You have likely heard about wearable technology, such as fitness trackers or smartwatches. However, there are plenty of other gadgets to include in this list, and each can be used in your business in a unique way.
There are plenty of benefits of adopting this technology, although it does have its drawbacks. Understanding the pros and cons of wearable technology can help you decide if it’s right for your company.
About Wearables
Another kind of wearable technology includes eyewear, such as smart glasses, which use virtual or augmented reality. It is even possible to have smart chips implanted in your body so you never have to worry about forgetting your gadget. These items use tools such as displays, computing, and networking.
Of course, adopting this technology can come at a price, so you will want to make sure you have the budget for it. One way of affording the extra cost of this technology is to take out a personal loan from a private lender. This can help you get your finances in order and free up money for tech for your business.
Being More Productive
Wearable gadgets can help businesses improve their offices and streamline their processes, boosting their ability to be productive. Whether warehouse employees are using smart glasses to find the best route, a smart device is saving energy, or a sensor helps a worker find information to complete their tasks, these gadgets leave companies better prepared to complete tasks.
You don’t have to spend as long going through your email accounts or even communicating with your team members. Instead, you can use wearable tech to help you gain quicker access to this information.
You can alert managers and teams when it is time for them to move on to the next task, and they can keep you updated on the status of their own work. You might have a smart watch, which can alert you to these things, even if you are not near a computer at the moment.
Ensuring Employee Wellness
Wearable devices allow you to guide workers through difficult or dangerous tasks, and they also help you keep an eye on employee activity. That way, you and your management team will be better able to reduce accidents in the workplace before they have a chance to happen. This can also save you money, since you will not need to worry about paying worker’s compensation.
Wearables are a great solution when your workers are near heavy objects, chemicals, or performing dangerous tasks. That's because they can monitor the way the body is responding to these conditions. You can then use this information to figure out what you can do differently.
Many companies also offer fitness trackers to help workers maintain their health. There could be incentive programs that encourage healthy lifestyles, whether in or out of the workplace. When an employee makes healthier lifestyle choices, they will be absent less, and you might not need to spend as much on healthcare-related costs.
These devices make it easier to gather data on things like health and wellness, driving positive behavioral changes. This information also leads to trends about the population as a whole. It is easier than ever for large organizations to track and analyze large portions of data at the same time.
Better Customer Relations
Consumers are interacting with businesses differently, thanks to the help of wearable devices. Businesses might turn to targeted advertising, or they may simplify the payment process significantly. Near field communication chips can communicate with technology already in a physical location to bring augmented reality into focus. Your business could use this option to display ads to consumers.
These chips can be embedded under the skin or placed on a wristband, allowing the customer to transmit payment data to your location’s sales system. Many of today’s consumers are looking for solutions that can make their world more engaging, and these chips are a great example of how that can happen.
Consider the Potential Cons
Of course, there are still some drawbacks of using these devices. For example, some companies are concerned about the potential security risk to networks. And if the connection to company networks is not configured correctly, there could be even more risks. Part of the reason is that many wearable devices do not have proper encryption.
If they are communicating with local networks or smartphones, they are not using the strongest encryption they can. That means anyone could come along and hack the data, potentially gaining access to the business’s network. A hacker may then be able to gain access to sensitive information or video and audio the device recorded.
And even though smart chips are only made to communicate in close proximity, it would still be possible for a hacker nearby to access your network. Ultimately, it's up to the businesses to determine whether these devices are worthwhile.
