DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF IN-HOUSE CURRENCY SYSTEM TO FOSTER MUTUAL ACTIONS

With the pandemic of a new type of infectious disease, people are trying to shift to a new way of working, mainly by working from home. To address the concerns of remote work, such as poor communication among employees and loss of a sense of self-efficacy, the authors have designed and developed an in-house currency system that promotes mutual aids among employees. The system is implemented mainly on a cloud system and is accessed by employees as a web application on their smartphones. This in-house currency application accepts reports of mutual aids behavior and provides a small monetary incentive. It also has a user interface that fosters empathy by visualizing the mutual aid behaviors of employees to all participants. This system has been implemented on a trial basis for our R&D department, and employee participation is evaluated over a year. During the test period, in addition to daily mutual aid activities among employees, the activities that promoted actions among employees are observed. User interviews indicate that the in-house currency system is effective in stimulating communication among employees and strengthening their sense of self-efficacy.