbalanced, or employees lack the right tools and training, seriously hindering teamwork. One employee might struggle with a heavy workload, while another may need more training in specific software or time management.

Review workflows regularly to spot inefficiencies, gather feedback from your team, and provide the necessary resources or coaching to help them succeed. A well-monitored process ensures employees can focus on what truly matters without unnecessary roadblocks.

4. Equip employees with tools to succeed 

Without essential tools, training, and systems, even the most capable teams can struggle. Damien Filiatrault advises, “Instead of labeling employees as unproductive, ask, ‘Have I equipped them to succeed?’ When tools and training align with clear expectations, productivity emerges naturally.”

Inefficiency often stems from ambiguity. As Filiatrault notes: 

“Tools such as project management platforms can provide better structure to teams and the organization by enhancing visibility and tracking accountability. Even the best developers and project managers can become disoriented without the right tools to structure tasks and communicate effectively.”

5. Encourage continuous learning 

91% of learning and development pros agree that continuous learning is more important than ever for career success. And this makes sense — when employees acquire new skills, they can quickly adapt to new challenges and contribute more effectively. 

Scalable Path’s Damien Filiatrault agrees. 👇

6. Commit to regular check-ins

Finally, how can you know what your team needs without checking in? Regular team status updates create space for open communication, feedback, and support. 

Jacob Barnes, Co-Founder of FlowSavvy, suggests, “Find out what’s going on through regular meetings and tailor your efforts to the individual. Create performance improvement plans and mock-up weekly calendars together so employees can get those visuals of what they should do, when they should do it, and how long it should take to accomplish each task.”

Need an extra tip? Barnes continues, “Have the employee take notes throughout the week on their progress and then schedule regular follow-up meetings to revisit the plan, make adjustments as needed, and celebrate successes together.”

Improve employee productivity with Toggl Track

Toggl Track helps teams understand how their time is spent without invading anyone’s privacy. Employees have full autonomy over their data — they control all their own time entries and can share, adjust, or delete them at any time. Our strict anti-surveillance stance means there’s no stealth tracking or creepy screenshots — just transparent tools that help employees manage their day better. 

Here are three examples of how teams benefit from Toggl Track, each showcasing a key feature:

• Design teams can use Toggl Track to log their time on brainstorming, revisions, and dealing with a client’s constructive feedback. When each designer shares their data with their manager or the rest of the team, it’s easier to estimate future projects more accurately and meet every deadline. 
• Consultancy firms can track their billable hours per client. Toggl Track allows consultants to generate detailed reports to create accurate invoices. This intel also enables them to identify profitable areas and improve efficiency. 
• Marketers can track time across various tasks such as content creation, campaign management, and reporting. Toggl Track’s insights help them prioritize high-impact activities and allocate resources where they’re needed most.

Ready to boost productivity in your organization? Book a free demo and explore how Toggl Track can improve your team while respecting everyone’s privacy.

Year after year, hiring teams complain about a lack of talent in the job market…while candidates vent about their ability to line up a new gig. Something doesn’t add up, right? 

While there are loads of external things we can blame (poor education systems, cut-throat competition, revenue decline), more often than not, a poor talent acquisition strategy is the culprit. 

The better news? Fixing your talent acquisition process doesn’t have to be an uphill battle, especially when you can skip the trial-and-error part and jump straight to hiring the best people for your roles. 

Over the past decade, Toggl’s PeopleOps team has been relentlessly working to optimize our talent attraction and retention capabilities. Just like others, we were tired of wasting money on poor fits but never had the luxury of unlimited time to screen candidates. 

So, what we’ll show you in detail is how to move from reactive, gut-driven hiring to a proactive, data-backed talent acquisition strategy that helps our talent acquisition team reduce time to hire by over 80%, reduce the odds of bad hires to almost zero, and keep candidate experience scores high.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• A talent acquisition strategy aligns immediate staffing needs with long-term workforce planning so you can always access your required competencies. This strategy also helps reduce cost and time per hire. 

• Our 7-step framework will help you whip your talent acquisition process into shape. You’ll conduct a brand audit and skills gaps analysis, evaluate your sourcing channels and screening process, and invest more in candidate experience, recruitment automation, and analytics tools. 

• Need some inspiration? Slack, Vodaphone, and Marriott have reduced time to hire and increased quality to hire by adopting pre-employment skills assessments, recruitment automation, and diversity recruitment practices. 

• If there’s just one thing you can fix today, our PeopleOps team encourages you to embed more data insights into the hiring process (tools like Toggl Hire can help a lot!), patch up your candidate experience, and invest in talent retention as much as in talent acquisition. 

Talent acquisition vs. recruitment

Talent acquisition and recruitment processes optimize for the same goal — supplying more qualified candidates to open roles. However, each process follows a different timeline and uses different methods. 

Recruitment focuses on immediate staffing needs. Your UX designer is leaving for another job — you need to recruit a replacement. Or you’re opening a new storefront and need to hire a lot of frontline staff.  

The usual process follows: Your recruitment team writes new job descriptions, posts them on job boards, screens applicants, and schedules interviews with hiring managers. Recruitment prioritizes speed and effectiveness in hiring the right talent for open roles, using job boards and standardized skills assessments to fill those quickly. 

In contrast, talent acquisition focuses on long-term workforce planning. Imagine three mid-managers are due for promotions this year, and you must replace two. You plan to launch a new product next year, and you’ll need an A+ sales team.  

Talent acquisition involves significant upfront investments from HR professionals — skills mapping, gap analysis, talent forecasting, employer branding, and candidate relationship management. You’re playing the long game to build a talent pipeline. 

Unlike recruitment, the talent acquisition process doesn’t end with job offer acceptance. It can also include succession planning, internal mobility programs, and ongoing organizational development activities. 

Companies often combine recruiting for immediate needs with talent acquisition for critical roles, requiring in-demand skills and future capacity planning. 

💡 If you’re a visual learner, here is a quick breakdown of the differences between recruitment and talent acquisition:

Recruitment is reactive, focusing on filling open job vacancies ASAP.	Talent acquisition is proactive. It involves nurturing relationships before hiring needs arise.
Recruitment’s scope is short-term and role-specific, targeting entry- and mid-level, and high-volume roles.	Talent acquisition’s scope is long-term and company-wide, targeting specialized, leadership, or hard-to-fill roles.
Most recruitment activities are transactional — posting job ads, candidate screening, and interview scheduling.	Most talent acquisition activities are strategic —  employer branding, workforce planning, and candidate relationship management.
Optimized metrics include time-to-hire, hiring volume, cost-of-hire, etc.	Optimized metrics include quality of hire, candidate engagement, employer brand strength, etc.

How to develop a talent acquisition strategy

A talent acquisition strategy is a set of repeatable steps you use to continuously attract top talent. 

At Toggl, we relied on seven steps to grow our workforce to 100+ people (and continue to do so!) while keeping all important recruitment metrics in the green. 

The beauty of our strategy is that it’s easy to replicate and reiterate to almost every business, which we encourage you to do! 

1. Audit your employer brand

An employer brand is all the information about your company online or through word of mouth. Nail it, and you’ll attract top talent like a magnet. Mess it up, and good luck with your talent pipeline.

68% of professionals say an employer brand and employer value proposition (EVP) have positively influenced their decision to continue with a job application.

Potential candidates usually rank company reputation and stability as the top factors, followed by culture and employee wellness initiatives, a KMA Human Resources Consulting survey found. When they find not-so-savory bits, many choose not to apply. 

To test the sentiment about your company:

• Conduct an internal survey on employee engagement and satisfaction. If there are issues with employee experiences or the work environment, fix them before they become public.

• Evaluate your online reputation. Review Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn company pages for critical feedback. Ask current employees for reviews.

• Refresh your employee value proposition to better reflect your organization’s culture, mission, and values, plus speak to the right candidates. 

• Review your recruitment marketing activities, which include things like tone of voice, messaging, EVP representation, employee testimonials, and storytelling content. 

• Start collecting feedback during exit interviews to better understand employer brand weaknesses and prioritize improvement areas. 

• Track employer brand performance metrics like quality of hire, application rates, candidate experience scores, and offer acceptance rate to sharpen your strategy. 

Strong employer brands attract candidates organically, reducing recruitment costs by 50% and receiving twice as many top candidates per position.

2. Assess current skills and future needs

Talent acquisition aims to close workforce skill gaps before they become an operational nuisance. Since 2016, 25% of job skills have changed, and by 2030, another 65% will adapt, meaning talent shortages will become more apparent and talent competition will be fiercer.

By performing a talent gap analysis, you can identify disparities between current workforce capabilities and future skill requirements to align your recruitment efforts with business goals. This way, you can: 

• Prioritize hiring for high-impact but hard-to-source roles 
• Forecast hiring budgets and recruitment costs better
• Launch internal learning and development initiatives 
• Build a talent pool proactively to fulfill future demands 

Start with an internal skills matrix, mapping your people’s current capabilities and development potential. Then, develop a skill taxonomy — an overarching representation of key competencies, skill sets, and sub-skills required for each role now and in the future.

Finally, reconcile the present and the future by modeling a workforce plan. Detail:

• Skills gaps and skills mismatch levels among different teams and business units

• Ideal recruitment levels, based on different revenue forecasts, capacity needs, and wider job market changes

• Organizational development initiatives to meet current and future skill requirements

• Succession plans detailing horizontal and vertical growth opportunities for employees eager to take on new responsibilities

Grounding your talent acquisition in skills lets you switch from reactive (re: rushed and expensive) hiring to proactive, paced, and lower-cost acquisition at the perfect timing.

With skills-based hiring, companies from any sector — education, manufacturing, financial services, or technology — can reach 10X to 20X bigger talent pools.  

LinkedIn

3. Choose the right sourcing channels

Recruiters use a medley of channels to attract more applicants to open roles, including niche job boards, LinkedIn, job aggregators, events, and social media.

Use at least three active sourcing channels to reach diverse candidates and compare costs, quality of hire, and time-to-fill. Also, try some creative sourcing strategies to engage passive candidates and grow your talent pool. These might include: 

• Sponsoring an industry newsletter, read by your ideal candidate profile. Some creators curate daily or weekly job ops in a specific industry (e.g., content, marketing) or position type (e.g., remote work or fractional role).

• Leveling up your TikTok game. TikTok now gets more traffic than Google, and its content has evolved beyond lipsync videos. Companies like The Washington Post and Cisco are killing it with employer branding content aimed at showcasing company culture and building relationships with potential candidates.  

• Creating an internal candidate mart. You may have the right internal talent for open roles. Start matching your people to open roles, as Salesforce does with its new internal talent platform. Any employee can create a LinkedIn-style profile, auto-populated with their data, and get matched with a roster of open roles, temporary assignments, and learning opportunities based on their core and transferable skills. 

4. Streamline the candidate screening process

Any new employee selection process can be equally frustrating for candidates and hiring managers if it lacks objectivity. This is especially true with legacy applicant tracking systems, that solely screen for keywords or outdated credentials like ‘years of experience’ or ‘degree.’

Here are some better ways to screen candidates objectively: 

• Pre-employment skills assessments to verify core competencies, technical skills, and people skills

• Case studies and technical interviews to test the candidates’ core knowledge and professional chops on mock problems 

• Homework assignments as an alternative to evaluating practical skills and problem-solving in an async way

• Structured behavioral interviews to assess workplace competencies, leadership attributes, and collaboration skills 

At Toggl, we use pre-employment skills as the first step in shortlisting candidates for all open roles. Our approach is time-effective for everyone. Most initial assessments take 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the role.

With Toggl Hire, you can set an automatic pass rate for tested skills (e.g., a minimum of 80% correct answers) to quickly identify the best talent. Candidates receive immediate feedback (instead of radio silence for weeks!) while hiring managers can easily view the best candidate profiles with verified real-world competencies. It’s a win-win. 

5. Offer a great candidate experience

When applicants have several employment offers, they usually choose companies that offer a better candidate experience. 

Not sure how you track? Start measuring candidate NPS with one quick question after the job application: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our hiring process to others?” Low results indicate you need to do some ‘debugging.’

Implement small but impactful gestures to create a positive candidate experience: 

• Provide updates on application status. Most recruitment platforms let you configure auto-email dispatches, explaining the current status, decision timelines, and next steps. 

• Eliminate redundant fields from an application form. 65% of candidates say the application process is too long or has too many requirements. Shrink the form size by removing redundant (e.g., years of experience) or irrelevant (e.g., GPA, highest degree) fields. 

• Give feedback after interviews. It can be a short, personalized summary based on the interviewer’s notes. At Toggl, we do that for every candidate who had a face-to-face interview as a sign of respect for committing their time (it honestly should be the bare minimum, though). 

The better you treat people through the recruitment and selection stage — the higher your chances of getting them into your talent pool. At Toggl, we maintain a database of the best candidates for most of the open positions. When we’re ready to hire again, we’ve already got a great list of candidates for outreach. 

6. Make data-driven hiring decisions

It’s 2025, and many hiring teams still rely on ‘hunches’ or ‘vast personal experiences’ to determine a candidate’s fit….despite knowing all too well the costs and consequences of bad hires. 

At Toggl, we don’t like to play ‘guessing games’ when it comes to talent management. We prefer hard evidence instead. Hiring decision-making in our company is rooted in:

• Test scores from several types of assessments (technical skills sets, soft skills assessments, homework assignments). 

• Candidate scorecards from different interview rounds, assessing all applicants against the same grading criteria. 

• Post-interview evaluations based on a deeper assessment of each candidate’s qualifications, work experience, certifications, leadership potential, and overall attitude. 

• Paid test day/week performance — a realistic job preview we host with final round candidates to give a sense of our work culture and verify their chops in a real-time setting. 

As part of a wider talent acquisition strategy, we also track recruiting metrics like time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and quality-of-hire to refine our talent management strategy. 

