Common issues encountered with this type of work are;
· Client representative arrives on site to find nobody there
· Road authority or someone else reporting that nobody is on site
· Worker has left site for “X” reason and not told anyone
· Worker hasn’t turned up at all and nobody is aware of it
If you have workers on remote sites you’ll be all too familiar with these issues and the problems they cause.
When issues like this arise it is almost always a time-consuming process trying to contact the worker in question and find out where they are, if they’ve left site for a valid reason such as going to the toilet and how long will they be, or anything else that may have happened.
These situations lead to a lack of trust and a couple of years ago we started to look into various methods that workers could use to provide proof they are on remote work sites when they are required to be.
Initially we implemented the use of the messaging App WhatsApp and created separate groups for each remote work site with the worker, our management team, and the client in the group. Site photos were required to be sent in every hour and the WhatsApp group could also be used to report things like battery levels, missing equipment, when they had left site for a break, when they returned, or anything else that the TM Provider needed to know about. This worked well for a short while, until it was discovered that some disingenuous workers were taking lots of photos in the morning when they arrived on site, going home for the day, and sending a different image in every hour to the WhatsApp group. It couldn’t be relied upon on its own, we needed to find something else.
After a little research we came across some phone camera applications that time stamp your pictures for you. We trialled some of the best ones on the market, settled on the one to use, and made it our policy that all images from remote workers had to be time stamped to prove that they were on site at the time the photo was sent in. Images without the time stamp would no longer be accepted as proof of work/attendance.
For a good while this seemed to have done the trick, there were less issues with remote work sites, the proof of work/attendance was being accepted by clients, and all seemed well…. Then, as before, we were informed of a work around that had become common knowledge industry wide and was being used by some workers. If you changed the time on your mobile phone it changed the time on the time stamp in the camera app, and it was the same for every other similar App we tried on the market at the time.
At this stage remote work sites were starting to really cause us some issues again. The lack of trust was once again increasing, we’d lost a couple of previously good staff who were dismissed for stupidly altering the time on their site images, and in some cases clients were now refusing to accept any of this as proof of work/attendance too which was causing stress to genuine workers who were having their work questioned as well.
The demand for this type of labour supply is still increasing, and we had to find a solution.
We consulted with our own software development team at Adjuvo Digital, and an external mobile app developer. We needed something that was 100% tamper proof which we could confidently stand over.
It had to provide the following as a minimum;
1. Tamper proof date and time stamp on all images
2. Accurate GPS location address on all images
3. GPS location map
4. Photo & Video recording options
5. Guarantee it could not be forged
6. Is not difficult for workers to use
7. Available for IOS & Android devices
After a period of R&D, and an extended period of testing in the field we are pleased to say that we finally have a solution that delivers all the above and more!
The time and date in the app are locked to the mobile network provider, and if you try to change the time and/or date on your device a warning shows up telling you that it has been corrected.
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