Managing Remote Teams in the Wellness Industry: The Role of Time Tracking in Enhancing Results
The wellness industry has experienced extensive changes due to their rise in wanting to establish remote work opportunities, allowing some professional wellness businesses to expand as they can work from anywhere and serve clients internationally. However, the issue that arises from forming remote teams is the difficulty in managing time. Without systems in place, remote teams struggle to prioritize tasks, maintain productivity, and avoid burnout.
This article will outline how time tracking can alleviate the issue of time for wellness professionals and ensure a level of productivity is maintained in a remote work environment.
The Growing Need for Remote Teams in the Wellness Industry
With more wellness services being transitioned to online offerings, wellness businesses are looking to increase their use of remote workers. Remote work provides the opportunity for wellness professionals to do what they love, either directly or indirectly serving clients from numerous locations around the globe, and we no longer have to work around geographical boundaries. Yoga instructors, Nutritionists/Nutrition Coaches, and Wellness Coaches all meet with clients through consultations, attend workshops, lead webinars, etc., at various locations without needing to be in person at a single site location.
There are, however, challenges that arise when using remote staff, including time differences and scheduling, communication, and ensuring things get done. It can be easier for teams to work together in a cohesive environment when everyone follows a structured framework. For teams to be productive when working independently, they collaborate and cooperate when tracking their time, regardless of not all being together in one place, and get their work done to the best of their abilities.
The Challenge of Time Management for Remote Teams
In a remote work environment, particularly in the wellness industry, employees often juggle multiple roles. For instance, a wellness coach may be conducting online sessions, managing social media accounts, developing new wellness programs, and responding to clients—all in one day. Without proper time management, these tasks can overlap, leading to inefficiencies and burnout.
The Benefits of Time Tracking for Wellness Teams
Time tracking is not only about being mindful of how many hours an employee is working; rather it is about understanding what those hours are spent on. For wellness teams, tracking time can shed light on:
- Task Prioritization: The tracking of time spent on each task allows wellness professionals to appropriately prioritize their tasks so that they know they are working toward the things that matter most.
- Client Session Management: Time tracking can ensure that client sessions are organized with proper billing and an accurate timeline of the duration of client sessions.
- Avoiding Overwork: When time tracking, remote workers can create healthy boundaries to prevent burnout by making sure they are not overworking, which is a huge issue for the wellness professional.
- Improved Communication: When tracking time spent on communication (i.e., client calls, team meetings), you can identify whether or not the team is effectively communicating and that the time being used is of value.
How Time Tracking Enhances Wellness Team Productivity
Time tracking tools can do way more than account for hours – proper time tracking can help shape the way teams connect and work together towards a goal, particularly within a remote workspace. Here are a few things that time tracking can offer teams of wellness professionals:
1. Accurate Time Logging
With the right tools, wellness professionals can record all the time associated with a client consultation, team meeting, and/or administrative task. This detail helps ensure the precise recording of all billable hours. Whether you are working one-on-one with a client or creating new content for an existing wellness program, as long as you are tracking your time, everything will be recorded appropriately.
2. Team Collaboration and Transparency
One of the biggest challenges working with remote teams is making sure every team member is aligned. There are many time tracking tools with team collaboration features to help you and your team stay on the same page. By using time tracking tools to run reports on time spent on tasks, managers can easily assess not only if tasks are being completed on time, but also whether an employee is taking on tasks they cannot handle. Bringing transparency into the work allows for accountability and helps ensure no one gets left behind.
3. Customizable Features for Wellness Teams
Time tracking tools allow you to use the available features to fit the needs of wellness professionals. If you’re in charge of your own time, you can customize how to categorize your time, for example, you could set them up as “client consultations,” “training program development,” or “marketing & social media.” This helps you see where your time is being spent so you can find ways to improve.
Key Advantages of Using Time Tracking for Remote Wellness Teams
The benefits for remote wellness teams of implementing time tracking tools some key wellness teams include:
- Increased Efficiency: Knowing where time is being spent will enable wellness professionals to determine what unproductive activities they can eliminate and enhance their focus on the high-priority tasks.
- Improved Work-Life Balance: Time tracking helps employees create boundaries to avoid overworking in an industry that leads to burnout.
- Better Client Satisfaction: If you are accurately tracking your time in client sessions, this means you are offering your client the time they contractually agreed to, which increases their satisfaction. This also means you are adding layers of quality assurance in client engagement, which translates to better client retention.
Enhanced Client Experience with Time Tracking
The wellness industry is based on client satisfaction, and time tracking examines several levels of client satisfaction because it ensures clients are getting the time needed and deserved. Using time tracking tools can record a detailed account of the client session and, more importantly, ensure they are receiving the time they paid for. Plus, you can report on what service type or consultations take up the most time, which will allow you to reshape service offerings in a streamlined manner.
Boosting Productivity and Preventing Burnout in the Wellness Industry
Burnout is one of the biggest issues in the wellness industry can sometimes prevent both the employee and client from burning out. The time tracking shows how much time was spent on each task, so employees can work in a more manageable way, with break times and tasks allocated evenly across the day to ensure that employees are working and being productive without compromising their self-care plans in the process.
Time Tracking and Wellness Industry Success
The wellness industry is exceptionally competitive, the ability to successfully manage remote teams from diverse regions can put some businesses at an advantage. The ability to time track enables wellness businesses to be more effective, create a productive workplace and encourage balance in the workplace. Time tracking assists the manager in a more complete picture of where resources are being utilized, assists the workload from becoming too much and increases client experience and satisfaction which will improve the overall success of their business and the manager.
Conclusion
To finish up, it is challenging to manage remote teams in the wellness industry, but it canbe overcome with the right tools and strategies. Time tracking is an important aspect of ensuring remote teams stay productive, hit deadlines, and avoid burnout. Effectively tracking time increases team communication, productivity, and client satisfaction.
With remote work shaping the future of the wellness industry, time tracking tools will play an important role in managing remote teams, which will help to ensure your business is successful long-term. It doesn’t matter if you’re managing a team of personal trainers, wellness coaches, or therapists. Tracking time can assist you to help keep teams on track to reach the desired outcomes.
