A report commissioned by Rackspace suggests that wearable technology in the workplace can make employees more productive and happier.
The analysis spanned three different studies, according to AppsTech.
Researchers found that for three weeks, the productivity levels of workers using wearable tech experienced a steady increase from a score of 7.06 to 7.38, then to 7.66. Job satisfaction increased on average by 3.5 percent.
The report comes from the results of the Human Cloud at Work project, which focuses on the impact that wearable devices could have on the corporate environment, TechWeekEurope UK reported.
"Wearable technologies are arguably the biggest trend since tablet computing, so it's natural that employees and businesses will look to use these devices in the workplace," said Dr. Chris Brauer, leader of the project. "Using data generated from the devices, organizations can learn how human behaviors impact productivity, performance, well-being and job satisfaction."
Researchers also found that wearable tech is able to generate large amounts of new data that can be used in analytics. Each employee who had three different wearable devices was producing almost 30GB of information each week, TechWeekEurope UK reported.
"The big step change for both individuals and businesses is being able to analyze the raw data and understand the wider context surrounding the data, such as the weather location, posture, even temperature and mood of the individual," said Nigel Beighton, CTO of Rackspace UK. "By focusing on the data as well as the devices, wearable technologies can provide meaningful insights that can be used to improve performance and satisfaction. Essentially wearable tech and big data go hand-in-hand."
The study also included data concerning people who use wearable tech to create "rich behavioral and lifestyle profiles of employees," which brings up the ethical question of whether employers should be able to access data to find out what their employees are doing away from work hours, AppsTech reported.
"This work reinforces the need for businesses to work within a social contract to collect and use this type of data sensitively and appropriately," Brauer said.
Beighton shared more of his confidence in wearable tech being beneficial to businesses.
"Introducing dedicated workplace wearable technology projects should be straightforward provided companies are open and collaborative in what data they will collect and how it will be used," he said.