An increasing time-to-hire for some roles can signal several problems: talent shortages, salary growth (beyond what we can offer), sourcing channel exhaustion, or poor role definition (e.g., asking too much from one person). 

7. Use technology to automate processes

An effective talent acquisition strategy requires contributions from many stakeholders, from company leadership to hiring managers and TAs. Naturally, there can be a lot of back-and-forth about key decisions. Which skills acquisition do we prioritize?

How do we give personalized feedback to 10 candidates? Recruitment automation can sort a lot of menial work, freeing our team up to focus on things that matter — like giving good feedback to candidates who have taken the time to apply for roles at our company:

• AI-powered resume screening tools match applicants to open requisitions based on contextual resume analysis rather than pre-defined rules. 

• Recruitment platforms streamline job description creation and job postings across selected channels. 

• Integrated candidate relationship management tools automate application status updates, personalize communication, and enable talent pooling. 

Implemented correctly, recruitment technology transforms communication chaos at the back end into predictable, repeatable, and data-driven hiring cycles. 

Examples of successful talent acquisition strategies

Need some more inspo to get started? Here are three companies with ultra-effective talent acquisition strategies.

Slack 

Everyone’s favorite workplace chat app needs a large back-end engineering workforce to keep its product running. To hire pros, Slack’s recruiters gave extensive take-home assignments and then conducted technical interviews with certain candidates. Unfortunately, this process wasn’t scalable because it was too time-heavy for job seekers and hiring managers. 

To speed up the hiring cycle, Slack’s hiring team pivoted to two exercises — an API design and a code review exercise — completed within two hours. Although short, both assignments tested candidates for essential technical and interpersonal qualities: code quality, design skills, thorough testing, security awareness, maintainability, and performance optimization. 

Results? Slack’s time-to-hire dropped from an average of 200 days to below 83 days. Candidates and hiring managers also gave positive feedback. 

Marriott 

Marriott, consistently voted as the ‘Best Place to Work’, aims to excel in diversity hiring. Andrew Newmark, Chief Human Resources Officer at Marriott International, Asia Pacific, believes that DEI helps attract top talent and also supplies the company with important skill sets like cultural competence, adaptability, empathy, innovative thinking, and collaborative skills.  

The hotel chain recently partnered with Sarthak Education Trust and the Helen Keller Foundation in Southeast Asia to improve its recruitment and onboarding processes for people with disabilities. The change to how the company engages and markets to candidates with additional needs led to a 180% increase in its disability inclusion workforce in 2023. 

Vodafone 

Vodafone leaned heavily into AI and automation tools to overhaul its talent acquisition process. The company receives over 500,000 applications for its jobs, and automation provides greater insights into candidate profiles while elevating the candidate experience. 

By streamlining more steps in the hiring process and adding better feedback mechanisms, the company went from a negative candidate satisfaction to a +86 NPS score, according to  Carl Clarke, Vodafone’s Director of Talent. Moreover, automation saves recruiters about 16 hours per week in sourcing, giving them more time to focus on candidate relationship nurturing. 

Tips from Toggl’s talent team

Ready to zhuzh up your talent acquisition strategy? Here are a few extra tips from our PeopleOps team and hiring managers who recently hired for open roles. 

Use the right hiring tools

You’re bound to make hiring mistakes if you lack a structured process to test and compare candidates. We’ve learned that lesson the hard way when we spend hundreds of hours (and euros) on recruiting software engineers, only to let go of those new hires in several weeks. 

So we ‘fixed that’ by creating Toggl Hire, a full-cycle recruitment platform that gives us irrefutable proof of candidates’ credentials while automating loads of menial tasks along the way.

Pipeline design, candidate tracking, collaboration on candidate shortlisting, and post-application feedback — we can create and replicate the same workflow steps in several clicks. 

Lean on data as much as possible

Every stage of our hiring cycle is backed by data from skill tests, video intros, structured interviews, and homework assessments. By anchoring every progression decision in data, we eliminate (un)conscious bias and doubts over candidates ‘lack of seniority’ or ‘career history gaps.’ 

That said, the hiring team also values the ‘human factor.’ After face-to-face interviews, we always ask questions like: “Do you feel the candidate will add immediate value to Toggl?” If there’s one ‘maybe’ or ‘no’, the candidate isn’t a good match for us, at least now.  

For broader workforce planning, our TAs always hawk over recruitment metrics like time-to-hire, cost-of-hire, quality of hire, and candidate NPS. We also track wider workforce trends to detect skills mismatches within our company, shifts in skills supply, and recruitment channel performance to inform our strategy. 

Focus on retaining your best employees

Talent retention always beats talent acquisition when it comes to costs and impacts. 

Satisfied workers are more productive, meaning better business outcomes. And they’re also your biggest brand advocates. Year after year, employee referrals remain one of the most effective talent attraction methods for us and other businesses. 

Candidates trust the company’s employees 3x more than the employer itself to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there.

LinkedIn

Employee retention is a key part of Toggl’s talent acquisition strategy. We invest heavily in internal mobility, effective succession planning, and all sorts of employee well-being initiatives — from a paid annual learning budget and health-related perks to an RAFT (Results and Accountability First) framework, which gives people full control over their schedule as long as they meet professional goals. 

Don’t forget about candidate experience

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that companies with high candidate experience scores do six things differently: 

1. Hold recruiters accountable for good candidate experience 
2. Use some form of automation and AI recruiting technologies
3. Aim to make screening decisions (pass/fail) within 3-5 days 
4. Complete the entire recruitment cycle in 60 days or less 
5. Follow a structured interview process and train interviewers in fairness 
6. Always give post-interview feedback to finalists 

At Toggl, we stand for the same principles. By implementing automation where it’s needed, we give hiring managers more ‘headroom’ for precise decision-making and TAs — the ability to have authentic interactions with more applicants. 

An effective talent acquisition strategy starts with Toggl Hire

At the end of the day, a good talent acquisition strategy is all about fixing what’s broken — aka the current talent market. 

Too often, companies focus on what they need instead of what they can offer to candidates, treating people as numbers (because they’re overloaded and behind on hiring goals). 

By switching from a reactive to proactive talent acquisition, you can dial down on the immediate pressure of ‘just getting as many people into the funnel’ and focus on choosing the best fits from a pre-vetted talent pool. 

With Toggl Hire, you get a cost-effective way to build a smarter, faster, and more human talent acquisition strategy. You’ll: 

• Filter, track, and organize hiring pipelines however you see fit, supply data for faster decision-making, and streamline candidate feedback. 

• Include skills assessments at any stage of a recruitment cycle to reveal true candidate aptitude and potential.

• Practice collaborative hiring with convenient dashboards and in-app messaging to capture everyone’s insights and feedback. 

• Save time on candidate screening, prioritization, and scheduling to accelerate your hiring cycles. 

Get a free Toggl Hire demo to see all the above in action! 

Hubstaff and Toggl are top contenders in the time tracking and productivity software space. Our team used them side-by-side for two weeks to see how they differ in core features, user experience, and approach to privacy. Here’s what we found: 

Hubstaff is great for contractors or companies with employees working remotely or on physical job sites. It focuses more on productivity management than time tracking and works well for freelancers and small teams thanks to its pay-as-you-use pricing model. 

However, its primary audience is companies that want an over-the-shoulder view of employees’ work because it offers GPS-based location tracking, screenshots, app and URL usage tracking, and mouse and keyboard tracking.

These features make it controversial for employee privacy and put it firmly in the category of surveillance tools, which may foster distrust and negatively impact team culture in the long run.

In the opposite corner is Toggl Track, a productivity platform focused on privacy, trust, growth, and performance.

It doesn’t have any employee monitoring features because its philosophy is to equip teams with tools to increase trust and transparency and build a culture of time tracking for growth. The idea is to help everybody seamlessly track time and equip decision-makers with the most advanced time analysis tools — allowing them to make informed decisions and increase productivity, work-life balance, and profitability.

Toggl Track is a great free option for freelancers and small teams and an affordable option for small businesses. It shines the most when used by large companies with big teams, where the analytics insights can have the biggest impact.

We compared Hubstaff vs. Toggl Track in the following areas:

• Pricing
• Time Tracking
• Analytics and Insights
• Team Management
• Employee Surveillance & Privacy

We’ll review each in depth in the article, but first, here’s a summary of our findings!

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Comparison Summary

What is Hubstaff?

“All-in-one team productivity tracker” 🏃‍♂️🎯

Hubstaff was created in 2012 by Dave Nevogt and Jared Brown after they hired freelancers and needed a better way to track and manage their time. They wanted a platform that helps entrepreneurs and freelancers focus on business strategies rather than operational tasks. 

Hubstaff is an all-in-one time tracking, project management, payroll, and employee monitoring software that helps users track time spent on tasks and projects in real time. It provides several types of reports, helping users make data-driven decisions and improve efficiency.

The productivity insights help foster healthy competition among employees with the leaderboard and achievement badges. Hubstaff supports employee monitoring, offering a GPS location tracker, screenshotting, mouse and keyboard activity tracking, and app and URL usage data. 

It’s best for companies that require industrial efficiency from their employees, especially those working on physical job sites. However, its employee monitoring tools are a turn-off for teams that value privacy and trust-based work culture.

What is Toggl Track?

“Analytics-driven growth and productivity” 📊

Alari Aho and Krister Haav created Toggl Track in 2006 after having difficulty figuring out how much time they spent on each client. Realizing its potential, and with positive feedback from their clients, they added Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire to the portfolio. They made the software available to teams of all sizes, from independent consultants to large development teams.

Toggl has a philosophy of time tracking for self-reflection and career growth. That’s why it uses automation, reminders, and robust integrations to make time tracking more accessible to everyone. This way, employees view time tracking as less of a chore and more of a vital business operation. However, Toggl is more than a time tracker. Its true power lies in the Analytics feature, which helps managers discover productivity issues and develop a healthy environment for constructive conversations, mentorship, and support.

Toggl Track is perfect for companies that agree with Toggl’s core values — respect for employee privacy and ownership of work. Moreover, no other platform on the market provides decision-makers with tools to spot inefficiency and improve it as much as Toggl Track.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Time Tracking

In a nutshell, Toggl Track is easier to use and offers better automated time tracking and project management than Hubstaff.

User Experience: Toggl’s time tracking interface is more modern and intuitive than Hubstaff’s.

Hubstaff doesn’t provide a dedicated timer menu. Instead, it uses a floating timer widget that can appear in any menu and obstruct other UI elements.

While using the app, we experienced random crashes, poor performance, and problems with some buttons. Furthermore, navigating the UI was unintuitive compared to Toggl. There is a dashboard for quick access to some features, but we found it easier to navigate using the side panel.

In contrast, Toggl’s UI looks more inviting, with vibrant colors, modern fonts, and tooltips that make navigation a breeze. Unlike Hubstaff, it provides tags, allowing you to group otherwise unrelated projects, clients, and time entries.

Toggl Track lets you choose your preferred timer view:

• List View: a day-by-day view that shows logged time and allows bulk edits of entries.
• Timeline View: shows entries for the whole week or a single day; drag-and-drop editing.

Another useful feature in Toggl Track is the Keyboard Shortcuts, which streamline navigation and simplify workflow. Hubstaff doesn’t provide keyboard shortcuts on the web app. Moreover, its desktop app only provides shortcuts for starting and stopping the timer. 

Toggl’s Keyboard Shortcut

Automated Time Tracking: Hubstaff offers location-based time tracking, while Toggl’s desktop app has a dedicated Autotracker

Hubstaff uses geofencing to automate time tracking if you have the Locations add-on.

It automatically clocks your employees in and out using real-time GPS location. This way, they don’t have to worry about starting or stopping the timer. It also tracks their physical location, which is vital for companies with on-site operators but raises concerns about privacy and micromanagement.

Meanwhile, Toggl Track’s Desktop App lets you set up an Autotracker.

It automatically records your website and app usage and only stores this data locally. You can copy this data to create time entries when you want to log time. This ensures only the data you choose to log is visible to your teammates.

This feature exists purely to make time tracking more seamless, that’s why the user has full control over it.

They can choose between two settings:

• automatically start and stop timers based on the time of day (1),
• automatically start and stop timers when an active window is in focus (2). 

You can create as many auto-tracking rules as you want and set reminders for when you forget to start or stop timers.

In addition, the desktop app has a fully-featured Pomodoro Timer with a built-in countdown timer. The Pomodoro can automatically start the timer for focus sessions and breaks, and it lets you choose from six focus sounds. Hubstaff does not offer this feature. 

Project Management: Toggl Track provides better project customization and workflow than Hubstaff

Hubstaff makes you select a project before starting or stopping the timer and saving the entry. Unlike Toggl, you can’t create a project from the timer menu.

Instead, you must navigate to the Project Management tab to set up a project. This means you can’t use it as a stopwatch for simple tasks, forcing you to litter your workspace with throwaway projects.

Meanwhile, Toggl Track isn’t tied to a project for saving time entries. 

This feature makes it a great time tracker for tasks unrelated to a specific project. Furthermore, if you need to associate an entry to a project later on, it allows you to do so even after saving the entries.

It also allows you to control the timer for individual tasks directly from the Projects menu.

Toggl Track lets you set projects as templates and use the same settings when creating a new project. It also allows you to set the project budget as an hourly billing rate or a fixed fee. Plus, you can set a time estimate and a recurring period for the project. Hubstaff does not offer such project settings.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Analytics & Insights

In a nutshell, Both platforms offer Reports and Insights, but Toggl includes powerful Analytics with customizable Dashboards and Charts.

Toggl Track provides customizable dashboards and reports, while Hubstaff doesn’t

Toggl Track’s new Analytics tool is a flexible and customizable method of visualizing time tracking data and other insights. Not only does it help managers with billing clients and processing payroll, it’s also designed to:

• improve team efficiency,
• manage resource demand better,
• and improve project profitability and efficiency.

