CEOs, company managers, and directors can often feel they've lost control or insight into their employees' work habits and preferences. If the company is instituting new policies or trying out new company culture-building techniques but cannot see the real-time advantages of these investments, it could be a waste of time and money.
To make up for the human contact lost by going virtual, CEOs now have the option to receive regular and constant feedback from their employees. By equipping a virtual team with wearable devices and badges, employers and managers can monitor outputs, physical activity, tension, ease, and focus throughout the employee's workday. By tracking these behaviors, managers have access to data that demonstrates where, exactly, throughout the workday, employees are feeling strained, disengaged, or unhappy. From there, they can redesign company procedures and policies accordingly. The main goal is to create a more satisfied, loyal, and well-connected team.
The Case For
The designers of these wearable devices insist that the data they're collecting can help identify and remove some of the inherent obstacles in remote workforce management. They're providing analytics that could eradicate inefficient practices and increase profits and productivity. Vendor case studies report meaningful reductions in attrition and absenteeism, and some describe returns many times the investment through increased productivity and other benefits.
The Case Against
Others believe such monitors are trying too hard to manufacture happiness in the workplace, and that having behaviors and expressions tracked throughout the day feels like a breach of privacy. There are fears that emotion trackers rob us of our basic human right to express what we are feeling in the moment.
Leading vendors respond that conversations are not recorded or stored — devices collect data only from tone, volume, and speed of speech, and individual data stays in the hands of the employee, with contracts barring companies from accessing it.
Use Them Correctly
These cues provide enough data for employers to sift through, analyze, and decide on new systems and strategies to improve communications practices in ways that lead to higher employee satisfaction and greater productivity. While the numbers suggest that wearable devices can help remote teams increase productivity and their sense of human connection, it's important to use them correctly — transparently, with consent — and keep your business goals realistic.
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