S u m S. Singbvi is President of Singbvi & Associates, a financial management and strategy con- sulting firm hated in Dayton, Ohio. A CPAand CMA, Singhvi is aho an aajunn professor offi- nance at Miami University and bas published more than eighty articks in professional journals.

Time Management Can Boost White-Collar Productivity

Suren S. Singhvi

Organizations of all sizes around the globe are looking for ways to improve white-collarproductivity. By employing a simple time management technique, individuals can spur theirproductivity and organizations can pinpoint downsizing options. Is time sharing for eueryone? The case study presented here can help you decide.

w hen employing time management, individuals basically define the major activities, projects, and reports that they are respon sible for and keep track of time they spend on these activities

on a daily basis. A time report, shown in Exhibit 1, is used to record the amount of time spent on each activity each day. One could use fifteen or thirty minutes as the smallest unit to measure the time spent on an activity. At the end of a month or quarter, these weekly reports can be summarized by activity to determine how the time was spent. One should use code numbers for each activity (see Exhibit 2). Initially, the activity list will be short, but it expands as the year progresses. “Miscellaneous Special Projects” is listed in Exhibit 2 to cover those projects that are generally not repetitive. After a time report form and an activity code list are established, a person is ready to use time management. The technique can be initiated at the beginning of a year, quarter, or month. One must discipline oneself, however, to log the hours on the time report at the end of each day, which does not take more than a few minutes.

Under the time management approach, the total time spent should be equal to or more than the standard time (that is, forty hours a week). It assumes that a person is either in the office working on a project or away from the office for business travel, vacation, holiday, or excused time off.

A LOOK AT HOW TIME MANAGEMENT WORKS Susee, Inc. is a $1 billion publicly held retail corporation, with stores

located throughout the United States. When the company experienced heavy operating losses, top management hired a consultant to reduce its overhead expenses. The consultant reviewed all staff functions, job descriptions, mission statements, activities, and expense budgets. He noticed that the treasury function used a time management technique. The application of this technique helped the company easily, systematically, and equitably restructure its treasury function.

The vice president of financial management (VP-FM) at Susee, Inc.,

~

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Suren S. Singbvi

Exhibit 1: Time Report

T R 1 2

TOTAL HOURS FOR WEEK 1

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Exhibit 2: Sample Coding System for Time Report

CODE NO.

01 02 03 04 05 06

07 08 09 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

ACTIVITY/FUNCTION

Holiday Excused day off-funeral, medical Vacation Mail review Continuing education-inside the company Professional development-outside (FEI, Treasurers’ meeting)

General meetingshelephone Personnel-appraisal, objectives, merit budget Administrative-filing, dept. budget, time report Miscellaneous special projects Risk management Pension fund

Cash management Banking relations Financingheasing Credit rating Acquisition and divestment analysis

International finance-foreign currency, letters of credit Check and credit card policies Financial planning and board presentations Shareholder relations-dividend, NYSE specialist, transfer agent Foundation investing Interest rate forecasdinterest expense budget Debt management-covenant, negotiation

used time management to improve his productivity. His time report was completed each day and summarized each quarter. The results were shared with top management on a quarterly basis with comments to explain unusual activities that required a significant amount of time. Exhibit 3 summarizes the time he spent on activities for the entire year. The following comments on the summary are worth noting:

1. Risk managementtook about 12 percent of total time spent during the year by the VP-FM, who was assisted by one part-time risk management specialist. This activity included negotiation of different insurance cover- ages with insurance companies directly or through a broker and handling of all claims for losses.

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Suren S. Singbvi

Exhibit 3: Summary of a V.P.-F.M.’s Time Management Report

No. Activities

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1 1 . 12. 13.

Risk management Cash management Financing activities International finance Financial planning Credit management Acquisitions/divestments Pensions fund Shareholder relations Personnel activities Administrative activities Holidays, vacation and sickness Miscellaneous projects

No. of % of Total Hours Actual Time

3 03 329 2 64 162 151 106 121 76 75

198 248 2 80 144 __

12.3% 13.4 10.7 6.6 6.1 4.3 4.9 3 .1 3 .1 8.1

10.1 11.4 5.9

Actual Total Time 2,457 100%

Standard Total time 2,080

2. Cash management activity took about 13 percent of total time spent by the VP-FM, who was assisted by two professionals and one clerk. This activity included commercial banking relationships, short-term bor- rowing and investment policies, negotiation of bank credit agreements, and charitable foundation cash management.

3. Financing took about 11 percent of total time and included investment banking relationships, debt management, lease financing and analysis, credit rating presentations, interest rate management, and arrang- ing intermediate or long-term financing.

4. Internationalfinance took about 7 percent of total time and included the negotiation of letters of credit fees with banks, arranging and monitoring a line of credit to support such financing, and arranging foreign currency to pay for imported merchandise.

5. Financialplanning took about 6 percent of total time of the VP- FM who was assisted by one financial analyst. This activity included the preparation of short- and long-term financial projections, ratio analysis, and communication of such plans to top management.

6. Credit management took about 4 percent of total time and included the establishment of a check acceptance policy, bad check collection policy, and credit card usage policy. The VP-FM also spent time

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Time Management Can Boost Wbite-CoUar Produrrivity

Pedormance reports were submitted to the pension committee of the board on a quarterly basis.

selecting credit card processing companies based on quality of service and low cost.