It lets you create custom Dashboards and customize the charts displayed on them. This way, you can analyze the data you need and visualize it using charts that you can easily understand. 

Dashboards comprise one or more charts and an optional Totals Widget that shows a summary of all tracked data. You can add different types of charts, such as:

• Tables
• Bar charts
• Pivot tables
• Line graphs
• Donut charts

Toggl Track also lets you create custom charts to visualize time tracking data. Using custom filters, you can set the date range and group the time tracking data.

Hubstaff doesn’t offer such an advanced analytics tool. Instead, it uses non-interactive reports, pre-made for the user. It provides report filters that offer some flexibility but are nowhere as robust as Toggl Track’s custom reports.

Both platforms provide periodic Reports, but Hubstaff offers more report types

Hubstaff and Toggl Track provide weekly, and summary reports about projects, tasks, and time entries, which can be filtered by:

• task,
• team,
• client,
• and project.

Hubstaff’s Time and activities report

Toggl Track’s Reports feature provides more filters, such as billable hours, tags, and descriptions. The Detailed Report shows each team member’s time entries, tasks, and projects in detail. Unlike Hubstaff, it allows you to round off time entries and edit them in place. 

Toggl Track’s Detailed Report

Both platforms let you schedule sending reports to your mail as PDF and CSV. This way, you and your stakeholders can stay updated on your projects without constantly logging into the platform.

Toggl Track’s reports only show the time each team member spends on projects and the amount owed, while Hubstaff provides several other report types, such as:

• Work Sessions — shows start and stop times for team members
• Apps & URLS — see all apps and URLs team members visit while working
• Payments — amount given to team members over a set period
• Client Budgets — the amount of client budgets spent
• Shift Attendance —  completed, late, and missed shifts for all team members

Hubstaff’s report types

It’s worth noting that some of these reports are only available on higher plans, so you may need to upgrade your account to access them.

Toggl Track provides insights on profitability, while Hubstaff provides insights on employee activities

Hubstaff monitors and collects data on employee activities, such as apps and URLs visited, idle hours, daily focus, and work time targets. This way, employers can detect fake activity like auto clickers and keyboard mimics.

It also includes a leaderboard that shows the best-performing employees based on productivity. It shows each team member’s tracked time, activity, productivity, and earned achievements. 

Unlike Hubstaff, which doesn’t trust employees and measures productivity by tracking their activities, Toggl Track is trust-based and prefers to measure productivity by employee and project profitability.

To that end, Toggl’s Insights feature provides four types of insights based on time tracking data and billable hours:

• Data trends
• Project profitability
• Employee profitability
• Comparative analysis

The Data Trends insight shows the total and daily average of working hours spent on each project, allowing managers to compare time allocation between multiple projects.

Toggl Track plots a timeline of your earnings and labor costs based on your team’s billable hours and displays the results on the Project Profitability dashboard. It also shows your workspace’s profit/loss margins for each project and client.

The Employee Profitability graph is quite similar, but it shows the loss/earnings margin for employees in your organization.

Lastly, the Comparative insights menu lets you compare the time tracked between any two weeks. It shows the hours logged for each day of the week in a head-to-head line graph, helping managers assess productivity over a set period.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Team Management

In a nutshell, Hubstaff offers built-in Payroll and Workforce Management tools, while Toggl relies on the Toggl Plan suite and third-party platforms.

Employee Scheduling: Both platforms offer employee scheduling, but Hubstaff has built-in support for task sprints

Hubstaff’s Schedules feature allows you to create shifts, and manage time off and holidays. When making a schedule for a team member, you can assign tasks, set the duration, and choose the minimum working hours. It also lets you set a recurring duration for shifts and time zones for remote workers.

The Calendar menu shows all employee schedules, with filters for holidays, time off, shifts, and members. Selecting a specific member highlights all their events and schedules on the timeline.

Toggl Plan also offers employee schedules with a drag-and-drop interface for project timelines, allowing you to visualize work times, availability, and workload.

It uses a seamless two-way integration with Toggl Track, allowing you to start the timer from Plan and watch the tracked time sync up on the project timeline. 

Payroll Tracker: Hubstaff provides a built-in payroll tracker, while Toggl relies on third-party integrations for payroll

The Hubstaff Pay add-on lets you add your credit card information and choose which team members you wish to include in automatic payments. You can also use other payment processors, such as Wise, PayPal, and Payoneer.

When setting up automatic payments, you can configure exactly how you want to pay each employee, such as:

• Member — the team member you want to add to your payroll
• Pay Period — Weekly, Twice weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, or None (for manual payments)
• Require timesheet approval — timesheet must be approved before running automatic payments
• Pay Type — hourly or fixed payments
• Pay Rate — the rate for the team member
• Bill Rate — the rate you can bill your client
• Email — team member’s payment email

Toggl doesn’t provide built-in payment processing but lets you set billable rates flexibly. You can set billable rates for:

• Workspace (most general)
• Workspace member
• Project
• Project member
• Task (most granular)

More granular rates always override general ones, allowing for precise billing control.

Once the billable rates and labor costs are set, Toggl Track generates invoices and calculates the amount owed to each employee based on the total tracked time. With just a few clicks, you can also export invoices as PDF and payroll data. 

Moreover, it has over 100 integrations, including Xero and Margn. This allows you to easily import payroll payment processing functionalities into the platform, creating a seamless workflow.

Daily Standups: Toggl uses recurring tasks for stand-ups

The Hubstaff Tasks project management software provides a stand-up feature to create daily or weekly stand-up meetings. You can set follow-up questions that team members can use to give updates on their work.

When submitting a status update for a stand-up meeting, Hubstaff can automatically answer the follow-up questions based on your tracked time, completed tasks, and to-dos.

Toggl Plan uses Tasks and Reminders to achieve similar functionality. It doesn’t provide a dedicated stand-up feature but lets you set up recurring tasks and send reminders to all relevant team members. And you’d have to handle follow-up questions outside the platform. 

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Employee Surveillance & Privacy

In a nutshell, Hubstaff offers employee monitoring tools like GPS tracking and screenshots, while Toggl has a no-surveillance policy.

Hubstaff can track employees’ device activities

The Hubstaff desktop app can take up to three random screenshots of employees’ screens every 10 minutes. With the More Screenshots add-on, it can capture up to 10 screenshots every 10 minutes.

While it doesn’t record keyboard data, Hubstaff can track mouse and keyboard activity. It listens for mouse and keyboard movement every second and generates an activity level for each employee.

It also tracks all apps and URLs visited during work hours, measuring the total time spent on each and the number of times they are used.

Hubstaff offers GPS-based location tracking

Hubstaff’s mobile app uses GPS data to track your current employees’ locations and their previous routes. It also displays time stamps showing where they were at specific times on the route.

Unlike the desktop app, which only records device activity when the user is tracking time, the mobile app constantly tracks location, even when the timer isn’t running. This occurs when the phone is set as a primary device, and the manager sets location tracking to “Always.”

Hubstaff lets you set up job sites, which are designated physical locations where your employees can track time. Also known as geofencing, this feature automatically starts recording time when users enter the job site and stops recording when they leave.

Toggl is intentionally anti-surveillance and doesn’t offer location tracking or screen recording.

Toggl Track values trust and a sense of ownership over work. That’s why it doesn’t believe in employee surveillance. It started as an in-house time tracker, where micromanagement and employee monitoring have never been part of its work culture. As such, it doesn’t track location, mouse activity, keystrokes, screen, or webcams.

Furthermore, employee surveillance generates a lot of noise, which dilutes the usefulness of the tracking data. That’s because people will find ways around anything they don’t like doing. Toggl Track instead focuses on providing insights into improving workspace productivity and profitability.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Pricing

In a nutshell, Hubstaff has a simple model with key features locked behind paid add-ons, while Toggl has a straightforward pricing plan with no hidden costs.

Hubstaff is free for one user, while Toggl is free for up to five users

Hubstaff offers a free lifetime plan with a time tracker, timesheet, activity levels, and project clients. It also offers limited versions of reports, screenshots, and payment.

Toggl Track’s free plan offers unlimited time tracking, projects, and clients, making it an excellent option for freelancers and small teams of up to five users.

Hubstaff offers four subscription plans with paid add-ons

In addition to the free plan, Hubstaff offers four subscription plans that unlock more features and include some add-ons by default.

It uses a pay-as-you-use model to access advanced tools without upgrading your plan. For example, the Starter plan can use the Insights and Locations add-ons, which cost $2/user/month and $4/user/month, respectively.

Toggl Track’s plans are slightly more expensive, requiring a Toggl Plan subscription to provide the same value

Toggl designed each plan to cater to a specific audience. This way, you know what exactly to go for based on your team size and business requirements:

• Starter — for individuals and small teams needing analytics and task management tools
• Premium — for managers who must keep their large teams agile and synchronized
• Enterprise — same features as Premium with tailored solutions for complex organizations

Toggl Track alone does not offer the same range of features as Hubstaff and is missing vital tools like payroll and workforce management. To get these features, you must purchase a Toggl Plan subscription, which costs $9 per user/month for the Team plan and $15 per user/month for the Business plan.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Pros and Cons

In a nutshell, Hubstaff is better for contractors who need employee monitoring and geofencing, while Toggl Track is best for large teams who want to increase profitability.

Final Verdict: Hubstaff vs Toggl Track

In a nutshell, Toggl Track is best for large knowledge-based service teams, while Hubstaff is best for on-site contractors or companies that want employee monitoring tools.

If you’ve paid close attention to the comparison, you’d notice that Toggl takes the lead in most categories. That’s because its tools are more powerful, easy to use, and user-centric. Moreover, it focuses more on measuring productivity by work output rather than work input. 

But that’s not to say that Hubstaff isn’t a great tool. It simply appeals to a different audience — teams that expect utmost diligence and maximum efficiency from their members.

Use Hubstaff if:

• You want to monitor employee location and device activities
• You’re a contractor with employees who work at physical job sites
• You want an all-in-one time tracking and workforce management platform

Use Toggl Track if:

• You need powerful Analytics to help you improve productivity
• You value privacy and a trust-based work culture
• You need a hassle-free automatic time tracker

Click here to get started with Toggl Track!

Employees (and their managers) can struggle when they don’t have a roadmap outlining how to track their work hours. Where should workers record their time? What happens if they forget to log their hours? Are breaks included? Does anyone actually know?

If you’re unsure about the answers to these questions, you’re opening the door to low morale, inefficiencies, and even legal issues — yep, all the workplace nasties.

The solution is to implement a solid time tracking policy that clarifies everything employees and managers need to understand about recording time at work. It’s not about adding another layer of bureaucracy, but about setting up a system everyone can get on board with.

A well-thought-out policy improves payroll accuracy, maintains compliance, and even builds trust between you and your employees so they never feel you’re trying to scam them. Today, we’ll show you how to build an employee time tracking program for your business without breaking a sweat.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• A time tracking policy is a set of clear guidelines and procedures that dictate how employees should record and report their work hours. The policy outlines expectations for timekeeping, overtime, breaks, and time off.
• A time tracking policy has many benefits, including accurate payroll management, compliance with labor laws, better accountability, fewer disputes about overtime pay, more accurate project cost tracking, and many others.
• To create a time tracking policy, choose the right time sheet. Then, clarify the scope and explain how and when your business tracks time. Last but not least, explain your preferred timekeeping procedures.
• Roll out the time-tracking policy in three steps: preparation, communication, and onboarding.
• Pay special attention to employee surveillance and choose any creepy tools and methods that impact your workers’ privacy.

Why you need a timekeeping policy

A timekeeping policy is like a high-quality mattress — it’s one of those things that you don’t appreciate until you’ve tried it. Having a clear set of guidelines brings a wide range of benefits for both employers and employees:

• Accurate payroll management
• Fair workload distribution
• Compliance with labor laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
• Prevention of time theft and unauthorized overtime
• Clear guidance on clocking in and clocking off
• Support for remote and hybrid work models
• Improved accountability
• More accurate project cost tracking
• Improved scheduling and staffing decisions
• And many, many other reasons

How to create a time tracking policy

The ideal time tracking policy is fully customized to meet the needs of your business and your team. We’ve laid the groundwork for you below; with these foundations, you can build an effective policy tailored to your needs.

Choose the right kind of timesheet

There are multiple methods for timekeeping, and you should choose the one that best suits your organizational structure, team goals, and available resources. We’ll compare three standard timesheet options: paper timesheets, spreadsheets, and automated tools for tracking time.

Paper timesheets

Best for: Small businesses with few employees or environments without practical digital solutions (e.g., remote construction sites).

Employees manually record their hours on printed sheets, typically submitting them to a manager or HR for processing.

Pros:
✔ Simple to implement — no software or training required
✔ Low upfront cost — only requires printed templates
✔ Works for businesses with minimal tech infrastructure

Cons:
✘ Prone to errors, miscalculations, or fraudulent entries
✘ Time-consuming for HR or payroll teams to process
✘ Lacks real-time visibility into employee hours and attendance

Spreadsheets

Best for: Small to mid-sized businesses that want a low-cost, slightly automated alternative to paper timesheets.

Employees enter their hours into a shared digital spreadsheet, such as Excel or Google Sheets, which can be reviewed and processed for payroll.

Pros:
✔ More organized and accurate than paper timesheets
✔ Easy to customize with formulas for automatic calculations
✔ Low-cost solution that doesn’t require specialized software

Cons:
✘ Requires manual entry, increasing the risk of errors
✘ Version control issues may arise if multiple employees edit the same sheet
✘ Not scalable for businesses with many employees or complex schedules

Automated time tracking software

Best for: Businesses of all sizes looking for accuracy, automation, and scalability, especially those with remote teams or complex scheduling needs.

Employees clock in and out using a digital tool that records hours automatically, often with features like integrations with project management apps, reporting, and mobile access.

