MAXITRACK performance measurement and management

piecework tracking system

MAXITRACK is a tracking system that will record both hours worked and quantities (units, weight, etc.) per employee per task.

Normally the first step farmers take in trying to overcome poor productivity and high labour cost is to move to piecework instead of a daily or hourly wage. While this can be effective in linking cost to actual output, recording and calculating piecework pay introduces a significant administrative burden.

MAXITRACK and MAXIPORTABLE automate the recording, calculation and payment to remove all the paperwork and manual effort .

Many methods of calculating piecework have been devised by farmers and we handle them all.

Sometimes piecework tasks are mixed with hourly-paid activities in a single day and sometimes hourly-paid workers are mixed in with pieceworkers – our system automatically handles this too.

Some farmers pay per bag harvested and each bag is counted as it is ‘tipped’. Rates of pay vary – for different cultivars, for different tasks e.g. ground picking vs ladder picking, and sometimes for different orchards, tree sizes, on different days, etc.

Other farmers calculate a total amount based on the number of bins filled by a team and ration out the pay based on the individual bag counts. Others pay per team and split the proceeds equally between team workers. Again the rates applied can vary.

Sometimes the individual is paid for his own lugs or crates, which are tallied up and recorded several times a day.

Our most recent innovation is to weigh fruit or vegetables in the field and to pay per kilogram – this method is achieving exceptional win-win results for both farmer and workers, due to huge increases in productivity and motivation.

Piecework is most commonly applied to seasonal workers and harvesting but some farms also like to pay for pruning and preparation tasks by counting the trees or vines processed, per team or individual.

It is also becoming normal to scan and count cartons packed by individuals in the packhouse, so that workers can be paid per carton. Rates vary according to the size of carton and type of fruit or pay is calculated per piece or per 100 pieces.

Due to minimum wage requirements, topping up pay for poor performers can still result in too much pay for what is actually produced and that is why performance management is so important. Because MAXITRACK can link quantities to the time taken, it is possible to identify poor performers and to implement legal procedures to deal with them.

Once calculated, piecework units, rates and amounts are passed to the payroll for payment.

See how MAXITRACK works with scales in the field

Piecework is just a part of labour tracking…

MAXIPAY is especially designed to handle piecework and farm payslips