ENVIRONMENT IN FOCUS
compliance. Once an employee has hit the
number of hours that become illegal or
against code, they or their supervisor are
notified via SMS or e-mail.
The program also has auditing software
making sure that overtime is kept down
to a minimum, saving money for the
employer and preventing job burnout to
the employee. It was invented by Dave Nash,
CEO of Chrono Engineering and third-
tallest chronobiologist — as he jokes.
Solutions to absenteeism
We have a solution for assisting with
absenteeism but how do we manage the
bad days where the employees have to
work short-staffed? Is the technology able
to ensure the employees we are working
in an overtime situation are not a ticking
time bomb ready to create our next mine
accident?
PRISM is a software system that
calculates time and attendance showing
the hidden dangers of that schedule.
PRISM takes the last 14 days of an
employee’s work schedule and analyses
that with the overtime they are working.
It thereafter prints out an MS Excel list
showing you from employees numbered
one to 500, who your most fatigued
employee is. It is then up to the employee
and lower management to manage that
employee with countermeasures such as
cold water on the face or five minutes of
stretching. PRISM has been in use for
over eight years now and is currently in
use in South Africa and the US.
Now we have tried to manage
absenteeism through:
• Schedules;
• Overstaffing software to manage the
right worker for the right time; and
• Software that manages an employee’s
schedule.
But how do we know the employee
coming through the gate is as fresh and
alert as he or she can be?
Introducing the Alertmeter, invented
by Henry Bowles and Ted Langely and
approved by NIOSH (the National
Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health). This system, through the use of a
60-second test taken on a tablet or smart
device, will let one know the employee’s
alertness level.
The Alertmeter is a software solution that
has roughly nine to 12 shapes per screen
and asks, are these shapes the same, YES
or NO? In the case of an employee being
impaired from dagga, fatigue, or even
cold medicine, this system will let you
know at the gate that every employee
going to their job station or driving a
vehicle is within their baseline and fit
for duty.
There are many ripples that
absenteeism affects and at least we know
there is also technology to handle and
assist us in the effects of those ripples.
Rest well my friends.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Douglas Potter is a director of
company Predictive Safety South Africa.
He was voted among the top 10 doctors
in fatigue in 2012 and headed the team
that built Africa’s first Fatigue Centre.
The team has won seven international
awards on fatigue — two of these awards
are Gold Quills.