Pros:
✔ Reduces manual errors and administrative workload.
✔ Offers real-time tracking and analytics for better workforce management.
✔ Improves compliance with labor laws by maintaining accurate records.
✔ Cloud-based options allow for remote tracking and integration with payroll.

Cons:
✘ Requires an initial investment and ongoing subscription costs.
✘ May require employee training to ensure proper use.
✘ Some employees may feel uncomfortable with increased monitoring.

Automated time tracking is the best all-around choice for businesses. With minimal investments in time (spent on onboarding) and money (spent on subscriptions), you can use it to streamline payroll, reduce manual errors, and improve compliance.

Clarify the scope of your policy

Next, determine the group to which your policy applies. Depending on how your business is set up, you’ll have:

• Salaried employees
• Hourly employees
• Part-time employees
• Freelance employees and contractors

The category they belong to is crucial for one detail: under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees are classified as exempt (not eligible for overtime) or non-exempt employees (eligible for overtime). Your time tracking policy should reflect these distinctions.

• Non-exempt employees (hourly, some salaried workers)
  • Must track all hours worked, including overtime.
  • Should record break times if required by law.
  • Example: “All hourly employees must log their start time, break periods, and end time daily using the company’s time tracking system.”
• Exempt employees (salaried workers who meet FLSA criteria)
  • Typically do not need to track exact hours but may be required to log workdays for project management or compliance.
  • Example: “Exempt employees are not required to clock in and out but should record workdays for PTO and attendance tracking.”
• Part-time and full-time employees
  • The policy should clarify whether different rules apply based on hours worked.
  • Example: “Part-time employees must log work hours like hourly staff, while full-time salaried employees follow the exempt employee guidelines.”
• Freelancers and independent contractors
  • Often manage their own time but may need to submit timesheets for invoicing or project tracking.
  • Example: “Contractors are required to submit a weekly timesheet detailing hours worked per project.”

Considering remote and flexible work arrangements

A modern time tracking policy should accommodate different work setups to ensure inclusivity:

• Remote employees
  • Clarify expectations for logging hours, especially if working across different time zones.
  • Example: “Remote employees must record hours in the system, adjusting for their local time zone.”
• Flexible work schedules
  • Address whether employees with non-traditional schedules need to track start and end times or just total hours.
  • Example: “Employees with flexible hours should log total daily hours rather than specific clock-in times on time cards.”
• Hybrid work models
  • Ensure policies apply consistently across in-office and remote work.
  • Example: “Hybrid employees should track hours regardless of their work location.”

Include broad, general timekeeping information

A time tracking policy should establish clear expectations in terms of work hours, break times, overtime, and paid time off.

Your team members should understand what constitutes a full workday when they should clock in and out, and how timekeeping affects their pay. Below are some of the most important elements every policy should cover.

1. Defining the workweek and full workday

• Specify the official workweek (e.g., Monday to Sunday or another schedule based on business needs).
  • Example: “The company’s standard workweek runs from Monday at 12:00 a.m. to Sunday at 11:59 p.m.”
• Set full workday expectations: Outline the expected daily work hours for full-time employees.
  • Example: “A full workday consists of 8 hours, excluding unpaid meal breaks, for a total of 40 hours per week.”

2. Clock-in and clock-out procedures

• Specify how employees should record time (e.g., using time tracking software, physical punch clocks, or mobile apps).
  • Example: “All employees must clock in at the start of their shift and clock out at the end of the workday using [System Name].”
• Addresslate arrivals and early departures and whether employees need to report these to their supervisor.
  • Example: “Employees arriving more than five minutes late must inform their manager and adjust their time entry accordingly.”

3. Breaks and meal times

• Define required break/meal periods based on local labor laws.
  • Example: “Employees working more than 6 hours must take an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes.”
• Clarify if breaks need to be logged in the timekeeping system.
  • Example: “Paid 15-minute breaks do not require clocking in or out, but meal breaks must be logged.”

4. Overtime eligibility and approval

• State when overtime applies and whether pre-approval is needed.
  • Example: “Non-exempt employees working over 40 hours per week will receive overtime pay at 1.5x their regular hourly rate.”
• Define how employees should request overtime and what the approval process looks like.
  • Example: “All overtime must be pre-approved by a manager and documented in the time tracking system.”

5. Holiday and vacation pay

• Define how holiday work is compensated (e.g., time-and-a-half or an alternative day off).
  • Example: “Employees who work on company-recognized holidays will receive 1.5x their standard pay rate.”
• Specify how employees should record PTO.
  • Example: “Employees must submit vacation requests at least two weeks in advance through [HR system].”

Ensuring clarity and compliance

To make the policy effective:

✅ Use clear language: Avoid legal jargon to ensure employees understand expectations.
✅ Include a summary table: A quick reference guide for work hours, breaks, and overtime rules improves accessibility.
✅ Align with labor and state laws: Ensure policies comply with federal, state, and industry regulations.

Explain timekeeping procedures (very clearly)

For the time tracking policy to be effective, the employees should know when and how to track their time. Document your specific timekeeping procedures and how they work so there are no questions regarding audits or what regular work hours entail.

Here are some examples:

Step 1: Recording work hours

All employees must accurately record their time using the designated system. This varies by role:

• Hourly employees must clock in at the start of their shift, clock out for unpaid breaks (if required), and clock out at the end of the workday.
• Salaried employees may only need to log workdays, PTO, or exceptions like overtime.
• Remote/flexible workers must follow the same procedure, ensuring accuracy regardless of location.

📌 Example: “Employees must log work hours daily using [Time Tracking System]. Failure to do so may result in payroll delays.”

Step 2: Submitting timesheets and deadlines

Time records must be submitted on time to ensure payroll accuracy. Employers should specify deadlines clearly.

• For weekly payroll: “Timesheets must be submitted every Friday by 5:00 p.m. EST.”
• For biweekly payroll: “Employees must review and approve their time records by the 15th and last day of each month.”

Managers should review submitted timesheets within one business day and approve or flag discrepancies.

📌 Tip: Automated time tracking software such as Toggl Track can streamline submissions by sending reminders and locking past entries to prevent unauthorized edits.

Step 3: Handling errors, missed punches and adjustments

Mistakes happen, so clear instructions on corrections are essential.

• Missed punches – Employees must report missing entries as soon as possible.
  📌 Example: “If you forget to clock in or out, notify your manager within 24 hours and submit a correction request in [System Name].”
• Time adjustments – Employees must not edit past entries without approval.
  📌 Example: “Employees needing to correct their timesheets must submit a formal request via email or [HR platform] before payroll processing.”
• Disputes – Employees should address any pay discrepancies with HR promptly.
  📌 Example: “If you believe your recorded hours are incorrect, report the issue within three business days of payroll distribution.”

Customization and automation for efficiency

• Hourly workers should follow strict start/end time logging, while salaried workers may only need to track PTO or overtime.
• Automated tracking tools can flag inconsistencies (e.g., early clock-outs, excessive overtime) and notify employees/managers automatically.
• Self-service portals let employees fix minor errors (e.g., a missed clock-out) without involving HR for every issue.

How to introduce your time tracking policy

The way you roll out a time tracking policy is just as important as creating it in the first place. If you don’t introduce it properly, employees may feel like it’s a lopsided rule that is more of a punishment than a way to improve collaboration and productivity.

We suggest introducing time tracking policies by rolling them out in three stages: preparation, communication, and onboarding.

The preparation stage

Before doing anything, consult with legal and HR experts in your area to check your policy aligns with local and federal laws, industry regulations, and company-specific employment contracts.

Once compliant, create materials for the employees, explaining things such as the purpose of time tracking, the dedicated time tracking software you’ll use, how data will be used, who can access it, and the potential impact on work routines and compensation.

The communication stage

Present the materials to your employees. Frame time tracking as a tool for efficiency and fairness, not as micromanagement. Explain that it helps with increasing efficiency, payroll processing, managing overtime hours, improved recordkeeping, and a host of other benefits.

Host Q&A sessions where employees can ask questions, voice concerns, and get clarification on tracking time off, managing absences and sick leave, handling overtime pay, and similar.

Encourage an open dialogue and introduce time tracking as a collaborative action, not an enforcement mechanism resulting in disciplinary action.

The onboarding stage

Once everyone is on the same page, onboard your team and explain how they should use time tracking tools. Provide training sessions and step-by-step guides with FAQs so your team can get clarity.

Before the policy is officially rolled out, have a pilot phase to try out the timekeeping system and get initial feedback.

A quick note on employee surveillance

There is a thin line between employee time tracking and spying. Some time tracking apps merely track employee work hours. Others veer into surveillance with options such as screen recording and monitoring mouse and keyboard movements.

Monitoring the activity on your team members’ devices, taking screenshots at random times, and getting access to their webcams may all be signs of distrust. Instead of improved collaboration, you may face low morale, decreased productivity, and even legal complications.

There are plenty of time tracking apps in the market, so pick one that helps with accurate time records and does not spy on your team. Toggl Track is an excellent, non-invasive tool for tracking work time while respecting employee privacy.

Great timesheet software is key to tracking employee time efficiently

Advanced time tracking tools are key to a seamless time tracking policy for all. For managers and human resources teams, they save time and keep everyone compliant. For employees, they reduce the possibility of human error and ensure accuracy and fair payment for the performed work.

Choosing a great time tracking platform can be tough. You’ll need features such as project analytics, tracking leaves, overtime, automated approvals, robust integrations, and many others. But luckily, we have just what the doctor ordered.

With Toggl Track, you can eliminate the legwork associated with tracking. You’ll increase time tracking adoption, stay compliant, and create a more efficient and organized place to work.

If you have a team with 20+ users, book a free demo to find out how to best use Toggl Track in your day-to-day work. And if you have a smaller team, get your free Toggl Track account today!

Do you know the simple strategy that helps 90% of companies make better hires?

Instead of relying on outdated or inflated resumes, they use skills-based hiring — a smarter approach that tests candidates’ real-world abilities. By doing so, they base their hiring decisions on what candidates can actually do (not just what they claim on paper).

One of the biggest players in the talent assessment software arena is Mercer Mettl, but the platform has some flaws. Users report frustrations with limited test customization, skills assessment tests, poor customer support, a clunky user experience, and high pricing.

If you’re looking for an alternative solution, this guide covers the best Mettl alternatives to streamline your hiring and improve the candidate experience.

Why do people look for Mettl alternatives?

Mettl is a proctoring and talent assessment tool that has been around since 2010. As one of the most established tools in the online assessment and pre-employment testing arena, it’s widely used by hiring managers to evaluate job candidates and by educators to test students in online programs.

But some customers feel it doesn’t meet their needs, prompting them to seek alternatives. There are two main reasons they do so.

Poor customer support

While the platform promises a user-friendly interface, many users struggle with it. Reaching customer support can be difficult for those who do need help, as described by this user in the hospital and healthcare sector:

“It was an extremely buggy site, and I wasn’t able to send the tests to the employee. The website kept coming up with errors no matter what I tried. I reached out to customer service as I needed the tests right away. They don’t have a phone number available for US users (I quickly found out); only email.

They usually responded quickly, using the same faux-friendly-sounding template responses, saying someone from their team would get back to me “shortly.” No one ever got back to me to resolve anything. I sent multiple friendly follow-ups and still got the exact same canned responses every time.”

The cost

The other main issue? Mettl assessments can be pretty expensive. The cost increases according to the growing number of job roles, but you’ll also need to upgrade if your credits expire. As one user noted:

“Many test links went to spam/junk folders, and they expired my credits (payments) without notice, requiring 5x my annual spend to renew. It forced me to find a new solution without any notice when I had students taking the exam.”

Top 13 Mercer Mettl alternatives

Tool	G2 Rating	Pricing
Toggl Hire	4.7	Free plan available for one active job opening
Vervoe	4.6	$300 for 10 candidates
HireVue	4.1	Only available upon request
Equalture	4.7	Only available upon request
TestGorilla	4.5	Free plan offers access to essential skills tests with limited features
Xobin	4.7	Only available upon request
HackerRank	4.6	$165 per month (billed annually at $1,990) for one user
Codility	4.6	$1,200 annually for one platform user and 120 invites
WeCP	4.8	Free plan includes five credits
Harver	4.6	Only available upon request
Crystal	4.6	Free plan includes basic assessments and limited profile views
Plum	4.4	Only available upon request
iMocha	4.4	$400/mo for five recruiters and 600 candidate assessments per year

1. Toggl Hire

Toggl Hire is an all-in-one hiring platform designed for recruiters and HR teams who want more than just assessments. Unlike Mercer Mettl, which only covers testing, Toggl Hire automates the entire recruitment process — from skills screening to candidate ranking, team collaboration, and even offer management.

Key features

• Customizable skill tests: Offers role-specific assessments to evaluate candidates’ abilities and start with skills-based hiring.
• Automated candidate filtering: Can identify top talent instantly, using AI-powered scoring and ranking.
• Customizable hiring pipeline: Organizes and tracks candidates effortlessly with a flexible, detailed dashboard.
• Performance analytics: Gain deeper insights about candidate strengths with detailed test reports.
• Easy team collaboration: Involve as many stakeholders as you want in the hiring process without disrupting your workflows.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like

❓What’s missing

• Fast and efficient hiring: Automates repetitive and manual tasks, helping recruiters save time while ensuring quality hires. • Improves candidate experience: Create a positive hiring environment using engaging skill tests and clear communication. Even those who don’t get the job come away feeling valued. • Full-cycle recruitment solution: Go beyond standard assessments with full pipeline management and workflow automation functionality. • API access: Integrates with the rest of your hiring tech stack with minimal effort.

• Limited free plan: Requires a premium plan for unlimited users.

