Boosting Workplace Productivity Through Blockchain and Smart Contracts

George Mylonakis, Founder and CEO at blockWRK

With today’s wearables, we can micromanage everything from our calorie counts to our daily steps. Having this data has led to a revolution in the way we go about our lifestyles, making sure to workout just as much as we need and consume the amount of calories tailored to our body types. But where is that accuracy when it comes to our productivity? 

Where Wearables Can’t Help

Most companies track employee productivity with such basic tools as an app log or a simple time tracker. Needless to say, it’s impossible for these trackers to be exact. How do we know an employee is actually working within an app, and not just keeping it open?

This uncertainty is doubled when it comes to freelancing. Freelancers are often paid based on milestones, the specific targets they must hit to receive payment. That said, these milestones are usually spread out on a monthly basis. The resulting system doesn’t really work for either the employers or freelancers: Freelancers are demoralized by the infrequent payments, which takes a toll on their productivity, and employers can’t be sure freelancers are honest with their hours.

Frankly, the whole time management process is outdated. Managers fail to properly incentivize workers, and workers can’t accurately track their time the way we do calories or similar activity. And this isn’t even to mention the COVID-19 pandemic keeping workers stuck at home and destroying their productivity even more. Fortunately, new innovations in blockchain technology could tackle these productivity problems.

Work Smarter

One of the ways for companies to create daily goals and keep employees incentivized while increasing their daily productivity is by utilizing smart contracts, essentially automated if-then statements. 

Smart contracts are entirely automated, meaning a job will automatically pay out upon completion. This way, employees and freelancers can earn daily or weekly rewards for their efforts, which incentivizes productivity and keeps morale high. Of course, payments are to be in crypto, which adds a bit of versatility to the mix. Employees can choose to hold on to their tokens or cash out to fiat. Either way, payments are instant thanks to blockchain.

Employers can even set goals based on various categories such as keeping up with mental or physical health–for example, setting individual goals for certain workers, or team-wide milestones for a set of employees. Workers could then provide feedback to managers, who in turn tweak the goals to meet everyone’s needs. 

Blockchain networks are also immutable, meaning files locked into the platform cannot be altered. That immutability is great for storing employee documents, customer records, and general company data. Even better: Blockchain allows for permission-based access to different files, so it becomes as easy as 1-2-3 to set up an automated permissions system to keep restricted files away from prying eyes.

Creativity is Key

Of course, implementing a blockchain-based solution is only half of the work. It’s up to the employer to come up with creative and realistic goals for employees to achieve. Via smart contracts, companies can also perform daily check-ins and even set up health benefits and similar rewards for dedicated workers. Safety check-ins ensure that all parties save money, preventing workers from injury and businesses from lawsuits. In fact, routing all types of insurance through automated smart contracts is entirely possible.

Tracking productivity via the blockchain is, no doubt, in its early stages. However, the foundation is already set for companies to healthily incentivize workers in new ways. Daily and weekly milestones keep company morale high, employees have the option to hold their payments or convert them instantly to fiat, and businesses have a new, immutable way to store records. To sum it all, I believe that companies in any industry would win from implementing a blockchain-based system in their workflow.