Don’t Rely on the Human Element - Why Manual Contact Tracing is Costing You Big Bucks

As businesses return to the office, keeping employees safe is top-of-mind. Contact tracing is a key way to do that. Businesses must weigh whether to rely on government-run contact tracing programs, or plan to implement their own (an increasingly popular option, as recent reports suggest). Either way, many experts say the tried and true manual method of contact tracing works best. Human tracers call people who tested positive to ascertain who they’ve come in contact with, and then follow up with those people so they can quarantine. Seems easy enough, right? Not so much. Manual contact tracing will hurt your business and cost you money whether you depend on pre-existing government programs, or launch your own program in-house.

Why is manual contact tracing so problematic? The short answer is: the human element. Let’s break down why. First, it relies heavily on human memory. But, people often can’t recall the places they were and people they interacted with at certain times or on specific days. In fact, the more you try to recall a memory, the less accurate it becomes. On top of that, people invite a huge margin for error - maybe Person A doesn’t pick up the phone when a contact tracer calls, or Person B doesn’t want to give information because they think the call is a scam. According to a recent New York Times Article, more than a third of calls to people who tested positive went unanswered, and more than 50% of those who did pick up refused to provide at least one close contact. The bottom line? Contact tracing that relies on the cooperation of people leaves a lot of risk. 

When done this way, things get even more complicated in the workplace because manual contact tracing places all the responsibility on the individual, and none on the business itself. Individuals may not be honest with employers about their health, whether it’s lying about exposure for fear of retaliation, or pretending to be sick to get out of working. Recently, a call center employee in South Carolina claimed he was Covid-19 positive so he could receive two weeks of paid time off. The facility he worked at ended up closing for five days to be cleaned. In a similar incident, an employee at a critical manufacturing company submitted fake documents proving Covid-19 positivity, prompting the company to shut down their facility. The shutdown cost the company a whopping $175,000 in productivity loss. These cases may be in the minority, but they are still a reality - and can cost organizations big bucks.

All this adds up to one necessary truth: when so much is at stake for businesses, they can’t afford to rely on the word of individuals alone to make decisions - they need hard data. Without it, you might be overly cautious and send too many people home. That means you’re paying perfectly healthy people to stay home while your business suffers without the necessary staffing. But, if you’re not cautious enough, you might also miss a contact, leading to a widespread outbreak that forces you to close your building, disrupting operations and costing you even more.

Whether you rely on the government’s contact tracing efforts, or choose to institute your own, manual contact tracing is too blunt a tool to be effective. With something as high stakes as containing a possible Covid-19 outbreak, companies need effective tools and data so they can eliminate the guessing game. Enter: wearables. Wearable technology removes the unreliable human element from contact tracing, ensuring businesses can trace contacts quickly and accurately, and have real-time data in their hands to make smart decisions and save money.

At Proxfinity, we’re experts in quantifying human interaction. So, when the pandemic hit, we created the ResCUE, a contact tracing wearable system that protects employees and your bottom line. With ResCUE, companies can create an intuitive map of person-to-person interaction, how often and when employees came in contact with one another, for what duration of time and at what distance. ResCUE also provides details and comprehensive data dashboards help employers stay fully operational while decreasing the spread of Covid-19. 

ResCUE arms businesses with the contact tracing tools they need to navigate Covid-19 with confidence. Interested in learning more?

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