Pricing

• Free: $0 per month, including one active job slot and one skills test
• Starter: $199 per month, offers unlimited users, 3 active job openings, unlimited skills tests, and candidates
• Premium: $349 per month, including unlimited users, job openings, skills tests and candidates

2. Vervoe

Vervoe is an AI-powered hiring platform that helps HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers evaluate candidates based on their skills and competencies.

Unlike Mercer Mettl, which offers a wide range of assessment services, Vervoe focuses on immersive, real-world tasks and simulations to predict job performance, helping you make hiring decisions based on real-world performance and hard skills tests.

Key features

• Customizable assessments: Create custom assessments with various question formats, including text, multiple-choice, video, and coding challenges, to match specific job requirements.
• AI-driven grading: Use artificial intelligence to automatically grade and rank candidates based on their performance, helping you set benchmarks and reducing manual evaluation time.
• Anti-cheating measures: Includes features such as question randomization and advanced proctoring to maintain the integrity of assessments.
• Integration capabilities: Connect with applicant tracking systems such as Greenhouse, Lever, and SmartRecruiters.
• Candidate messaging: Use in-app communication tools to keep candidates informed and engaged throughout the hiring process.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like

❓What’s missing

• Flexible assessment creation: Offers comprehensive candidate evaluation with platform support for multiple assessment formats. • Efficient candidate screening: Automate the evaluation process, saving time and resources, using this AI-driven grading system. • Enhanced candidate experience: Contribute to a positive and engaging candidate journey using in-app messaging and personalized assessments.

• Initial AI training required: May require time and effort to train the AI to grade assessments accurately. • Interface performance issues: May suffer from occasional slowness and bugs in the interface.

Pricing

• Pay & Go: $300 for 10 candidates, includes unlimited invites and assessments, a standard assessment library and builder, AI grading, CSV exports, and more.
• Custom: Provides customizable assessments, custom question types and integrations, advanced AI detection, and more.

3. HireVue

HireVue is a hiring platform for HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers to improve their recruitment processes through video interviewing, assessments, and AI-driven tools.

HireVue integrates video technology and artificial intelligence to speed up candidate evaluation and improve hiring efficiency.

Key features

• Video interviewing: Offers on-demand and live video interviews, allowing candidates to submit recordings at their convenience and letting recruiters assess non-verbal cues and communication skills effectively.
• AI-powered assessments: Uses artificial intelligence to evaluate candidates’ responses, providing insights into competencies and potential fit for the role.
• Game-based assessments: Delivers engaging, gamified tests to measure cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills, enhancing the candidate experience.
• Text-enabled recruiting: Incorporates SMS and WhatsApp communication to reach candidates quickly, facilitating prompt interactions and updates.
• ATS integration: Integrates seamlessly with various applicant tracking systems, ensuring a cohesive and efficient recruitment workflow.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like

❓What’s missing

• Reduces time-to-hire: Accelerates the hiring process by enabling quicker identification of top candidates. • Improves candidate experience: Provides flexible, on-demand interviews so candidates can participate at the most convenient time. • Provides valuable insights: Uses AI-driven assessments to offer a deeper understanding of candidates’ skills and potential fit, helping you make better hiring decisions.

• Technical issues: May suffer from technical difficulties during interviews, such as connectivity problems, which can affect the assessment process. • High cost: May not be the best fit for small businesses as it’s on the higher end of the pricing spectrum compared to other video interviewing providers. • Lack of human interaction: Can feel impersonal to some candidates, potentially impacting their perception of the company.

Pricing

• Pricing is available on request from the vendor.

4. Equalture

Equalture is a pre-employment assessment platform designed to help HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers make unbiased and competency-based hiring decisions.

Equalture focuses on gamified assessments to evaluate candidates’ cognitive abilities and behavioral traits, aiming to enhance the predictive validity of hiring processes.

Key features

• Game-based assessments: Uses neuroscientific games to objectively measure candidates’ cognitive functions and behaviors, giving candidates a more engaging and less intimidating experience than traditional assessments.
• Competency profiling: Analyzes existing team dynamics to identify key competencies that drive success in specific roles, allowing you to create tailored competency profiles.
• Bias reduction tools: Implements features designed to minimize unconscious bias in the recruitment process, promoting diversity and inclusion.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates seamlessly with various Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and HR platforms to ensure a cohesive hiring workflow.
• Candidate experience focus: Offers an engaging and user-friendly assessment process, leading to higher completion rates and a positive impression of the employer brand.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• Unbiased hiring insights: Provides objective data on candidates, reducing reliance on subjective judgment. • Enhanced team composition: Spots candidates who complement existing team strengths and weaknesses with the competency profiling feature. • Positive candidate feedback: Creates an enjoyable application experience using gamified assessments.	• Integration challenges: May suffer from difficulties integrating Equalture with their existing ATS, leading to potential workflow inefficiencies. • Candidate participation: Leads some candidates to hesitate in completing game-based assessments, possibly affecting application completion rates.

Pricing

• Pricing is available on request.

5. TestGorilla

TestGorilla is a pre-employment assessment platform designed to help HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers effectively evaluate candidates’ skills and aptitudes.

TestGorilla has a user-friendly interface with a diverse test library, and its goal is to refine the hiring process and enhance decision-making.

Key features

• Extensive test library: Delivers access to 280+ scientifically validated tests covering various domains, including cognitive abilities, programming skills, language proficiency, and personality traits.
• Customizable assessments: Combines multiple tests to create tailored assessments that align with specific job requirements.
• Anti-cheating measures: Implements features like full-screen mode detection, webcam monitoring, and randomized questions to maintain assessment integrity.
• ATS integrations: Integrates with popular applicant tracking systems (ATS) such as Greenhouse, Lever, and JazzHR.
• Candidate-friendly experience: Offers mobile-friendly assessments with a straightforward interface, enhancing accessibility and candidate engagement.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• User-friendly interface: Simplifies the creation and management of assessments with an intuitive design. • Diverse test options: Offers a wide range of tests, allowing for comprehensive evaluation of candidates’ skills and aptitudes. • Efficient candidate screening: Reduces time-to-hire rates by identifying top candidates quickly.	• Pricing concerns: Has a confusing pricing model, which some users feel may be expensive for small businesses or startups. • Customer support limitations: Can be slow to respond to user queries, impacting timely issue resolution for customers.

Pricing

• Free: Access to essential skills tests with limited features.
• Starter: From $83 per month, billed annually for additional test options and basic integrations.
• Pro: From $127 per month, billed annually for advanced features, including ATS integrations and comprehensive test libraries.

6. Xobin

Xobin is a cloud-based candidate assessment platform for HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers. The platform provides a comprehensive talent operating system that includes pre-hire tests, psychometric assessments, video interviews, and applicant tracking features, enabling a more integrated approach to talent acquisition.

Key features

• Extensive assessment library: Access 1,500+ validated skill assessments covering various domains for a thorough evaluation of candidates’ competencies.
• Video proctoring: Implement video-proctored assessments to prevent malpractice and ensure the credibility of test results.
• Customizable tests: Tailor assessments to specific job roles and requirements, allowing for a personalized evaluation process.
• Automated video interviews: Conduct AI-driven video interviews to speed up the initial screening phase and identify suitable candidates efficiently.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates with existing applicant tracking systems and other HR tools to improve workflow efficiency.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• User-friendly interface: Simplifies the creation and management of assessments. • Responsive customer support: Understands and resolves issues quickly and effectively. • Comprehensive feature set: Offers a wide range of functionalities, including skill assessments, psychometric testing, and video interviews, providing a holistic recruitment solution.	• Limited advanced features: Lacks a more current question bank. • Pricing issues: May not be the best fit for companies with ad-hoc hiring recruitments.

Pricing

• Pricing is available from the vendor on request.

7. HackerRank

HackerRank is a developer skills platform designed to help HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers evaluate software developers based on their coding abilities. Unlike Mettl, which offers a wide range of assessments, HackerRank specializes in technical skill evaluations, providing tools to assess developers’ real-world problem-solving capabilities.

Key features

• Certified assessments: Offers standardized, role-based tests, launched in minutes to evaluate candidates’ proficiency in specific technical domains.
• Plagiarism detection: Uses AI-powered tools to prevent dishonest practices during assessments.
• Real-world questions: Assesses technical hires with coding challenges that mirror real-world scenarios straight from the rich question bank.
• Integrations: Connects seamlessly with ATS and other HR tools to improve the recruitment workflow.
• Interview platform: Conducts live technical interviews with a collaborative coding environment, facilitating a real-time assessment of problem-solving approaches.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• Comprehensive assessment library: Has an extensive range of coding challenges covering multiple programming languages and difficulty levels. • Effective plagiarism detection: Maintains the integrity of assessments by identifying dishonest practices. • User-friendly interface: Is intuitive and easy to navigate, simplifying the process of creating and managing assessments.	• Premium pricing: May be out of reach for smaller organizations or startups with limited budgets.

Pricing

• Starter: $165 per month, billed annually at $1,990, for one user, access to Screen and Interview, advanced plagiarism detection, 2,000+ questions, and 120 attempts per year.
• Pro: $375 per month, billed annually at $4,490 for unlimited users, integrations with ATS and calendar tools, 4,000+ questions, and 300 attempts per year.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for tailored solutions with custom users and attempts, certified assessments, extensive integrations, full library access with 7,500+ questions, advanced user roles and permissions, and the capability to test up to 100,000 candidates at once.

8. Codility

Codility is a technical recruitment platform designed to assist HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers in evaluating the coding skills of potential candidates. Codility specializes in coding tests and technical interviews, providing tools to assess real-world problem-solving abilities in developers.

Key features

• CodeCheck: Offers a library of coding tasks to create assessments that evaluate candidates’ programming skills across various languages and technologies.
• CodeLive: Facilitates live technical interviews with collaborative coding environments, enabling interviewers to assess problem-solving approaches in real time.
• CodeEvent: Supports hosting of coding competitions and hackathons to engage and identify top talent.
• AI-resistant task library: Provides a collection of coding tasks designed to assess candidates’ abilities without the risk of AI-generated solutions.
• Proctoring and plagiarism detection: Includes features like screen proctoring, behavioral event detection, and similarity checks to maintain assessment integrity.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• Comprehensive task library: Offers extensive coding tasks covering multiple programming languages and difficulty levels. • Effective proctoring tools: Includes screen recording and plagiarism detection to guarantee the authenticity of assessments. • User-friendly interface: Is intuitive and easy to navigate, simplifying the process of creating and managing assessments.	• Initial setup time: May take too long to set up customized assessments.

Pricing

• Starter: $1,200 annually, including 120 invites per year, access for one platform user, and a starter task library with over 1,200 questions.
• Scale: $500 monthly or $5,000 annually for 25 invites per month, access for three platform users, and a core task library with over 1,800 questions.
• Custom: Contact Codility for personalized pricing and packages tailored to specific needs.

9. WeCP

WeCP (We Create Problems) is an AI-driven talent assessment platform designed to assist HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers in evaluating technical candidates efficiently.

WeCP specializes in technical skill evaluations, providing a vast library of coding tests and real-world problem scenarios to identify top tech talent.

Key features

• Extensive question library: Gives access to 200,000+ pre-built questions covering more than 2,000 technical skills, enabling comprehensive candidate assessments.
• AI-powered assessment creation: Uses AI to generate role-specific assessments swiftly, ensuring alignment with job requirements.
• Strong anti-cheating measures: Implements video and audio proctoring, browser restrictions, and IP monitoring to maintain assessment integrity.
• Hands-on coding environments: Provides candidates with real-world coding challenges in a simulated environment to gauge practical skills accurately.
• Seamless integrations: Integrates with applicant tracking systems (ATS) and other HR tools.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• User-friendly interface: Offers a seamless design, making it easy to build and manage assessments. • Automated grading: Reduces manual effort and accelerates the hiring process using an AI-driven grading system. • Comprehensive test library: Includes a vast array of customizable tests that allows for tailored assessments that meet specific hiring needs.	• Question selection: Lacks depth of technical questions, according to some users.

Pricing

• Freemium: $0 per month, five credits, face-to-face interviews, ATS integrations
• Premium: $240 per month for 40 credits, advanced skill analytics, learning and development integration, and much more.

10. Harver

Harver is a cloud-based pre-employment assessment platform tailored for HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers aiming to enhance their volume hiring processes.

Harver emphasizes predictive analytics and automation to expedite candidate selection, making it particularly advantageous for organizations with high applicant volumes.

Key features

• Diverse assessment suite: Offers a range of scientifically validated tests, including cognitive ability assessments, personality tests, situational judgment tests, and realistic job previews.
• Predictive analytics: Uses AI-driven algorithms to match candidates’ profiles with job requirements, forecasting potential success and tenure.
• Customizable workflows: Allows tailoring of the recruitment process to align with specific organizational needs and branding.
• Integration capabilities: Syncs with various Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and HR platforms to ensure a cohesive hiring process.
• Candidate experience focus: Incorporates engaging elements like gamified assessments and interactive simulations to enhance the applicant’s journey.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like

❓What’s missing

• Efficient volume hiring: Reduces time-to-hire, particularly in large-scale recruitment scenarios. • Data-driven insights: Includes built-in analytics, providing actionable data that powers informed decision-making and improved quality of hire. • Enhanced candidate engagement: Creates a positive candidate experience using interactive and gamified assessments, which reflects well on the employer brand.

• Learning curve: May be hard to adopt, as some users note the extensive features and customization options require time and training to navigate effectively.

Pricing

• Pricing is available on request.

11. Crystal

Crystal is a personality data platform designed to help HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers understand candidates’ behavioral traits to improve communication and hiring decisions.

Crystal provides deep insights into personality types, enabling more personalized interactions and better team dynamics.

