Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.108 2020.12.01 Takahashi Minoru

Using PC software to monitor employee work behavior is not recommended

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


"Reforming How We Make People Work" is a useful approach for promoting the hiring of young people.
The content is essentially “Work Style Reform,” but
since it’s the company president—not the employees—
who takes the lead in driving it forward, so we call it this (laughs).


Here’s an example of “Workforce Management Reform” I heard from a company president.


Step 1: Identify waste in operations
It’s not a good idea to change working conditions all at once.
This is because the burden ends up falling on younger employees behind the scenes, which actually encourages them to quit.
It’s often the less capable veteran employees who intentionally create unnecessary work.
Assign a special task to the younger employees and have them identify these inefficiencies.


Step 2: Is That Work Really Wasteful?
If you let young employees point out waste as they see fit,
they may make comments that show they have no understanding of the company’s “customer retention strategy.”
Business isn’t so simple that it can run on mere common sense alone.
The CEO must judge the balance between “true waste” and “necessary waste”
and provide guidance on which suggestions to dismiss.


Step 3: Eliminate or streamline true waste
・The CEO’s decisive word (simply saying “Stop it”)
・Reviewing procedures
・Streamline processes
　　This is where systems come into play.
　　By “system,” I don’t necessarily mean you need to buy software.
　　Even a custom-built Excel spreadsheet will do—we’ll find ways to make the work easier and error-free.
・At this point, it becomes necessary to issue a company-wide announcement, including to veteran employees, stating:
　　it’s a good idea to state your purpose, such as:
　　It’s a good idea to communicate this objective in advance.


Step 4: Change the working conditions
・Implement a self-reporting system for overtime,
・Revising holiday policies, etc.
・Base salaries and allowances should not need to be changed; if changes are necessary, proceed cautiously while monitoring the situation


Please use the above as a reference.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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