Wisdom of the WISE

To build a good computer system, all it takes is imput from workers.

December 2000

by Richard Bermack

There are instances of the union and management working together to produce worker-friendly computer systems. According to eligibility worker Darlene White, Alameda County formed a labor-management task force about five years ago to create a general assistance computer system called GAWS as an add-on to the Welfare Case Data System. The system was so successful that it was later expanded to include food stamps, CalWorks and some Medi-Cal screens. The system they came up with was appropriately named WISE, the Welfare Information System for Everyone.

“The task force was made up of workers from different programs, and they spent a lot of time testing and working out the kinks, such as where certain keys should be, the ability to toggle between screens–that was a major thing that workers wanted,” White says. Other examples of worker suggestions incorporated into the system are the abilities to save comments with the case and to save the history of changes to the case, so that if workers are called to testify in appeals hearings they will have a record of what they did. The result of the labor-management effort is a system that addresses the needs of workers and makes their work easier and more reliable.

White hopes that with worker input the CalWIN system will have the same success and will improve services to the clients. “Agency upper management does not know how things really work or what we need in the system to get the job done. We are the ones who do the work,” she points out.