Employee scan rate

[Andrew]

OK I'm gonna stir up a hornets nest here probably, but I had a though at work today (yeah I know, surprise!).

Our POS system allows us to see each employees scan rate over a given period. This is an average of how many items are entered into a sale per minute.

If DHPOS were to somehow store the start time of a transaction ie. from when the first item is entered, it would make it easy for itself or another application to calculate the scan rate of an employee. As far as I know it stores the date and time of the end of the transaction.

Any thoughts on this - it's a very useful productivity tool at work.

[DJLiljengren]

When you log off of the POS at our local Grocer (Demoulas Market Basket), a small slip of recipt paper comes out with your name, items rung, average sale per minute, etc. And, sometimes at Wal*Mart, they put signs up with the Cashiers name, and how many Items per hour they are ringing, and they change it as it changes. This idea, if incorporated into Dale's POS, would be a splendid idea.

[ChrisKraus]

I Set-Up A Poll For This
Go To: http://www.home-nets.biz/discuss/phpBB2 ... .php?t=164

- Chris

[Dale Harris]

Allow me to bring this idea to a crashing halt.

Many of you might remember my response to the idea of incorporating a time clock into the program. Basically it went along the lines of my not wanting the people actually ringing up the register to be slaves to the register. I do not want my register program being used to keep tabs on the employees other than to make sure that they handle the money correctly.

The last thing I want is some manager to be holding a printout from my POS programr and telling some poor minimum wage person that they are fired because they take too long in the bathroom. Bowel management is not one of the objectives of the POS program.

Keeping track of how fast someone scans items into the POS program is the first step in telling them that they are doing it too slowly. Soon in order to improve productivity the allowable scan rate will be reduced, and then reduced again. Eventually employees will be nothing but scanning automatrons who's only concern will be to somehow, someway get their scanning rate up before they are canned.

Eventually some store owner will come up with the wonderful new POS feature of attaching electrodes to an unmentionable part of the sales person's body to give them a little jolt as a reminder when their scan rate dips below acceptable levels.

Well that is how I feel about this feature. Needless to say the odds of this going into the POS program are remote.

[Bobby]

I like the way you put that, Dale!

[chasmit]

For me, the basic priorities beyond
what we already have are these:
(in no particular order)
1) the larger (13k item) stock table.
2) the ability to maintain customer charge accounts.
(buy now, pay later)
3) Purchase.Exe
4) And of course, Networking.
Gee whiz, what a dynamite program we
already have!
Oh, priority 1- bug search and destroy.
chas

[Andrew]

I'm not going to argue about this, however in NZ a company would be in a great deal of trouble legally by dismissing an employee simply because their rate fell below a level.

At work, these rates are private to each employee and are printed on a weekly balancing slip - allowing us to try and improve our scanning and balancing in the coming week. Of course, if someone has a terribly low scan rate - then something would need to be done, which I would imagine would be more training.

In any job - if you aren't working to a standard you should be helped to improve but if you don't make the grade or make no attempt to - why should the employer waste money paying you for a job you aren't doing as well as all his other staff.

Such a tool as knowing how fast an employee is working, is simply a more technological way for measuring performance, and in my position, there are many other techniques used which do not rely on technology to guage my performance in my job - and where applicable, reward me.

However I didn't want to go to all that detail - but I hereby consider this feature ... shot down.

[Alan]

"When you log off of the POS at our local Grocer (Demoulas Market Basket), a small slip of recipt paper comes out with your name, items rung, average sale per minute, etc. And, sometimes at Wal*Mart, they put signs up with the Cashiers name, and how many Items per hour they are ringing, and they change it as it changes. This idea, if incorporated into Dale's POS, would be a splendid idea."

That is very very sad indeed! Shop workers are NOT factory workers - in most cases supermarket workers do not get sales bonuses as it is completely unfair. As a customer or even as a worker at a store I could'nt give a **** how many items I've scanned an hour! It would be a good claim for RSI though!!!!!!

I work in IT Repair Services and because of greedy and ex-factory management our repair centre is being run like a factory, they have started to look at our output hourly and question why we don't put more than 5 units a day! As you can imagine, we fix large colour laser copiers, bank passbook printers, tiny POS printers, whole POS terminals, monitors, inkjets, lasers - basically whatever comes in the door! As you can imagine its a total joke and our number of staff has halfed in the last two years!

Alan