Ensuring Civil Servants’ Performance Through Barcode Wristband
The Covid-19 pandemic poses a challenge, namely ensuring a high performance of the bureaucracy despite civil servants working from home.
By
Saiful Rijal Yunus
·5 minutes read
The Covid-19 pandemic poses a challenge, namely ensuring a high performance of the bureaucracy despite civil servants working from home. A response to this challenge was presented by the city administration of Kendari in the form of a barcode wristband and a smartphone app.
La Ode Sofyan, a data management staff member at the Civil Service and Human Resource Development Agency (BKPSDM) in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, was in a hurry as he arrived at his office on Monday morning (22/6/2020). He approached a designated desk and stretched out his right hand to have his wristband, which comes with a barcode, scanned by an officer.
Deddy Setiawan, head of the general subdivision of the BKPSDM Kendari, who was on duty in the front office, scanned the wristband using his cellphone. "You’re late, mi. Here is a notification in yellow," Deddy said in local dialect. Sofyan was about two minutes late.
"Yes, [I am in fact] a few minutes late," Sofyan said. Taking off his jacket, he then went to the second floor of the building, where work awaited him.
The monitor wristband worn by the city administration officials can be scanned using the Kendari ASN smartphone app. At the time of scanning, the civil servant’s name will appear on the cellphone and show a green notification if he or she arrives on time, a yellow notification if he or she is late and a red notification if the officer is absent.
There is a corresponding administrator app for the staffers trained and designated to handle the app. This app makes it easy to keep track of employees’ arrival time.
In addition, civil servants who work from home are monitored through the system if they leave their homes. "Their mobility is monitored with a GPS system. The app will give a notification if the civil servant is more than 50 meters from home," Deddy said.
BKPSDM secretary Yusuf Joto explained that all 3,600 civil servants in all offices of the regency, districts and villages would wear the wristbands. Around 500 of them will wear red ones as a sign that they work from home, namely pregnant women and anyone who is 50 years and above or suffers from a congenital disease.
The wristbands are made of water-resistant paper and can last up to two weeks. Their manufacture cost a total of Rp 30 million, with each unit costing Rp 5,000.
"The development of the app cost around Rp 75 million. Many say that’s expensive, but this [app], made by a young Kendari man, is inexpensive, without looking too cheap," said Yusuf.
This week is a trial period as well as a time to see if there are things that need to be improved and evaluated. In the future, around 6,078 employees will use the app for data collection and administration systems that are more holistic and equipped with employee performance records.
Two weeks
The previous day, on Sunday night (21/6), a number of young people at Techno Studio were staring at screens with various systems and software in operation. They are developing apps for follow-up programs.
Five of them are the developers of the Kendari ASN app and monitoring wristbands. Previously, they made a wristband to monitor people who are self-isolating after potential exposure to Covid-19.
"Initially, we had a discussion with the mayor [Sulkarnain Kadir], and finally we were entrusted with making an app and monitoring system. With the wristband, the movements of those who are in isolation can be monitored directly. The name of the app is Cov Heroes," said Talib, one of the developers.
Many also did not want to install it, because they felt uncomfortable being watched.
About two weeks into the program, implementing the Covid-19 monitoring system is still difficult, because some residents in self-imposed quarantine do not have smartphones. Many also did not want to install it, because they felt uncomfortable being watched. The app idea was then redirected to monitoring civil servants.
"We were given two weeks to make it. The time was short, but thank God it could be finished," said Talib.
Kendari Mayor Sulkarnain Kadir said the innovation was not just aimed at monitoring the daily movement of civil servants. It was also built to provide protection during a pandemic and in an effort to improve the overall performance of civil servants. There is no longer any need for the employee to be present at a recording machine or use a fingerprint scanner, which could spread viruses. At the same time, the civil servants who work from home will be monitored. They cannot leave the house during working hours, because that would be recorded in the system.
"The pandemic must not make us sit idle. We can develop something using technology, as long as we want to and keep trying. We will no longer use this wristband when the Covid-19 case number in Kendari drops to zero," Sulkarnain said.
Going forward, the app will continue to be developed, so that it can include all services, monitoring and records in Kendari; both for the community and civil servants. Thus, public services can run optimally and the local administration performance increases.
Kendari continued to improve in the midst of the dreadful spread of the coronavirus. Technology is one way to adapt to a pandemic and overcome various obstacles.
By utilizing technology, Talib wants to deliver the message that many things that were previously limited can now be done. "As long as we want to find a way, there is always a way out. This app and wristband are one such way," he said.