To optimize productivity and ensure your workforce achieves their full potential, it is important to understand and manage idle time throughout your company. That involves a clear view of how your employees are spending their time and where idle time might be lurking unproductively in the shadows.

What Is Idle Time?

Idle time is time that an employee is not working because something has stopped them. Often, idle time occurs when employees must wait for something they need to resume working. Broken equipment, late shipments, or overscheduling are all common causes of idle time in which your workforce is present but underutilized.

Idle time is productive time that is lost to inefficiency. The key element of idle time is that it could be resolved or prevented by improved strategy. Understanding the source of the idle time can empower a company to minimize lost time and boost productivity.

Idle Time vs Downtime

There is an important distinction between idle time and downtime. Downtime is typically planned time when the resources to work will be unavailable. This includes scheduled maintenance, training days, and other predicted interruptions in workforce productivity. Downtime may also refer to unplanned outages like power or internet where the company is not in control of whether the employees are able to work.

In contrast, idle time is lost time that is within the company’s control. Broken equipment can be fixed, shifts can be rescheduled, and projects better planned to ensure all on-duty employees are achieving their optimal capabilities.

Tracking Idle Time

Tracking idle time is the key to resolving it. Most companies are not aware of where idle time is occurring in the workforce. This is because it usually requires detailed task management and time tracking to identify where time is being lost. This is especially true because employees often seek ways to keep busy, even if their tasks are not directly useful or productive. 

Tracking idle time allows companies to identify the missing resources or mismanagement that has resulted in underutilized employee time.

Common Causes of Idle Time

Idle time is caused by anything that interrupts an employee’s productivity and causes them to wait. However, not all idle time is due to breakages or mistakes. There are two types of idle time which represent the many possible causes in your workforce: planned idle time and unplanned idle time.

Planned vs. Unplanned Idle Time

Planned idle time is a natural point in the workflow where an employee may find themselves waiting. The company is aware of it, and they have worked it into the schedule. Unplanned idle time involves breakages, interruptions, or inefficient planning that results in an employee waiting when it is not in the schedule.

Causes of Planned Idle Time

• Shift changes
• Setup or teardown
• Machine cooldown mid-shift
• Scheduled employee breaks
• Waiting for vendor shipment arrival

Causes of Unplanned Idle Time

• Broken or missing equipment
• Unscheduled maintenance
• Not enough equipment available
• Too many people / not enough work
• Untrained employees
• Delayed delivery of supplies or materials
• Approval delays
• Quiet quitting

Idle Time in Various Work Environments

Idle time has a different meaning and impact based on your business and work environment.  Each industry faces different challenges related to idle time risks and possible solutions.

Manufacturing

• Maintenance
• Broken machinery
• Supply chain issues

Idle time is a common challenge in manufacturing due to the reliance on materials and working machinery to achieve optimal workforce efficiency. Maintenance and broken machinery regularly cause both planned and unplanned idle time. Unplanned idle time may also result from supply chain delays while downtime may come from unplanned power outages and natural disasters.

Office Environments

• Software failures
• Malfunctioning computers
• Approval delays

In an office environment, idle time is related to desk work and computer usage. Employees rely on the ability to access their workstation and company software to do their jobs. Any problems with computers, equipment, or software can cause unplanned idle time. Approval delays are also an inherent problem in office environments that can be fixed with better planning and time management.

Logistics Operations

• Supply chain issues
• Carrier delays
• Equipment failures

In the logistics industry, efficiency relies on the supply chain in both directions. Employees not only need their own equipment, but they also need deliveries and pick-ups to happen on time or unplanned idle time is the result.

Service Trades

• Parts delivery delays
• Bad weather
• Subcontractor delays

In the trades, idle time is often caused by delays outside the team but could be solved with better planning. Waiting on parts deliveries or subcontractors is a common source of unplanned idle time, while bad weather can delay a project for days.

Should You Track Idle Time?

Tracking idle time offers several advantages for your company and your teams. Idle time is often a failure to plan for possible delays caused either by predictable setbacks or a systemic problem that causes delays without consideration. The first step to restoring your workforce to their full potential is to identify where idle time has occurred.

The rewards of idle time tracking include greater productivity, resources allocation, and employee accountability. By identifying the root cause of idle time, it is possible to make plans that prevent delays and allow each team member to achieve their full capabilities each day.

1. Improved Productivity

Tracking idle time is essential to spot and highlight inefficiencies in your workflow. Idle time may indicate opportunities to improve scheduling, provide better training, or secure more equipment for your workforce. When employees are idle, they are losing productivity. However, most employees do not choose idleness, it is the effect of inefficient planning and avoidable delays.