Key features

• Personality assessments: Offers DISC, Enneagram, and other assessments to evaluate individual personality types.
• Communication insights: Provides tailored advice on interacting effectively with different personality profiles.
• Writing assistant: Integrates with email platforms to suggest language that resonates with the recipient’s personality.
• CRM enrichment: Enhances existing CRM data with detailed personality information for better client engagement.
• Team dynamics analysis: Evaluates team compositions to identify strengths, weaknesses, and potential conflict areas.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• Enhanced communication: Reveals personality types, which leads to more effective and empathetic interactions. • Improved hiring decisions: Helps select candidates with great performance and cultural fit. • User-friendly interface: Offers an intuitive design that makes it accessible for users without a psychology or behavioral science background.	• Limited free features: Offers basic functionalities which may not be sufficient for comprehensive analysis.

Pricing

• Free trial: $0 per month; includes basic assessments and limited profile views.
• Premium: $49 per month (billed annually); offers advanced features like premium profile content, personalized communication advice, and 200 new profile credits annually.
• Business: Custom pricing for teams and organizations, including shared profile libraries, team assessments, CRM integration, and a dedicated success manager.
• Enrichment: Custom pricing for high volume profile credits, access to Crystal API, CRM integration, and direct CSV enrichment.

12. Plum

Plum is a comprehensive talent management platform designed for HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers seeking to optimize their workforce strategies.

The platform offers a holistic approach by integrating talent acquisition, management, and culture analysis into a single platform, providing deeper insights into both candidates and existing employees.

Key features

• 360° talent insights: Uses advanced psychometric data and analytics to understand workforce talents and potential comprehensively.
• Tailor-made role fit: Matches candidates to roles they are naturally suited for, aiming to reduce turnover and enhance job satisfaction.
• Culture gap analysis: Assesses and identifies gaps between current and desired company culture, facilitating targeted improvements.
• Leadership potential identification: Recognizes and nurtures future leaders through data-driven insights.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates with popular Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Greenhouse and SAP SuccessFactors.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• Comprehensive talent management: Provides deep insights into both candidates and existing employees, helping with effective talent utilization. • Improved employee retention: Offers a role matching feature that may contribute to higher job satisfaction and reduced turnover rates. • User-friendly interface: Is accessible for users without extensive technical backgrounds.	• Customization challenges: Can be difficult to create custom tests, according to some reviewers.

Pricing plans

Pricing is available on request.

13. iMocha

iMocha is a pre-employment skills assessment platform tailored for HR teams, recruiters, and hiring managers aiming to evaluate candidates effectively. Compared to Mercer Mettl, iMocha offers a more extensive library of skill tests and emphasizes emerging tech skills, providing a broader range of assessment options.

Key features

• Extensive skills library: Provides access to 2,500+ tests covering IT, finance, language proficiency, and cognitive abilities.
• AI-driven assessments: Offers adaptive skill tests that adjust based on candidate responses.
• Live coding interviews: Includes real-time coding assessments with whiteboarding tools for technical roles.
• Customizable assessments: Delivers the ability to create tests tailored to specific job roles and requirements.
• Proctoring and anti-cheating measures: Includes features like webcam monitoring, plagiarism detection, and browser restrictions to maintain test integrity.

Pros and cons

✅ What we like	❓What’s missing
• Comprehensive skill coverage: Offers an array of available tests to support the candidate screening process. • Responsive customer support: Delivers prompt, helpful feedback. • Effective cheating prevention: Maintains test authenticity with robust proctoring features.	• Complex customization: May require a learning curve to adopt the customization options. • Data analysis limitations: Lacks intuitive data analysis features, according to some users.

Pricing

• Basic: $400 per month for five recruiters and 600 candidate assessments per year
• Enterprise: Custom pricing is available on request.

Combine skills assessments with full-cycle hiring features for better results

AI-based skills tests are a great start, but true hiring efficiency comes from integrating assessments into a complete workflow. Pre-employment testing shouldn’t exist in isolation. Ideally, it should connect the dots between assessments and the rest of your hiring workflows.

While tools such as Mettl are functional, they only cover one stage of the hiring process. That means extra manual work — like transferring candidate data, updating your ATS, and communicating results — all of which wastes time and risks losing top talent to faster-moving companies.

For example, if you use Mettl to screen a candidate, you may still need to add them manually to your ATS and follow up on their performance. By the time you do, they may have accepted another offer elsewhere.

That’s where tools like Toggl Hire make a difference. They allow you to test, filter, and shortlist candidates while keeping communication smooth.

Get a personalized demo of Toggl Hire’s skills assessments

Skills tests are a great start to a hiring journey, but you have to take the candidate all the way to accepting an offer, the onboarding, and their first days in your company. And unfortunately, Mettl won’t get you there, but we have something that will.

Ready to save time and money and make your applicants fall in love with your employer brand? Book a personalized demo of Toggl Hire today to explore our full-cycle hiring options.

You may be a stellar project manager with a fantastic team, but neither means much if you can’t manage your time. Poor time management skills impact everything from resource allocation to stakeholder satisfaction.

It can lead you to that dark place where you start saying undignified things like, “We’re going to need to push back this timeline.” We hear you — it’s not always easy to make accurate time estimations.

Complex projects, changing scope, and optimism bias are all common obstacles. But by not building this muscle, you’re leaving mountains of cash on the table.

This guide teaches you how to estimate and plan your time like a whizz. We’ll give you some killer techniques, a step-by-step guide, and even some tool recommendations to support you.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• Time estimation is a key part of project planning and management. It involves predicting how long every task in a project plan will take.
• There are many different ways to make these time estimates, such as the bottom-up, PERT, or Critical Path methods. Each has its own pros and cons and is best suited to a particular kind of project.
• Tracking your projects over time is a great way to estimate more accurately over time. It builds a bank of historical data to lean on when scoping out future projects, which leads to a professional and streamlined client experience.
• Toggl Track and Toggl Plan are a dynamic duo designed to get the most out of your project planning, time estimates, and accurate resource allocation — in a simple and light way.

What is time estimation in project management (and why is it so important)?

Time estimation predicts how long a certain task will take to complete. While that sounds simple enough, in project management, time estimation is critical for setting realistic timelines, managing resources, and avoiding project delays.

Inaccurate task time estimates are a huge cause of project failures. Bad estimates can lead to cost overruns, stakeholder dissatisfaction, and team frustration, making them a pretty important skill for project managers.

The most common time estimation techniques

Here are five popular time estimation techniques you need if you want to effectively plan and organize your tasks.

Bottom-up and top-down estimating

The bottom-up estimation method breaks projects down into smaller tasks that are easier to estimate and then adds them up to get an overall estimate. It’s a great technique for well-defined projects with clear deliverables and the need for detailed, accurate planning (e.g., software development and construction projects).

Critical path

The critical path method helps you identify which tasks, if delayed, will delay your entire project. It’s a great fit for projects with complex dependencies, many tasks, and where timelines are crucial.

Say you’re launching a marketing campaign for a new product. You need to:

• Create the product landing page (4 days)
• Write social media content (3 days)
• Write and send the email blast (2 days, depending on the landing page)
• Schedule social media posts (1 day, depending on writing social media content)
• Launch the product campaign (1 day, depending on everything else)

In this example, the two chains of dependent tasks are:

• Path 1: Create product landing page > email blast > launch campaign (7 days)
• Path 2: Write social media content > schedule it > launch campaign (4 days)

The critical path is Path 1, as it takes longer to complete than Path 2. This means a delay in any task in Path 1 will delay the whole project. The Critical Path estimation process prioritizes tasks, sticks to the project schedule, and allocates resources for successful project completion.

PERT

The US Navy originally developed the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (or PERT) to plan and execute complex projects.

It allows you to order tasks logically in a sequence, estimate how long each task will take, and quickly find the critical path. It’s best for projects with a high degree of uncertainty where multiple outcomes are possible and the need for probabilistic estimates exists (e.g., R&D projects, highly innovative endeavors.)

The PERT method calculates the average of three different time estimates:

1) Optimistic (O) = best-case scenario

2) Pessimistic (P) = worst-case scenario

3) Realistic (R) = most likely scenario

To find the time estimate, use the three-point estimation formula:

Expected Time (TE) = (O+4R+P​)/6

Historical data analysis

Historical data analysis tells you how much time a similar task will take based on past projects.

This is a pretty straightforward yet data-driven approach to project estimation. It helps set realistic milestones, approach a new project confidently, and reduce uncertainty.

For example, timing repetitive tasks with a time tracking tool can help team members estimate their time more accurately in the future.

Subject matter expert estimation

Another “low-tech” way to estimate project scope and time is to consult with those with similar project experience. It’s a great option when your project requires specialist knowledge or when previous data is limited. Expert insights can uncover nuances and potential pitfalls you might not see, which would cost extra time to resolve yourself.

You might be surprised how much their time frame differs from your initial estimates.

How to estimate time for a project accurately

Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of accurate project estimation. Here’s how to accurately estimate hours for your projects and their subsequent tasks, in six steps:

Step	Description
Establish the work that needs to be done	List every task the project contains to better account for them
Apply the right estimate technique	Review available estimation techniques and choose one that suits your project
Don’t forget the revision hours	Add in extra time for review and revision
Plan for everything going wrong	Round your time up to add contingency padding
Bring all the time estimates together	Add up all your tasks, revision, and contingency to get your first estimation
Review, revise, and finalize the estimate	Review your estimate with tools and teammates to ensure it’s realistic

1. Establish the work you need to do

A recipe doesn’t just say, “Make stew, you’re done.” It lists out all the steps to create your meal. And so should you.

You’ll need to list every task required to complete your project. Also known as the project discovery phase, this is where you scope out the project and gather all the info you need to understand every painstaking detail you need to complete.

Once you’ve fully scoped out your project, you can move on to creating a work breakdown structure (WBS). This foundation will set clear expectations with the project team, avoid overlooking activities, and understand how the different tasks break down into project phases.

You can supplement this by getting expert input or a time tracking software like Toggl Track — it keeps all your historical data in the ‘reports’ tab, so you can lean on past projects and get an overview of:

• What tasks were involved
• How long each task took

A complete log of past project tasks at your fingertips!

2. Apply the right estimate technique

Earlier, we shared five different estimate techniques. Obviously, you can’t use all five of them (I mean, you could, but you really don’t need to).

So, how do you choose the best one for your project? That depends on the project’s complexity and how accurate your estimate needs to be.

It’s worth mentioning that combining time estimation methods can help build an even more comprehensive total estimate.

That said, aiming for 100% accuracy is not worth the time you’ll waste trying to “be accurate.” Getting a general number for your tasks and projects is a far better approach. 80/20, you know?

That’s because there are several factors that can lead to your project getting drawn out, including:

• Scope creep due to unforeseen requests or shifting priorities from leadership.
• Unclear project goals causing confusion and inefficiencies amongst teams.
• Ineffective resource allocation, whether human, financial, or technological, can delay phases of the project.

3. Don’t forget the revision hours

Once you’ve done the bulk of the work, it’s easy to overlook the time spent “proofreading.”

Revising tasks takes a considerable amount of time, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved. But the length of this phase varies greatly from industry to industry, tending to especially laborsome in:

• Software development
• Website bug testing
• Graphic design
• Tech development

Clients tend to get miraculously more thoughtful and decisive when it’s going to cost them extra.

So, how do you know how many revision hours to add?

There’s no easy answer to this — experience definitely helps, so lean on previous projects and external advice. Even if this project phase isn’t as accurately scoped out as the rest, it pays to include it in your estimates anyway, as revisions are inevitable.

This will help you manage contingencies better and maintain your project timelines.

4. Plan for everything going wrong

Speaking of contingencies….things go wrong. It’s part of life. Adding contingency hours is a good idea, no matter what industry you’re in or what kind of estimation method you chose in step 2.

Contingency planning cushions potential delays, sick days, or an extra last-minute feature. It’s your best bet against potential risks because it minimizes disruptions. And if nothing actually goes wrong, and you finish early… well, that’s the dream!

As with revision estimates, the number of required contingency hours is hard to predict when starting out. It will mainly come down to your own expert judgment and experience. But that’s where a tool like Toggl Track can build up your expertise much faster.

Just track your current project (you can even label “contingency time,” so you know what percent of time was spent off-piste), and use it as a basis for future estimates — easy peasy!

5. Bring all the time estimates together

y now, you should have a pretty accurate timeline of what needs to happen to deliver the project on time. It’s time to put the pieces together into our first (but not last!) estimate.

You should have something like this — a table of all individual tasks and their time estimates:

Phase	Tasks	Hours to complete
Design	– Create wireframes (4hrs) – Create mockups (4hrs) – Create brand guidelines (8hrs)	16hrs
Development	– Build a WordPress theme (10 hours) – Build a desktop and mobile version of all pages (20 hours)	30hrs
Testing	– Test functionality of the website (8hours) – Update/test plugins (2 hours)	10hrs

Next, you’ll need to identify dependencies between tasks and make sure they’re accounted for in your timeline. This step can drastically shorten your estimate.

For example, if designing your website and writing your copy will take 10 hours, that doesn’t mean your website will take 20 hours to build. If they run in parallel — with the right resource allocation (i.e., two workers) — you can get it done in half the time because they’re not dependent on each other.

Once you understand the dependencies, you know how to allocate resources and team members without overworking them. You can also anticipate when you need them and how best to place them for optimum success and cost efficiency.

For example, you might need five developers working simultaneously, but only for three out of the 12 weeks of the project. This resource allocation knowledge is vital when calculating project costs and providing accurate estimates.

6. Review, revise, and finalize the estimate

As with any goal, you want to keep your estimate realistic, accurate, and achievable.

Use your best judgment, but don’t forget other valuable inputs:

1. Ask your team their opinion
2. Seek confirmation from experts
3. Review similar past projects if you have them

How does your estimate hold up? Again, you’ll never get it 100% accurate, so don’t worry too much about small discrepancies. But if it deviates substantially, you’ll want to go back to the drawing board and identify the culprit.

