The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been struggling with employees who disappear from duty after registering their attendance. To tackle this problem, it has resorted to using the smartwatch. Its employees, especially those working in the field, will now have to wear the GPS-equipped smartwatch, which will not only share the location of the staff member at work, but also the amount of time spent on work. It will also send a picture of the employees from their respective locations, twice a day, to the control room. The control room will also be notified if the employee takes off the watch at any time of the day.
Following many complaints, the civic body decided to take the help of technology to discipline its employees, who often attend to their personal errands and work during duty hours. In some government offices, employees are known to outsource their own work. That is, they pay a third person to do their work for them. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation hopes that employees will now stop playing truant after registering their attendance. For the time being, these watches will be taken on rent, as they cost Rs 18000 per piece.
Though the present workforce strength is approx. 6,000, only 4000 watches are being rented initially. These will be given to field employees and officers.
The smartwatches have yielded good results in Indore and Nagpur, where they are already being used by some government employees.
