Time tracking that fits HR & Recruitment Agencies
Hours captured as work happens, mapped to the requisitions, candidate pipelines and placements you already plan around.
Manual timesheets are reconstructions, and reconstructions lose money. Worktivity records hours automatically in the background, lets recruiters, sourcers and account managers correct them, and turns the result into timesheets, invoices and payouts data without a second round of data entry.
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Why HR and recruitment agencies need time tracking
Time is the unit HR and recruitment agencies sell, plan and pay against, yet in most organisations it is entered from memory on a Friday afternoon. The gap between what happened and what was recorded is where margin quietly disappears.
Recruitment economics hinge on cost per placement, and most agencies calculate it from fees and headcount rather than from effort. The roles that quietly lose money are the ones filled on the fourth attempt, after three candidates dropped out.
Cost per placement is usually calculated from fee income and headcount, which averages away the thing that matters. The role filled on the first submission and the role filled on the fourth attempt after three candidate dropouts have wildly different economics, and only one of them is profitable.
Worktivity's time tracking for recruitment agencies attributes hours to requisitions and clients, including the searches that never close. Sourcing, screening, interview coordination and account management each become measurable, so cost per placement is calculated from work rather than from averages.
Tracking hours against requisitions gives you the real distribution. Agencies consistently find that a small share of roles consumes a disproportionate share of recruiter time, and the characteristics are usually predictable: certain sectors, seniority levels or client behaviours. That is qualification criteria, and it is worth more than another recruiter.
Worktivity closes that gap by capturing hours as they are worked, attaching them to the right project or client, and leaving a clear trail from raw activity to approved timesheet. What you bill and what you paid for finally describe the same day.
How tracked time reaches the invoice
Four steps, none of which involve a blank timesheet grid.
Hours captured, not remembered
The agent records working time in the background and separates idle stretches, so a timesheet starts from evidence instead of an empty form.
Everything mapped to work
Time attaches to the projects, clients and tasks that mirror your requisitions, candidate pipelines and placements, which makes reporting a filter rather than a rebuild.
Approvals without chasing
Employees review and adjust, managers approve in bulk, and locked periods stop retroactive edits from reopening a closed month.
Billing and payouts in one pass
Approved hours flow into invoices and payouts exports with the breakdown clients ask for already attached.
Time tracking capabilities for HR & Recruitment Agencies
Seven capabilities, two of them specific to how HR and recruitment agencies work.
Effort per requisition
Track hours against every open role, including the unfilled ones, so cost per placement reflects the searches that failed as well as those that closed.
Sourcing versus coordination split
Separate active sourcing and screening from interview scheduling, candidate management and client administration. The coordination half is routinely underestimated.
Automatic background tracking
Start once and the desktop agent handles the rest across Windows, macOS and Linux. recruiters, sourcers and account managers do not stop work in order to record work, which is the only way tracking survives a busy month.
Project, client and task mapping
Structure time the way you already structure delivery, so hours roll up to the requisitions, candidate pipelines and placements your reporting is built on without manual re-tagging.
Timesheets and approvals
Generated timesheets arrive pre-filled. Employees correct, managers approve, and every change is logged with who altered what and when.
Idle, break and offline handling
Idle thresholds, break rules and manual entry for offline work keep the recorded day honest, including the hours that happen away from a keyboard.
Billable rates and invoicing
Set rates by person, role or project, mark hours billable or internal, and export invoice-ready breakdowns into your accounting stack.
What accurate hours are worth to HR and recruitment agencies
The return shows up in six places.
Recovered billable time
Teams that move from memory-based entry to captured time routinely find hours that were previously written off, simply because nobody recorded them.
Estimates that improve
Every completed piece of work becomes historical data, so the next quote rests on what the work actually cost rather than on optimism.
Faster billing cycles
Closing a period stops being a week of chasing and becomes a review of data that is already sitting there.
Fewer client disputes
Itemised, timestamped breakdowns answer “what did we pay for” before the question turns into a credit note.
Cleaner payouts
Approved hours, overtime and leave arrive in a single export, which removes the spreadsheet stage entirely.
Audit-ready records
A complete trail from captured activity to approved timesheet stands up to internal review and external audit alike.
Where HR and recruitment agencies rely on tracked time
Five places HR and recruitment agencies put this to work in the first quarter.
Identifying unprofitable role types
Some sectors and seniorities consume three times the effort for the same fee. Hours per requisition by category make that visible and shape which briefs you accept.
Justifying retained over contingent
Effort data showing what a contingent search actually costs your team is the strongest argument for moving a client onto a retained model.
Managing remote recruitment teams
Recruiters work from anywhere and are judged on placements that take months to land. Activity data provides leading indicators in between those outcomes.
Fixed-price work that must not overrun
Watch consumed hours against the budget on every engagement and intervene while there is still room to act.
Distributed and shift-based teams
Track across time zones, devices and locations under one set of rules, then reconcile the lot in a single view.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the questions HR and recruitment agencies ask most often about time tracking.
Can we see which requisitions lose money before we take them on?
Not before, but the history tells you what to avoid. Tracking hours per requisition builds a profile of which sectors, seniority levels and client behaviours consume disproportionate effort. Agencies use that profile as qualification criteria, which is a far cheaper margin improvement than increasing headcount.
Can we track time against individual clients and roles?
Yes. Structure projects by client and requisition, and hours roll up both ways: per client for account profitability and per role for cost-per-placement analysis.
How do we do this without demotivating a sales-driven team?
Recruiters respond to data that helps them win. Framing it around activity-to-placement ratios and coaching, giving each recruiter their own dashboard, and excluding personal time keeps it a performance tool rather than a surveillance one.
Does time tracking require manual timers?
No. Tracking runs automatically once the agent is installed. Manual entry exists only for work that happens away from the computer: meetings, site visits, travel and calls.
Can employees correct their own hours?
Yes, and they should. Employees review and adjust their day before submitting it, managers approve, and every edit is recorded. That combination is what makes the data trustworthy rather than merely automatic.
Does it work offline?
Yes. The agent buffers activity locally and syncs when the connection returns, so travel, site work and outages do not leave gaps in the record.
Can we export to our accounting or payouts system?
Approved timesheets export as CSV or XLSX, and the API lets you push hours into your existing finance stack on a schedule.
Other Worktivity solutions for HR & Recruitment Agencies
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How time tracking works in other sectors
The mechanics are shared; the reporting, policy and vocabulary are not. Compare with a neighbouring industry.
Logistics & Transportation
Logistics companies and transportation firms requiring time tracking for office staff, dispatch operations, and administrative productivity.
Learn moreSoftware Houses
Software development companies and tech firms that need to track developer productivity, manage project timelines, and optimize team performance.
Learn moreArchitecture Firms
Architecture and design firms requiring time tracking for billable hours, project management, and client reporting.
Learn moreProject Management Companies
Project management firms and consultancies that need comprehensive time tracking and productivity monitoring for multiple client projects.
Learn moreLaw Firms
Legal practices requiring accurate billable hour tracking, client reporting, and productivity monitoring for attorneys and paralegals.
Learn moreConsulting Firms
Management and business consulting firms needing time tracking for client engagements, project profitability analysis, and team productivity optimization.
Learn more
Ready to see where your hours actually go?
Set Worktivity up for your team this afternoon. The configuration that HR and recruitment agencies need is already mapped out. Fourteen days free, no card, and the data is yours either way.
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