跨国公司大肆采购可穿戴设备 监测员工睡眠质量

    至于跟踪设备收集的数据，员工没有义务分享，公司也不会在年底检查员工是否按照自己的承诺坚持跑步。科普拉斯切说：“我们会选择分享自己认为合适的数据。大多数人会分享自己的睡眠情况和行走步数，也有人会跟踪食物和咖啡因摄入量，以及自己的情绪。目前，这些数据只会用于支持我们的自我改善文化，不会用于其它目的。除了Up应用显示的数据外，我们不会以任何有组织的方式跟踪数据。我们也不会根据这些数据制定任何团队决策。”

    科普拉斯切称，自去年3月份推广健康手环以来，Buffer公司的团队步行距离变得更远，睡眠质量也变得更高。不过，这项计划还有其他好处。她说：“它帮助团队将自我改善作为交流和文化的核心。因为是集体活动，所以我们可以轻松坦率地谈论行走的步数和睡眠。我相信，这种效果还会影响到其他个人改善活动，因为我们已经养成了坦率讨论目标的习惯。”

    测量影响

    使用健康跟踪设备和其他透明措施为Buffer的招聘提供了一个自动的筛选机制。科普拉斯切称，如果求职者反感分享的理念和这种工作方式，表明他或许并不适合Buffer的文化。

    另一方面，像Buffer这样的初创公司鼓励15名员工收集和分享数据比大公司在数千名员工中推行一项制度要容易得多。在大公司，员工甚至连彼此的名字都不知道，就算以非正式地的方式推广健康跟踪和数据分享，也可能会面临重重阻力。

    有些员工可能不希望老板知道他们到底有多缺觉，也不想让老板知道他们去健身房的次数少得多么可怜，推行健康数据收集与分享可能让这些员工产生恐慌。在目前的公司制度中，跟踪的健康数据不会包含在绩效评估或公司升职政策当中。但不难想象，未来它将成为一种必然的趋势。有一天，你可能因为没有记录足够的步数而被炒鱿鱼。

    投资回报也很难判断，除非对数据进行仔细的采集和分析。更健康、更快乐的团队可以减少病假，提高生产效率，形成更好的工作环境，但要想测量价值100美元的手环在这个等式中到底有多大影响，并不是件容易的事。与在消费市场中一样，可穿戴设备不仅要应对如何准确收集数据的挑战，对数据进行智能分析也是难题之一。

    据市场追踪公司ABI Research估计，未来五年内，预计将有超过1,300万部可穿戴健康跟踪设备被整合到员工健康计划当中。对于目前已经对员工健康进行投资的公司，这是一个自然的结果，而已经采用这项技术的公司得到的好处绝对积极：更明确的目标、保持健康的积极方式，会经常考虑改善生活方式的员工。这是一个不错的开始。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    As for the data served up by the trackers, there's no obligation to share and no end-of-year annual review to check if you've been jogging as often as you said you would. "We each choose to share whatever we feel comfortable with," Kopprasch says. "Most of us share our sleep and steps, and some track food and caffeine intake and mood as well ... Other than supporting our culture of self-improvement, the data is not used for anything at this time. We don't track the data in any more organized fashion than the Up app displays, and we don't base any team decisions around it."

    The team at Buffer has been walking farther and sleeping better since the fitness bands were first introduced in March last year, Kopprasch says, but the program has had other benefits, too. "As a team, it has helped us base our conversations and culture around self-improvement," she says. "Since we're all in it together, we speak very openly and easily about steps and sleep. I believe that this spills over into our other individual improvements, since we're in the habit of talking openly about our goals."

    Measuring impact

    Together with Buffer's other transparency measures, the use of fitness trackers provides an automatic screening facility for job applications, too. If you're put off by the thought of sharing and working in this way, Kopprasch notes, then you might not fit into Buffer's culture in the first place.

    On the other hand, it's certainly easier for a startup like Buffer to encourage data collection and sharing among its 15 employees than for a larger corporation to roll out a scheme among thousands of employees. In an atmosphere where everyone doesn't know each other's name, there may be resistance to the idea of fitness tracking and data sharing even on an informal basis.

    The implications for staff who don't want their bosses to know how little sleep they're getting or how infrequently they hit the gym can be frightening to some. In corporate schemes in place today, tracked fitness statistics aren't included in performance reviews or company promotion policies. But it's not inconceivable that they could be in the future. One day, it's possible that you might miss out on a job because you didn't log enough steps.

    Return on investment can be tricky to judge too, unless data is carefully collected and analyzed. A healthier and happier workforce leads to fewer sick days, increased productivity, and a better working environment, but it's not always easy to measure the impact a $100 wrist strap has had on any part of this equation. As in the consumer marketplace, wearables face a challenge to not only collect data accurately but to analyze it intelligently too.

    More than 13 million wearable fitness tracking devices are expected to be incorporated into employee wellness programs within the next five years, according to estimates from ABI Research. In many ways, it's a natural progression for companies invested in the health of their workforce -- and in firms where the tech is already in place, the benefits have been overwhelmingly positive: clearer goals, proactive approaches to health, and employees who are thinking about improving their lifestyle on a regular basis. Not a bad first step.