Use Of Smart Wearables To Increase Safety And Productivity

Technology has permeated every aspect of our lives.Companies across the globe are using tech to not only track workers' performance but also to track the well-being of the workforce. 

"If I take care of my people's safety and well-being, they will ensure that objectivity is driven very clearly. We have seen the use of the technology around wearables in supply chain that helped to look at the person’s health and vitals and ensure that they are not getting into any hazardous scenarios," said Praveen Arora, Head of IoT at Tata Communications.

There’s always been a privacy concern over wearables, but Arora added that this is not about tracking, it’s for safety. We do not track them after working hours, we respect the personal data. We have saved over 40 lives in the last couple of years. With the use of wearables, the turnaround time to reach the rescue spot is within a few minutes.

The smart wearables have generated a large amount of data. Further, with the use of the same data, enterprises can provide their employees with the solutions they need at the right time.

Precisely touching upon the use of wearables for the better well-being of the workforce, Bimal Puri, SVP and CIO, SRF, stated, "Once these wearables become the new normal, then the tech companies can use the data and use them as business tools. Employee well-being is a very important value that can be better addressed now with the help of these wearable, smart devices."

Convincing people to start using smart technologies is a task in itself for the companies intending to use them for smart operations. Puri explained that for different sets of industries, there will be different solutions and different intimation strategies. 

Right now, we have the technology to support a safe environment for management and workers alike. It is more about educating the workforce. For instance, in tech companies, where people are already educated, they do not need to be convinced to shift over to smart wearables for their own well-being. Deploying smart wearables is not just about the integration of devices, networks, applications, and analytics. The integration is also done to look at adoption and scalability, as well as the cultural shift that is happening, which takes significant time. People need time to change their mindset. When data begins to integrate into the enterprise's system, productivity improves.