As the daughter of a professional photographer, I know all about the feigned grin. I knew when the smile was necessary, and thus obliged, mostly to get the picture-taking over with so I could get about the business of playing with my dollies.

I read in a piece recently about one age-old way to increase productivity, one that does not require smile police or a morale militia.

So I understand how the employees of Japan’s Keihin Electric Express Railway Company feel. In the past year or so, the company installed cameras with special scanners at 15 of its stations to measure its workers’ smiles. The scanners, which are made by Japanese company Omron, analyze facial characteristics and rate them on a scale from 0-100 based on “eye movements, lip curves and wrinkles,” according to reports.

It may be a little over-the-top (there were plenty of Orwellian references when it was first reported in July), but it’s just an example of the lengths to which businesses are going to ensure that their workers are doing what they’re told and not slacking on productivity.

New technology measures workers' smiles.

Meanwhile, at France Télécom, they’re taking a different tack. The third largest telecom company in Europe and the main provider for Gauls will begin doling out bonuses for top management based on morale. Yes, morale.

It’s a response to the recent rash of employee suicides, and the company is hoping a new emphasis on worker satisfaction will turn things around. (According to Wikipedia, between early 2008 and early 2010, 34 France Télécom employees committed suicide, some of whom left behind notes blaming “stress and misery” at work.)

It seems that the recession — with all its furloughing, salary-freezing, cost-cutting, downsizing, et. al. — is finally getting to the world’s workforce. Sadly, cutting costs blindly can have unfortunate consequences.

I read in a piece recently about one age-old way to increase productivity, one that doesn’t require smile police or a morale militia. It’s called giving them the tools to get their jobs done, and giving them advancement and learning opportunities. That’s an idea worth smiling about.♦

For more info about smile scanners and other musings about Big Brother, read this piece from the Economist magazine.

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Jenny Sweeney Worker Productivity Big Brother, bonuses, facial scanners, France Telecom, George Orwell, Japan, Keihin Electric Express Railway, Omron, productivity, recession, smiling

Poka-yoke – I never had heard the word before, but I was delighted to discover it two weeks ago in a Harvard Business Review article written by Michael Schrage.

Poka-yoke is Japanese for “mistake-proofing.” Think of the “In Case of Fire Break Glass” boxes found in office buildings. Because they include a wee stick with which to break said glass, they would qualify as poka-yoke.

Best of all, your employees will experience minimal downtime and very little lost productivity.

In business, Schrage explains, poka-yoke is the “simplest, cheapest, and surest way to eliminate foreseeable process errors.” He urges managers to perform a poka-yoke audit of their own department.

“What are the persistently simple — and simply persistent — dumb mistakes we make that our technologies can help us catch and destroy?” he asks.

Here’s where I believe IT managers should start: the help desk.

Say your company is planning an Office 2007 migration, and you, as CIO, have decided that because of the current economic climate, assistance isn’t needed. After all, your reliance on internal help desk staff during previous Office upgrades didn’t turn out disastrously. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI CIO, Harvard Business Review, Help Desk, Japan, Michael Schrage, Outsourcing, poka-yoke, software support