Idle time can be used as a red flag where productivity can be restored if the cause of the idleness is resolved.

2. Better Resource Allocation

Idle time can help you achieve better resource management. In manufacturing, idle time can highlight the need for preventative maintenance on the machinery. In the office, idle time caused by software may indicate the need for updates, or stack repairs. Idle time can help you balance the distribution of work and supplies or address broken equipment that had previously gone unrepaired.

In this way, idle time tracking provides data-driven decision-making for resource management.

3. Enhanced Employee Accountability

With idle time tracking, you can also reintroduce the responsibility of employees to efficiently use their time. Employees adapt to their work environment. If idle time had become normal, employees will be able to become more accountable for their work when they have all the resources and opportunities they need to exercise their skills on the job without interruption.

Tracking idle time allows you to create a culture of accountability and performance where employees are proud of the work they accomplish each day.

How To Track Idle Time

There are several ways to detect idle time so that you can resolve it. You can track equipment utilization, the achievement of productivity goals, and the total amount of hours worked by each member of your team. Equipment that is stopped is often a sign of idle time, whether it is unused or being maintained. A low productivity workday may also indicate idle time and there may be a cause that can be found.

Automated Time Tracking Tools

The best place to start in tracking idle time is time tracking tools. Software to track time makes it possible to create a baseline for the hours being worked by your team members and even the tasks they are completing.

Automatic time capture makes it easy to determine when employees are on the job and create more accurate timesheet records. Idle time alerts might be issued by software that monitors productivity of either specific machinery and workstations or software task completion.

Calculating Idle Time

Once you are tracking employee time, calculating idle time is simple using the idle time formula.

Idle Time Formula

X (expected productivity) – Y (achieved productivity) = Idle time

By subtracting the total expected amount of work from the amount of work achieved, it is possible to derive the likely amount of time spent idle by your workforce for any given shift. 

For example, if one team completes X amount of work in 8 hours and then completes less work the next day, the difference can be identified as potential idle time.

Baseline Data

Of course, this requires a baseline – an accurate expectation of work. It is easiest to understand in manufacturing, where a certain number of units can be processed at maximum efficiency, and fewer units are processed if a machine is down.

Other forms of productivity may be more difficult to apply the idle time formula unless you have a good, realistic baseline for how much work your team can perform in an hour.

This can be achieved by measuring your team at full performance over time, carefully managed to prevent idle time.

Strategies To Minimize Idle Time

Idle time is a preventable problem once it is detected. How can your company reduce idle time and minimize the productivity loss that it represents? The answer lies in the root cause of each instance of idle time. However, there are several steps you can take that will universally reduce the risk of idle time by addressing the most common causes of systemic idle time in any company.

Streamline Workflows and Processes

Start by addressing any inefficiencies in your workflows and processes. Look for times when employees are expected to wait without the opportunity to be productive such as waiting for approval, machine maintenance, or resource deliveries. Plan to minimize these wait times and ensure that work can be done if certain delays are unavoidable.

Preventive Maintenance for Equipment

Prevent delays due to equipment repairs by planning preventative maintenance. By planning, you can ensure all your company equipment and technology is in good condition by the time an employee needs to use it. You can plan preventative maintenance when the equipment isn’t scheduled to be in use or plan to reassign team members whose equipment is being maintained.

Employee Training and Engagement

Lastly, make sure your employees are fully trained to perform their roles and engaged as members of the team. Training programs ensure employees can perform at their best capabilities. Employee engagement keeps your team invested in pursuing productive workdays and efficient work practices. Cultivating a positive work culture is an important way to not only empower your employees to do their best but also open the channels so they feel comfortable reporting idle time risks like maintenance or management concerns.

How eBillity’s Time Tracker Can Help

Tracking time is a core part of identifying idle time so it can be solved. Time Tracker by eBillity has everything your business needs to begin gathering a clear picture of how and when your employees are at work. Time Tracker’s easy time tracking for both shift work and task management can give you a picture of employee efficiency and allow you to calculate the idle time formula.

With Time Tracker’s integrated time tracking features, you can help employees achieve their optimal success, get paid accurately for the time they work, and help you pursue setbacks like idle time on the job. Time Tracker will remind employees when to take and return from their breaks, when to switch tasks and make the timeclock interaction both easy and accountable.

If you are ready to start tracking idle time and pursue optimal workforce efficiency, Time Tracker is a great tool to help you get a clear view of employee time and idle time start our 14-day free trial today.

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