Rather than make an analogy to Big Brother, it is inevitable that every move an employee makes can be tracked. As a matter of fact, this has been happening in the supply chain field for quite some time with field force automation. With Google Maps Coordinate it makes sense that it would eventually move to app-based solutions. There are so many mobile devices in use that this app makes a lot of sense. (Here at Green Street we find this to be an interesting development because we could potentially take our GeoBrand product and add the branding component to the mobile programming interface APIs).
Get the full story about Google Maps Coordinate. Some of the features include giving Workers the ability to accept or decline jobs, and "check-in and "check-out" of jobs. Managers will be able to see all workers on a map real-time, and look up time stamps for worker's location and interaction with the app under job history.
Aware of the privacy sensitivities surrounding the tracking of field employees via GPS and mobile devices, a Google senior product manager, Daniel Chu, said the app had a scheduling feature built-in. "Workers who don't want to share their location when they go home, can set [the app] to automatically shut off location sharing in the evening.
How will a worker manage to meet a girlfriend for an unscheduled lunch with this new app? That remains to be seen, but I’m sure there will be some interesting stories of how this can happen.