7. Acquisitions and divestments took about 5 percent of total time of the VP-FM, who assisted the vice president of corporate development and other top managers. This activity included financial evaluation of candi- dates using the discounted cash flow model and other approaches. The VP- FM also helped others in the company evaluate capital expenditure projects, such as building a distribution center and purchasing computers.

8. Pensionfund supemision took about 3 percent of total time and included periodic meetings with the investment manager, the consultant, and the trustee. Performance reports were submitted to the pension committee of the board on a quarterly basis. The VP-FM initiated and monitored various programs, such as security lending and soft dollar commissions to pay for pension-related expenses.

9. Shareholder relations took about 3 percent of total time and included dealing with the stock transfer agent, security analysts, and the New York Stock Exchange specialist. The VP-FM also participated in recommending quarterly common dividend, stock split, and treasury stock programs.

10. Personnel activities, which took about 8 percent total time, included the establishment of annual objectives for each staff, annual appraisals, and development programs (that is, outside seminars and in- house training programs).

11. Administrutiveactivities, which took about 10 percent of total time, included preparing the annual departmental expense budget, general meetings not related to any one project, communications review, and answering telephone calls. The VP-FM was assisted in this area by an administrative assistant.

12. Holidays, vacation, and sickness took about 11 percent of total time. The VP-FM was eligible for four weeks’ vacation a year.

13. Miscellaneousprojects, which took 7 percent of total time, included nonrepetitive projects, such as an audit of a newly established computer system, establishing a competitor intelligence system, and presenting in- house executive development programs.

Susee, Inc.’s VP-FM logged in 2,457 hours during the year. Did he overwork? Yes; he overworked 377 hours, or 21 percent over the standard time as shown below:

Standard hours per year (52 weeks x 40 hours per week) 2,080 (280)

Productive houdyear expected 1,800 Actual hours spent by VP-FM 2,457

(280) Productive hours spent 2,177

Less vacation, holidays and sickness

Less actual vacation, holidays and sickness

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Atler reviewing his time management report, the VP-FM realized that he was spending about three hours a week on incoming telephone Calls.

The VP-FM was paid approximately $152,000 a year, including fringe benefits and stock options. This converts into compensation of about $70 per productive hour worked. This information is useful in carrying out a cost-benefit analysis for each project undertaken by the VP-FM.

RESTRUCTURXNG MADE EASIER The time management report used by the VP-FM made the proposed

restructuring of the treasury function easier. The company had the following options with respect to the VP-FM position:

1. Eliminate his position, transfer his activities to the chief financial officer, the controller, the human resource vice president, the corporate development vice president, the assistant treasurer, and eliminate a few reports.

2. Eliminate the assistant treasurer’s position, distribute his projects to the VP-FM, the controller, and the financial analyst, and eliminate a few reports.

3. Eliminate a few of the VP-FM’s activities and transfer a few activities from the corporate development vice president, the human resource vice president, the controller, and the chief financial officer.

The time report was helpful in analyzing these restructuring options. Susee Inc. decided to eliminate the VP-FM’s position and distribute his activities to others in the company, thus saving $152,000 a year. (The VP- FM was transferred to another position in the company.) Similarly, the company was able to eliminate many other positions, resulting in several million dollars of savings.

THE BENEFITS OF TIME MANAGEMENT

individual users and their organizations: Time management is a discipline that offers numerous benefits to the

It makes users aware of their time allocation, which could allow them to eliminate less productive activities. For example, the VP-FM was invited to a semi-monthly meeting organized by the vice president of information systems. These meetings lasted for several hours and had very little to do with his function. The VP-FM decided not to attend these meetings but reviewed the minutes of these meetings. This saved him about eighty hours during the year. After reviewing his time management report, the VP-FM realized that he was spending about three hours a week on incoming telephone calls. To conserve his time, he asked his secretary to screen all calls and forward only the important calls to him. This practice saved the VP- FM about seventy hours during the year. It helps users prioritize their activities. After reviewing his quarterly time management report summary, the VP-FM spent more time on

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Managers should.. . stress that the technique relies on the honor system; the users themselves log their activities and the time spent on them.

activities that had significant potential savings and delegated other activities of routine nature to his staff. It enables users to easily prepare or update their job descriptions. It gives users the data they need to help justlfy a new staffposition. It makes it easier for successors toget acquainted with their new job. It enables service organizations (for example, CPA and law firms) to

It helps give users a detailed look at their accomplishments, which

It helps companies that are downsizing to make equitable stafling

easily bill clients for their time.

leads to a sense of satisfaction.

decisions.

The time management technique is beneficial for knowing what you are doing with your time and what you should be doing to contribute to the company’s profitability through improved productivity. When intro- ducing the technique to staff members, managers must take pains to assure them that the purpose is to improve overall organizational performance- not to track employees’ every move. Managers should also stress that the technique relies on the honor system; the users themselves log their activities and the time spent on them.

Businesses that practice time management will experience higher productivity resulting in lower overhead and higher profitability. As companies downsize or restructure their staff, the time management technique will help them achieve their profitability goals. 0

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