Once you start the process, it’s crucial to be agile and adjust as you go. No matter how detailed and well-researched your plan, it’s unlikely everything will work out exactly as planned.

Speak to your team as the project progresses. Ask them how they’re coping with their workloads, how they feel about the estimates, and if they have any observations to improve the process. The practice of asking for this qualitative feedback builds trust and resilience among the team, which is key to efficient teamwork and project execution.

Compare your current estimate to the overall time of past projects inside of Toggl Track (and pin the most important ones so you can come back to them more easily).

Ultimately, what’s important here is keeping your finger on the pulse of your team’s sentiments. This will help you better represent their needs to stakeholders while maintaining alignment with project goals and leadership expectations.

Tips for better project time estimation

We have two final tips to share so you can start planning your projects with precision.

Don’t fall for the planning fallacy

The planning fallacy describes the human tendency to underestimate how long a task will take. We tend to ignore certain costs and risks, even if we’ve encountered them before (and we’re supposed to be logical creatures?)

This fallacy generally comes from:

1. Having optimism in our abilities, budget, luck, and energy
2. Getting set in our initial idea of how long something will take, regardless of new information
3. Ignoring and dismissing negativity
4. Facing pressure to finish tasks/projects quickly

Let’s say you work as a web developer for a digital marketing agency. You’ve probably built quite a few websites over the years. When a client requests a new landing page, you figure it’ll only take a week to build — and that’s all the time you give yourself to do it.

But then (predictably!), things go wrong. The client takes two extra days to approve the color scheme. The internet goes down for five hours. Your dog gets sick on Thursday.

And suddenly, meeting the deadline seems impossible. You’re scrambling to negotiate a new deadline — unsure of how the client will react.

Track time (accurately)

Time tracking tools like Toggl Track are game-changers for time estimates. By tracking time with precision, you’ll have a bulletproof data-backed overview of how your time was actually spent on a project. Line it up to your estimate and dissect it.

• You’ll see where you over- and under-estimated time
• You’ll see whether you baked in enough contingency or revision time
• You’ll have historical data to lean on when the next project comes around
• You’ll have actual data to base future time estimates on
• You’ll get a clearer picture of how you used certain resources and where you could’ve optimized further

It’s really a no-brainer if you ask us…

Achieve better project planning with Toggl Track

Toggl Track exists to make your work life lighter and simpler. Our timer is so much more than a little stopwatch — it’s a powerful ally in project time estimation. It boasts several features that make project planning a breeze, like:

• Time tracking for historical data analysis
• Advanced reporting for resource allocation insights and identifying trends
• Integrations with popular project management tools

Start making data-driven decisions and take your time estimation efforts to the next level. Get started with a free Toggl Track account (which you can even integrate with Toggl Plan, our very own project management software!)

Team of 20 or more? Book a demo and see what Toggl Track can do for you.

Timesheets — love ‘em or hate ‘em, they keep businesses running and paychecks flowing. But creating manual timesheets? Well, that’s as much fun as watching paint dry. And it’s not just that it’s boring — it’s inefficient. When humans are involved in logging details about their work hours, you can expect inaccurate data and less time spent on high-impact work.

The solution is timesheet automation, which streamlines the process of capturing this critical data — all in real time with no (or at least very little) effort required on your part. Seamless time tracking happens in the background, recording your time on different tasks.

The result? More accurate timesheets, higher productivity, cost savings, and extra time to spend on the work that matters. Sound good? Read on to learn more about automated timesheets and how to implement them in your business.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• Automated timesheets run in the background, recording, managing, and categorizing your time working on different tasks.
• Compared to manual timesheets, automation improves data quality, uncovers crucial project insights, streamlines customer billing, and generates greater efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
• Onboarding to a new automatic timesheet tool is simple if you follow the right steps. You’ll identify your requirements, analyze the key features, trial different tools, select the best platform, and then onboard.
• Toggl Track’s clean UI, simple time tracking, custom integrations, and budget-friendly pricing make it the obvious choice for automatic timesheets.

How do automated timesheets work?

Automated timesheets run in the background to record and manage the time you spend on different types of work. As a common part of any quality time tracking software, automated timesheets use a mix of smart timers, integrations, and AI monitoring to capture accurate time entries and automatically link them to tasks, projects, or clients.

Here are two real-life examples of how automated timesheets slot into the time tracking process:

• Example 1: A solicitor sits down to re-write a client case file. Before getting stuck in, she starts a browser-based smart timer that tracks her admin time automatically. Once she stops it, the time entry is seamlessly posted against the client’s project record.
• Example 2: A designer works on a new website design project. He has a background time tracking app installed on his computer, which monitors his time in different applications. Based on the app’s configuration, it knows which activities are chargeable or non-chargeable and updates the timesheets automatically.

7 benefits of automated timesheets vs. manual timesheets

Manual timesheets are slow, frustrating, and riddled with data errors. On the other hand, automatic timesheets boost productivity, profitability, and employee engagement.

Still don’t believe us? Here are some of the pitfalls of manual timesheet solutions. They:

• Need manual time entries, which are time-intensive and inefficient
• Are prone to human error, bias, and laziness
• Generate inaccurate data that skews reporting and budgeting
• Produce incorrect invoices that damage profitability and client trust
• Disengage employees with boring admin work

Automation provides the perfect alternative. Let’s break down some benefits of automated timesheet software.

1. Better data quality

For most management software, the less manual entry required, the greater the data quality. That’s true of an automated timesheet system, too, with automation driving fewer errors, greater reliability, and data standardization that levels up your management information.

2. Accurate billing

For many companies, time tracking data directly feeds into billable hours, invoicing, and getting paid. With manual entries, you risk miscalculations, missing time off periods, and referencing inaccurate pricing tables — all leading to poor outcomes.

But digital timesheets boost data accuracy, enabling you to reduce client disputes, avoid unnecessary revenue loss, and maximize profitability.

3. Reliable project insights

Alongside getting paid, time management information also monitors team performance. This is especially true for projects where teams must manage task progress, resource allocation, and timelines.

Automated timesheets provide the best foundation for managing projects effectively, providing the insights you need to reallocate resources, keep deliveries on track, and identify risks before they become issues.

4. Easier compliance

Keeping an eye on employee work hours is also essential for compliance. Whether it’s conforming to labor laws, eliminating timesheet fraud, or evidencing your approval process, automated timesheets generate data you can trust.

Better yet, there are no clunky Excel timesheet templates, manual reports, or paper timesheets, as most time tracking tools generate audit-ready reports in a couple of clicks.

5. Increased focus & productivity

Every minute an employee spends filling in timesheets is a minute they aren’t doing their actual job. Automated timesheets save employees from unnecessary admin, enabling them to focus on more valuable workflows.

Reducing interruptions and unnecessary admin boosts team productivity. Your team members will have more time to plunge into value-adding work.

6. Profitability management

Better insights, accurate billing, and improved productivity come together to boost your return on investment and profitability. Accurate timesheet data is the foundation of profit and productivity tracking, which is why automated timesheets simply make sense.

This data also helps you identify additional efficiency opportunities for the future, such as reducing wasteful tasks, reducing unnecessary overtime, and drawing out patterns of wasted employee time.

7. Better user experience

Last but not least, automated timesheets provide a better employee experience. No one wants to fill out timesheets, so by making the process as user-friendly as possible, it’s easier for your team to record their time.

Whether it’s a mobile app, AI functionality, or background tracking, automated timesheets feel less of a chore and become a natural part of the day-to-day workflow (and that’s not just coming from us; our customers tell us this, too).

How to implement automated time tracking in your team

So, you’re ready to take on automatic time tracking, but where do you start? Follow the steps below to select the right tool for your needs:

1. Document your requirements

Start by clearly understanding why you need automatic timesheets, the problem you’re trying to solve, and your current challenges. Knowing your requirements gives you a solid foundation to make the best choice of tool.

2. Identify key features

Next, consider the key functionality required in a time tracking tool. This could include a whole host of things, such as multiple clients, project management, payroll processing, clock in/clock out, mobile apps, billable hours, or even approval flows.

3. Look around at suppliers

There are a whole host of timesheet apps out there, so don’t be afraid to look around at different suppliers. At this point, also consider your budget, required onboarding support, and any tool integrations (e.g., project management tools).

4. Take tools for a spin

Most providers offer a free trial to get a taste of their tool. We’d strongly recommend this to get a real feel for how the tool works and whether it will meet your needs. Try each tool with two or three team members and listen to their valuable feedback.

5. Make your choice and onboard

Once you’ve taken some tools for a spin, pick the one that works best for you and onboard your team. Remember, onboarding is critical, so invest time to communicate, train, and re-train team members on the new tool.’

Setting up automated time tracking in Toggl Track

Now, about that best choice of tool part….here’s how easy it is to set up automated time tracking with Toggl Track:

1. Sign up for Toggl Track (for free! 👀)

Unlike our competitors, you can sign up to Toggl Track for free for up to five users. Simply head to our website, create a Toggl Track Free account, and invite your team to join. Once in, you can start creating your automatic timesheets.

2. Start tracking time on every task

Our Timer Mode lets you start tracking time automatically in the background for every task you complete. You can launch a timer from within the desktop or mobile app or even with our handy browser or Jira integration. Select a client or project, set it as billable or non-billable, and away you go!

3. Configure timesheet approvals

Need to keep track of your team’s hours? The timesheet approval function is perfect for you. Simply enable timesheet approvals, assign the right approvers, and configure helpful reminders for your team.

Once set up, it’s easy for the team to submit their automatically populated timesheets and even easier for managers to approve them.

4. Generate and share timesheet reports

Toggl Track reports give you powerful data at your fingertips. Weekly timesheet reports are common for our users, with the ability to filter by team, client, project, or task to give you the exact insights you need.

If you need to get your time data out of Toggl Track, you can save custom reports as PDFs (with charts), Excel, or CSV files, ready to share with your clients.

5. Use data to plan projects, improve efficiency, and maximize productivity

Timesheet data is great, but the real value is transforming it into detailed business insights. Toggl Track’s Insights function deepens your team’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability, giving you everything you need to bill clients, make decisions, and drive your business forward.

5 timesheet software implementation challenges (and how to overcome them)

It’s clear that automated timesheets are the best way to capture employee time — but implementing any new software can send a few curveballs our way. Here’s how to overcome each of them:

1. Employee resistance

• The challenge: Not everyone likes change. It can be unsettling to learn a new tool, with a fear of the unknown, not wanting to get it wrong, and the increased effort alongside your day job.
• The solution: You have to support employees through the change curve with clear communication about the benefits and how it will help them in the long run. Offer training and support to learn new processes and allow enough time for the team to adjust.

2. Technological complexity

• The challenge: Some tools try to do too many things, making them complex, confusing, and difficult to adopt.
• The solution: When choosing a tool, look for one that’s simple, intuitive, and has a clean user interface. Alongside that, prioritize providers with strong customer support and tutorials to ensure a smooth onboarding process.

3. Integration challenges

• The challenge: If your new tool doesn’t fit into your ecosystem, it quickly becomes tiresome, with a lack of employee engagement leading to incomplete data.
• The solution: Select a system with a broad range of integration capabilities and align with your IT teams to ensure compatibility. Whether it’s a native API, middleware like Zapier, or an ability to export/import data, make sure you have a way to connect crucial workflows.

4. Adoption barriers

• The challenge: Some employees may not fully utilize their new system, leading to incomplete data, poor insights, and inaccurate billing.
• The solution: Give employees a say in how the system works and the benefits it offers. After that, it’s about clearly setting expectations and finding ways to identify and overcome any day-to-day challenges.

5. Data security concerns

• The challenge: If it’s not done right, time tracking can quickly invade privacy, with it feeling like Big Brother is watching over your shoulder.
• The solution: Look for a tool with strong privacy policies and clear communication on how to use time tracking data. Demonstrate this to your team to boost transparency and provide the opportunity to ask questions.

Automate time entries easily with Toggl Track

Manual time tracking is full of waste, inefficiency, and frustration. But, automatic timesheets take the pain away from time tracking, working automatically to simplify workflows, reduce admin errors, and create actionable insights that improve efficiency.

There are a lot of automatic timesheet tools out there, but Toggl Track offers:

• A clean and simple user interface that makes it easy for teams to track their time.
• Integrations with your favorite tools, such as Asana, Jira, QuickBooks, Salesforce, and Slack.
• Powerful timesheet reporting and detailed insights that help you improve efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
• A cost that doesn’t blow your budget — free for up to five users, then as little as $9 per user/mo.

If that sounds good, it’s easy to sign up for Toggl Track for free — just two clicks and no credit card required. Better yet, if you’re a team of over 20, book a free demo to understand how Toggl Track can slot seamlessly into your business workflows!

A job isn’t just technical or physical effort; it’s also emotional labor…and many workers feel worn out. 

Half of global workers (roughly 1.8 billion people) struggle with burnout. Women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and remote workers are even more likely to board the burnout express train repeatedly. 

Feeling depleted after a long work marathon is normal, but continuously pushing yourself (or others) to perform at their limits is unsustainable. As a manager, you risk losing your best people, undermining team morale, and jeopardizing organizational success…while also boarding the same burnout express. 🚄

The good news? We’ve got plenty of tips and tricks to help you recognize, avoid, and overcome burnout in your organizations. 

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• Employee burnout manifests as reduced productivity, constant exhaustion, and emotional detachment from work. It can also include more severe physical symptoms, signaling overexertion. 

• The scale of workplace burnout is growing every year as companies push for greater productivity, higher profitability, and faster results amid fast technology changes and financial uncertainty. 

• Employee well-being often goes on the back burner, especially when businesses want to cut costs. But investments in your people pay manifold — in higher worker productivity, stronger talent retention, and better financial performance. 

