Guinea's military has been a strong destabilising force since independence, with many leaders achieving power by coups until the nation's first democratic elections in November 2010, won by Conde.This article is yet another in a long litany of stories about using biometrics to get rid of ghost workers. But this article is interesting in that it hints at an often overlooked managerial tactic for realizing the benefits of strengthened identity management systems.
His first task has been to reform the defense sector, and an army which the International Institute of Strategic Studies estimated in 2010 has some 12,300 troops.
"This is not a witchhunt, but we need a change in mindset, which is difficult. All Guineans are set in ways which are not conducive to good governance," said Conde.
He has raised the grade of the retiring officers to improve their retirement benefits, and said his government was carrying out a biometric census in government to do away with ghost employees and other irregularities.
An organization only has so much money to reward employees. To the degree that those resources are diverted to non-productive ends (i.e. ghost workers) there is less available to compensate those who serve productive organizational ends.
From a management perspective, it's easy to see how demoralizing this could be to those who simply wish to work hard in service to their country for fair compensation.
The president of Guinea, has made an astute management decision in this case. He has raised the retirement benefits of legitimate workers at the same time he has set out to eliminate ghost workers.
Adopting more efficient ID management systems creates winners and losers. In this case the losers are those who receive the ghost workers' salaries. While these individuals aren't necessarily sympathetic characters, they aren't necessarily powerless, either. By sharing the financial benefits of of better ID management with legitimate workers, the president of Guinea has created an "army" of organizational allies as he attempts to change the finances and culture of the military.
This has applicability to the corporate world and time-and-attendance biometrics, as well.
See:
Farm of the Week: Producer clocks in with IT system to control costs
"It might sound hard, but more accuracy means more fairness, for both staff and customers," says Mr Machin. "Thirty percent of our costs are labour. The more we pin costs down, the more choice we have about how to distribute rewards. [Emphasis mine] And the better we get at pricing our produce, the more customers we bring in."In order to achieve top to bottom buy-in, a manager should consider distributing the benefits associated with better identity management techniques among shareholders, managers and workers.
A bonus for on-time attendance (for example) might raise the morale of workers who were always on time, while offering some consolation to those who saw their ability to milk the system reduced.
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
