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    Wearables at Work Deliver Competitive Advantage

    Employers are tapping in to wearables as a way to support the entire employee experience.

    Zoomed in Photo of a Person's Wrist Checking his Wearable Apple Watch.

    On the heels of the big news about Google and FitBit, wearable technologies (wearables) are once again centerstage in the ongoing conversation about how people manage their health and wellness. From analyzing the time and motion required to perform a process to increasing safety at work, wearables have existed at the cutting-edge of enterprise innovation and experimentation for the past decade. Now, employers are tapping in to wearables as a way to support the entire employee experience.

    According to a report by PwC, more than 75 million wearables were introduced in the workplace last year. According to Gartner, wearables at work are surging in a trend known as bring your own thing (BYOT) to support remote working.

    "BYOT involves a wide range of objects, such as fitness bands, smart lights, air filters, voice assistants, smart earbuds, and consumer virtual reality headsets." - Gartner 2020

    Wearables Facilitate Health, Wellbeing, and Social Connection

    In addition to expected health benefits for employees and decreased healthcare costs, WeSpire customers are using wearables to facilitate social interactions between employees. Step competitions, fitness challenges, and team-based games bring employees together and encourage new connections and collaboration across the workplace.

    Wearables fold neatly into WeSpire's behavior design model of motivation, ability, and prompts. When employees are sufficiently motivated, have the ability and framework for new wellness behaviors, and are prompted to take action, companies can make and measure progress against specific targets. Customers who leverage wellness habit tracking through Apple Health and Google Fit support can:

    • improve employee wellness and teamwork
    • offer a new channel for collaboration and communication between teams
    • generate actionable knowledge and improve the performance management processes

    The theory is simple. Wearables promote stress reduction, regular movement, social connection, and overall fitness of mind and body. A healthy employee will ultimately lead to better work performance, satisfaction, and positivity at work, and less absenteeism. The combination is a win-win for companies and their workforce alike.