Phil Moorehead, Workforce Insight, Inc.
When recently asked about my experience in the workforce management arena, I initially thought of my direct experience with automation, technology, and the “improvements” in analytics. But before answering, I realized that the introduction of workforce management principles, practices, and techniques was made from the start of my career in 1976, and have remained constant through the years.
In particular was my first major construction project - a $365mil Liquid Natural Gas Receiving terminal in Lake Charles LA, with a peak of 1,500 tradespersons, roaming throughout a thirty square mile construction site. No technology to speak of, other than the stacks of cards resulting from the data processing. Oh, we had calculators, carbon paper, and slide rules. So we had everything we needed, including a staff of seven.
The problem was “how do we control the entry and exit of 2,000+ employees and really know if they are on site, when they got here, or where they are supposed to be?”
Now maybe they had time-clocks back then, but the enlistment of this type of high tech appliance just wasn’t employed at this site anyway.
But we had a solution. No electricity required (other than lights), no database, no integration, no cards to swipe…only a piece of brass. This revolutionary appliance was simply a round flat brass “ring” with each employee’s ID number engraved on it. At the beginning of each day, the employee was required to pick up their Brass Ring by going through one of the Brass Alleys, which was more like a voting booth for two. Not much room, but very effective for running people through. Obviously, any exit from the site required them to turn their badge in at one of the Timekeepers’ offices.
It sounds antiquated now, but the alleys were quick to build and the PROCESS was very effective. The biggest challenges were related to human nature. Bribes, threats, cajoling - even seduction. Yes, nearly everything was tried in the name of “just please show me as being on time”.
Not only was the brass alley effective in control of employee “punches”, but also a good utility for verifying if someone is in the appropriate location, doing the right job, or even supposed to be on the site. Sometimes those rings would just strangely go missing and unfortunately didn’t have the security effectiveness as biometrics or a retinal scan. But it worked.
Now with the technology and reduction in resource requirements for administration, we don’t need the brass rings. But we are still pursuing the same objective: The Brass Ring.
As a client recently answered my question regarding what their true objectives were. His answer was quite clear. “We want the Brass Ring Baby! We want the whole thing”. Seems pretty similar to what my bosses said 31 years ago. They wanted the whole thing too. Whether brass alleys, biometric terminals, telephony, or web utilities, the Brass Ring is more achievable than ever. We just need to know which hand to grab it with.
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