http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-13/tesco-monitors-employees-with-motorola-arm-bands#r=nav-r-story
This article describes how one Tesco's distribution centers requires all its employees to wear specially designed armbands. The devices are developed to measure worker productivity so closely that the technology also knows when they take a bathroom break.
Produced by Motorola, these armbands monitor every aspect of a workers activity; the device collects data on speed, competency, and then compares it to a benchmark that every worker must meet. The only time they are turned off is during the lunch break. Tesco refuses to disclose whether this technology has actually made its employees more efficient.
If this is the route that better and more efficient technology is on, then one can only imagine what kind of devices we'll be wearing when we enter the labor force...
Wow, some may say that these arm bands are too invasive and that it is unfair to make workers wear them. I can see why people would say that, but all new ideas are criticized. I think that this is the right step to make for management and executives. As dishonesty and corruption are growing in the corporate world it will be advantageous to have these bands to help create a much more solid and factual monitoring system.
ReplyDeleteI am also curious as to the costs of these arm bands. How much does it cost to have an armband for each employee? Also, at what level of employment in the organization are you allowed to take the armband off while you work? I highly doubt that the managers and executives are going to be wearing these arm bands.
ReplyDeleteThe armband i feel cannot take into account personality and other basic aspects of a person, because even if a person is an effective worker he may be unbearable to work with and cause others work to suffer on account of this
ReplyDeleteI don't think that these armbands will have the desired affect that
ReplyDeleteTesco wants. I can understand their need to improve productivity and efficient work but these armbands seem to be a rather crude way to measure productivity. I can see that they have some effective uses in more quickly scanning the new packages that have to be stocked but as far as pushing the employees to work harder I don't think that they will be nearly as effective as a good manager supervising the workers.
It's also important to note that Motorola is manufacturing these armbands. Motorola have clearly lost most ground in the cellphone market, and were recently purchased by Google; but if this sort of monitoring technology takes off, potential revenues and patents for google will be a huge bonus. Tesco's productivity has gone up since 2007, maybe these armbands are the future of micromanaging!
ReplyDelete