Today’s post is by SmartBrief on Leadership contributing editor Liz Ruskin, who is attending the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles this week.
Here’s a controversial idea: Former FTD chief Michael Soenen said a company he was once involved with enabled GPS tracking in Blackberrys and, without saying much about it, distributed them among the sales force. They found, he said, that people weren’t driving 300 miles a day and making eight sales calls. They were driving 30 miles, making four calls and spending “a lot of time at home.”
While some bosses complain that employees waste work hours on personal e-mail and eBay, he sees technology as a tool to improve employee accountability and productivity.
Was this tracking initiative unpopular? You bet, but Soenen says it could save tens of millions of dollars, so employees will just have to lump it, he says. “From the CEO seat, sometimes you have to stuff it down their throats.”
What do you think? Are the cost-savings worth the inevitable employee blowback?
Image credit, iStock