• To prevent employee burnout, managers need to be more intentional about managing workloads, assigning priorities, and monitoring performance. They can also work on modeling better lifestyle behaviors themselves. 

• Pushing your people harder or resorting to workplace surveillance technologies is never the answer to higher people productivity. It’s another recipe for accelerating burnout and talent attrition. 

• Responsible time-tracking tools like Toggl Track can diagnose the early signs of burnout, improve capacity management, and coach your people to build healthier productivity habits. 

What does employee burnout look like?

Burnout is our bodies’ ‘shut-down’ reaction to unmanaged chronic workplace stress. It initially manifests as behavioral, psychological, and physiological cues:

• Decreased productivity due to mental fog, procrastination, and lack of motivation
• Growing self-doubt, personal insecurities, or hopelessness toward your job
• Increased irritability, cynicism, and emotional detachment from your work or distrust toward the employer
• Absenteeism and avoiding responsibilities, aka doing the bare minimum or quiet quitting 
• Constant cognitive fatigue, lost concentration, and difficulties in rational decision-making
• Diminished self-worth and accomplishments when no work feels ‘good enough’
• Troubled sleeping, changed appetite, weight loss, and more frequent mild illnesses like colds
• Chronic fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, and other signs of deteriorating physical wellbeing

The first signs of job burnout are often subtle. “It’s tough to spot burnout because many people hide it, as they don’t want to seem unreliable or risk falling behind, especially in a hustle culture like the one in America,” says Anand Mehta, Executive Director of AMFM Healthcare. 

Burnout can also be confused with regular workplace stress, which is often temporary and doesn’t result in overwhelming depletion. Because of this confusion, managers often fail to notice the early warning signs or write these off as character flaws like poor time management or a lack of work ethic.

How common is employee burnout?

Workplace burnout is pervasive.

At the start of 2025, over two-thirds (66%) of American employees and nine in ten (91%) Brits experienced high stress, emotional exhaustion, and severe lack of motivation.

Almost every role is affected — from healthcare workers recovering from the pandemic to deskless tech employees pressured to deliver faster, better work. Recent layoffs increased job insecurity and raised expectations for remaining employees. Meanwhile, remote workers struggle to disconnect and focus as employers adopt more invasive performance management software.

Combined with information overload, rapid technological change, skyrocketing living costs, poor management, and rising job demands — quite the melting pot — all these factors create fertile ground for burnout.

Sadly, burnout rates are growing at 15% year on year because companies expect employees to ‘work through their issues’ instead of changing their workplace cultures.

The most common causes of employee burnout

In 2019, the World Health Organization classified burnout as an “occupational phenomenon,” aka something induced by the nature of a person’s job, not their personal life circumstances. 

“Burnout isn’t an employee issue; it’s a leadership failure. It doesn’t happen overnight, either. It’s a slow decline caused by overwork, lack of support, and unclear career growth,” says Luke Beerman, CEO of Freedom Fence FL. 

Many workplaces suffer from systemic problems related to the work environment, management practices, and culture, increasing the risk of burnout.

Unsustainable workload

Occasional ‘busy’ periods are normal for every job, but your people can’t always be maxed out. No one can be on their A-game for eight hours, five (or more) days a week. The human brain simply isn’t designed for more than four hours of daily deep work. 

Yet, there’s an alarming disconnect between managers’ and individual contributors’ perceptions of performance management. In terms of goal management, skill development, and capacity management, managers think they’re doing enough. Workers disagree. 

Lack of progress visibility, poor team time management, and haphazard performance correction leave people with not enough time to handle unrealistic expectations. This accumulative pressure and overwork eventually lead to burned-out employees. 

Toxic workplace practices 

“We discourage sick days unless absolutely necessary”…..“Vacations longer than five consecutive work days won’t get approved”…..“We pit people against each other to determine top performers.” Sadly, all of these statements are still true and reflective of many companies’ cultures.

Three-quarters of US workers have faced a toxic workplace culture, with poor management as the main cause. Micromanagement, favoritism, unhealthy competition, harassment, bias, and disregard for employees’ mental or physical health all lead to burnout.

Sadly, people in customer and patient roles are at an even higher risk of emotional strain. If management pushes for a “the customer is always right” policy, your employees may be pressured to tolerate verbal abuse or physical violence. Ask anyone in an entry-level customer service job.

One in five workers experienced mental health problems at work, and 22% reported harassment in the last 12 months.

American Psychological Association

Lack of role clarity 

In smaller companies, startups, and scale-ups, one person is often expected to ‘wear many hats.’ A Product Marketing manager can juggle their core tasks with occasional design, social media marketing, or sales chores. This strategy might work in the short term, but even high-performers can crumble under excessive workload and constant overwhelm over the longer term. 

Confusion, urgency, and constant context-switching tax our brains, which weren’t designed to multitask. Only 2.7% of people can effectively do several things at once without losing performance. Yet, many workplaces ask their staff to juggle flaming torches while riding a unicycle (not literally, though). 

Inadequate recognition or support

An alarming number of employees feel their efforts are taken for granted. Busy managers often fail to provide timely feedback, while more ambitious co-workers tend to take credit for team effort, which is highly demoralizing.

Only 1 in 3 workers recently received recognition for their good work. Worse, employees who don’t feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to quit in the next year.

Many managers think recognition equals a cash bonus. But what employees crave (and what works best) is “honest, authentic and individualized verbal recognition of their contributions,” according to Gallup.

It pays to invest in employee wellbeing

Content people are more engaged, productive, and creative. It’s a simple (but often overlooked) fact backed by research:

• Improving employee wellbeing in the UK can create extra economic value of £130-370 billion annually, or  6-17% of the country’s GDP. (McKinsey Health Institute)

• Companies with higher employee well-being financially outperform stock indexes like S&P 500, Russell 3000, and Nasdaq Composite. (Indeed) 

• Employees at companies that prioritize their well-being are 71% less likely to report burnout and five times more likely to advocate for their company as an employer. (Gallup) 

• 89% of employees will only consider companies that emphasize employee wellbeing when looking for their next role. (WellHub) 

By making employee experience (EX) a higher-ranking priority, you can attract better talent and minimize the impacts of skills shortages. Plus, this strategy reduces employee attrition by ensuring greater job satisfaction and engagement. 

Engaged people are less likely to show signs of absenteeism, resistance to change, or declining work quality. In fact, when employees are engaged, their productivity jumps by 21%, achieving business profitability leaps of 18%. 

So, what’s the secret to preventing or eradicating workplace burnout?

Getting out of a burned-out state is much harder than preventing it. Workplace burnout recovery can take anywhere from three months to four years (in the most severe cases).

It’s worth remembering that burnout happens when work demands become too much, too often. So, the best thing you can do as a leader is to ‘turn down the heat’ through better communication, improved workplace incentives, and data-driven management decisions. 

Dial down the urgency 

“The expectation of constant availability results in burnout among employees. If employees can’t disconnect, burnout is bound to happen,” says Christian Hed, CMO of Dstny.  

As the speed of business has accelerated, many companies have developed a culture of ‘fake urgency’ — unrealistic deadlines, fast email response times, clogged calendars, and overflowing to-do lists.

Most work tasks aren’t that urgent. They don’t require a ‘one-second response’ or an ‘immediate 10-person meeting.’ Companies like GitLab, Buffer, Automattic, and Toggl all succeed by relying on async communication.

Likewise, many ‘ultra urgent’ tasks can be automated instead of handled by humans — and that’s what Christian Hed advocates:

“Use tools to automate low-value admin work, freeing teams to focus on strategic decisions. For example, we helped Svanströms streamline emergency callouts with our software. This reduced their dropped calls by 60% and doubled customer conversions — without overloading staff.”

Don’t reward overwork 

Many traditional workplace incentives, like bonuses or promotions, based solely on visible outputs, create a workaholic culture. The media doesn’t help, either. We’ve seen countless stories about top-class attorneys or smart doctors working ultra-long hours. But fewer about those leaving work at 4 pm to work on their veggie garden.  

“The fix to burnout starts with stopping the reward system for overwork”, added Beerman. “Make PTO sacred so employees don’t feel guilty for taking breaks. Ditch the always-on mentality by setting real work-life boundaries.” These behaviors should start with managers because they can drain an entire team.

Do you personally have a good work-life balance? Or are you the one messaging your team at odd hours or on Sunday afternoons with random questions? Perhaps you should adjust your expectations and take greater care of your health, too. 

Human Resources professionals can also provide support by creating and reinforcing systems to promote self-care without sacrificing organizational performance. These can include:

• Adopting results and accountability first (RAFT) policies, where employers recognize their people by output and impact rather than input like clocked hours

• Granting employees the autonomy to set their own schedule for roles that allows this 

• Offering paid personal time off and encouraging people to use it without any guilt  

• Enforcing a no-contact policy outside of working hours, protecting the right to disconnect 

• Signposting various wellness programs to help people better cope with stress or mental health issues

Because when your people can disconnect (properly, without FOMO,) they return more productive and engaged than ever. 

Use data to inform your strategy  

Employee burnout comes from prolonged exposure to stressors. To prevent this condition from taking hold, learn when exposure reaches a tipping point — and work on preventing these build-ups. 

“One of the most obvious symptoms of burnout is a change in the employee’s level of engagement, whether it be a decrease in enthusiasm over projects that were once loved, an increase in absenteeism, or even changes in personality, such as irritability or withdrawal,” says Lucas Botzen, HR Expert and CEO of Rivermate. Diagnosing and addressing these root causes is the key step to breaking up the burnout cycle, according to Botzen. 

Managers often notice burnout symptoms first but aren’t always equipped to diagnose the cause. Productivity tools like Toggl Track can provide deeper insights. Our analytics dashboards can help identify when your people are focusing on the wrong priorities and risking project delays (or if they simply feel too overwhelmed due to insufficient capacities).

Time data also helps you understand what undermines productivity and drives exhaustion. Perhaps your engineers are stuck in too many meetings. Or your procurement team is held back by your legacy, slow ERP systems.

“We regularly review our people’s performance and adjust workflows to keep things manageable. These small but intentional changes have made a big difference in helping the team feel supported and valued,” agrees Mehta. 

Aim to build a high-trust culture

All of the above efforts improve workers’ physiological safety, allowing them to raise issues in time without fear or judgment. “I really insist on open communication and regular one-on-one check-ins with managers as a means of catching the signs before they escalate,” says Botzen.

Candid and empathetic conversations with managers, especially for remote teams, are critical for building trust, a key pillar of employee retention. It’s also important to normalize discussions about not just ‘big wins,’ but also mishaps, personal struggles, and ways to overcome them.

Burnout is (usually) about the workplace, not the people

Burnout susceptibility isn’t about skills, work experience, or emotional resilience. Entry-level customer support agents, world-class neurosurgeons, recent accounting graduates, and even CEOs can experience burnout. 

Usually, it’s due to poor leadership decisions, reinforced by the glorification of entrepreneurs (Elon-ahem-Musk), who “work 120-hour weeks and didn’t take more than a week off for 17 years.” Wow, doesn’t that sound fun? 

Leaders’ personal disregard for employees’ well-being taints the entire company culture. People are asked to achieve unachievable targets for company growth, clock in excessive overtime, and work to the point of depletion.

Corporate work cultures have even been blamed for the death of some employees, such as in the heartbreaking story of one 26-year-old E&Y worker who died within four months of joining the consulting firm. 

As managers, we can switch from blaming to helping employees better cope with stress.

This starts with intentionally allocating workloads and using tools to measure your team’s capacity and capability. Team restructuring to accommodate mounting work is another solution, along with business process optimization to eliminate redundancies. If you lack hands on deck, petition stakeholders for extra hiring budgets and push back on unrealistic expectations from higher-ups.

As an executive leader, it’s your job to listen to your people and act on their feedback. If productivity or profitability declines, it’s not always because your teams aren’t doing enough. Often, they may be stretched too thin and lack the resources to meet their targets.

Finally, cultural initiatives like training in new leadership styles, emotional intelligence workshops, and sustainable productivity goals can make a difference. Speaking of which…

Surveillance is definitely not the key to employee engagement

The flip side of burnout is low employee engagement and productivity — something that’s been bothering leaders a lot. 

But instead of defining adequate productivity criteria for different roles, an alarming 75% of respondents to our Toggl Productivity Index survey believe they should have the right to track every employee’s activity to ensure they are delivering results.

The adoption of employee surveillance software is on the rise, with companies logging remote employees’ keystrokes, browser activity, and number of blinks per second via a webcam. 

Chief Surveillance Officers, as we like to call them, often achieve the opposite of what they’re hoping for. Their people engage in ‘productivity theater’ — a flurry of meaningless output activity with little impact. They become less autonomous, demotivated, and eventually quit, leading to painful impacts on your business’s bottom line. 

TLDR: Surveillance and micromanagement only aggravate employee burnout, but never fix it.  

To increase your team’s productivity, you need to consider more strategic changes to your project management, workload allocation, and personal accountability. This starts with gaining better visibility into your workloads.

Toggl Track advocates for time data collection to support, not stifle, your people. Our automatic time tracker allows users to stay in control of all logged time data. We have a fierce anti-surveillance policy. 

Instead, our mission is to give everyone visibility into how work happens, using actionable data for optimizing:

• Workload distribution and task allocation, based on capacity availability 
• Project duration and profitability by eliminating time-wasting steps 
• People’s time management habits and focus on doing deep work 

Get your team back on track

Workplace burnout has an all-around negative impact on businesses: You lose efficiencies, revenue, and top talent. But it’s also really hard to spot, especially in larger teams, unless you can really zoom in on your people’s work habits. 

Toggl Track transforms your team members’ time entries into multi-dimensional data for tracking project performance, forecasting delays, and identifying unsustainable workloads. Optimize your people’s productivity and well-being by helping them build better time management habits designed for a healthy work-life balance and consistently high personal impacts.

Try out Toggl Track analytics features for free!