John Jonas, who has hired Filipino virtual assistants since 2005, argues against time-tracking software. VAs object to privacy invasion and screenshot monitoring, and trackers rarely solve actual problems. He prefers measuring productivity by output and conversation instead.
Chapters
Should I use a time tracker with my virtual assistants? So recently I saw an episode of Superstore where the Walmart Lite Corporation created an app and required all their employees to download it onto their phones. Then they removed clocking in at work in exchange for the app tracking their location all the time. They said to the workers, this makes it easier for you. You don't have to clock in and out anymore. Yeah, well, it. It didn't take the employees very long to realize it was tracking everything about them and nobody was very happy with it. Should you use a time tracker with your Filipino vas? It's a personal preference that there's no right or wrong answer to. I'll just give you my position and your VA's position with it. First, your VA's, they don't like it. Really. That's the end of the story. Internet time trackers are invasive. They don't just track time. They take screenshots of everything you do on your computer in the Philippines because culturally they want to please you. This is especially worrisome because if you were to see a screenshot of anything wrong, they're worried you'd be disappointed in them. Often this worry leads to worse work, not more productive time. Often time tracking has the opposite effect from what you thought it would have. Not always, but often enough that it's probably not having the desired effect you want. Now I'll give you my perspective. I've been working with Filipino VAs since 2005. During that time, there have been multiple times where I've used time trackers, and I either wanted to see how time was being spent or I wanted to track a particular worker. So I asked everyone to use it. Not once did it help solve the problem. And in the end, I personally don't like looking at the screenshots or the time that they spent working. For me, it's always pretty easy to gauge someone's work based on their productivity. I can tell how much time they're spending based on their output. It's usually pretty obvious. When something isn't going well, I just ask them about it. I'll say something like, hey, I noticed things aren't as well as they used to. What's up? This always starts a conversation with them where we can talk through the issue. It doesn't always solve the problem, but often it does. So for me, I don't use a time tracker. However, if you Want to At OnlineJobs ph, we have a time tracker built into the platform. It's called Timeproof and can be found at onlinejobs phtimeproof. It's really easy to use for both you and them. It records your workers time and the reports show up right in your onlinejobs PH account. It's free to use regardless of if you have a paid account or not. You can always use Timeproof with your workers even after canceling your paid account. So to summarize, should you use a time tracker with your virtual assistants? I don't. Your Filipino VAs won't really like it. It doesn't necessarily increase productivity, but it's also personality dependent. If you function better tracking your VA's time with a tracker, go ahead and try it. If you don't like it or don't like the results it produces, it's really easy to stop. My name is John Jonas and I created onlinejobs Ph and Timeproof, the time tracker we have built into onlinejobs.php.
