I used to review time sheets and run payroll for about 20 staff on four separate teams. Our onsite GM (general manager) set an early day-of payroll deadline so he could go over our figures and have it done by 10:00 am.
I had to be very strategic with my time. We had a huge site, so chasing down employees that potentially needed timesheet corrections that morning was a chore, to say the least. I typically did my time sheet reviews the night before, in anticipation of the inevitable "day of" disasters in the cafe - essential production items, like ovens, had a habit of breaking on payroll day. Being in the back office made me a target for one-off questions, which broke my concentration and prolonged the task.
So, to get it all done as quickly as possible, to avoid distractions, I did my rounds of the cafe first thing in the morning and then set a 15-minute no-call window. I told my team to ask my fellow cafe manager if they had questions, shut off my phone and hid in a random corner on a different floor of the building so I could commit 100% focus to the task at hand.
Do you have a similar story? What strategies do you use?
