Businesses are increasingly talking about being data-driven. Dashboards are becoming more advanced, KPIs more detailed and reporting more comprehensive. Yet many leaders find that decisions are still made on hunches, experience and intuition. This isn't due to a lack of data, but a lack of the right kind of insights.
In the organisations of the future, it's not enough to know what the numbers show. You need to understand what makes them tick. This is where time becomes the crucial key.
What are time-based KPIs“?
Time-based KPIs are key figures where time is used as the central unit of measurement to understand performance, efficiency and prioritisation in a company. Whereas classic KPIs typically measure results (e.g. revenue, coverage or number of deliveries), time-based KPIs measure what lies behind the results: namely How company time is spent.
Examples of time-based KPIs can be:
- Time spent on value-added vs. non-value-added activities
- Lead time on projects or cases
- Share of working time spent directly with customers
- Time spent on coordination, meetings and administration
When KPIs are no longer sufficient
Traditional KPIs are backward-looking. They tell you how the company has performed - but rarely why. When a department underperforms or a project goes over budget, the analysis often ends up focusing on symptoms rather than causes. The time spent behind the results remains invisible.
A study of time management in organisations conducted by IJFMR in 2025 shows that effective time management practices, including systematic measurement and analysis of time usage, are statistically associated with improved productivity, increased employee satisfaction and better organisational performance. This suggests that time is not just a logistical factor, but a strategic resource when actively used in management and performance processes.
Source: https://www.ijfmr.com/papers/2025/5/56871.pdf
Example: City of Copenhagen
In the City of Copenhagen, there are with Budget 2026 presented a proposal to introduce a common time tracking system that brings together around 15 different systems across administrations into one solution, giving both employees and managers one place to register working hours, holidays and absence. The purpose of the new system is not only to comply with new requirements for working time registration, but also to give managers a better overview of how working time is actually spent, including time spent on projects, coordination and administration, instead of time scattered in different local solutions.
Lack of visibility of time spent has previously meant that bottlenecks were only discovered when deadlines were missed because time spent on coordination and internal processes was not clearly visible in management data.
Source: New common time tracking system in the City of Copenhagen (PDF)
Time-based KPIs as the next evolution
Time-based KPIs represent a shift in the way performance is measured. Instead of just looking at output and financial metrics, results are linked directly to the time that creates them.
An international example is Siemens, which has used time and flow metrics in product development to reduce time-to-market and identify unnecessary complexity in internal workflows. The focus hasn't been on getting employees to work faster, but on using time more purposefully so the organisation can focus on activities that create real value (Siemens).
The time-conscious organisation
The most forward-thinking companies are moving towards becoming time-aware organisations - organisations with the same transparency in time spent as in finances.
In practice, time data is used as a basis for:
- Planning and scheduling
- Capacity management
- Prioritisation
- Continuous improvements
Staffing, prioritisation and change decisions are based on actual time usage patterns, not assumptions. Time tracking becomes a common language between management and employees because it creates clarity on what actually requires time.
A foundation for future decisions
When time-based KPIs are integrated into the management framework, the role of time tracking changes from an administrative tool to a strategic resource.
Companies that understand their time are better equipped to scale, adapt and prioritise in a world where demands for efficiency and transparency are only increasing. Future competitiveness depends not only on what organisations do, but how they spend their time doing it.
