Your company could be tracking you at work

Would you feel comfortable wearing a badge that tracked your every move at work? Picture: Thinkstock Source: news.com.au

COMPANIES are using sensor badges to track employees' movements in the office as a way to monitor and improve productivity.

The badges check workers' movement and tone of voice throughout the work day, recording how often they get up from their desk, talk to others or sit in meetings.

Bank of America used the technology a few years ago to monitor its call centre team, and found the people who worked closely with their colleagues and talked with others often were the most productive, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The company's human resources executive at the time, Michael Arena, said the badges picked up on things that engagement surveys could not.

"Surveys measure a point in time - what's happening right now with my emotions. (Sensors) measure actual behaviour in an objective way," Mr Arena told the Journal.

The bank then started scheduling group breaks rather than individual breaks and noticed a 10 per cent rise in productivity.

Another US firm, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, last year tracked 30 sales and marketing workers' movements, location and voice patterns, and compared the data with email traffic and weekly surveys about how energetic and productive the employees felt.

Cubist also noticed that the employees who interacted often with their co-workers were more productive.

So the firm cut back to just one coffee station and water cooler for the team to force workers to interact, and organised a daily 3pm coffee break.

Tracking staff to see how closely they work with one another seems innocent enough, but how do employees react to the idea that they're always being watched?

Dave Lathrop from Steelcase Inc, a firm that develops sensor products for businesses, told the Journal: "Gathering big data about human behaviours can be a sensitive topic.”

But Ben Waber, chief executive of Sociometric Solutions which has done sensor studies with 50 workplaces, said about 90 per cent of the workers agree to wear the badges.

Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in the US, said the sensors did not break any employment laws but warned employers would most likely start requesting data on individual staff members.

"Not many service providers are going to refuse to give information to an employer that's paying the bill," Mr Maltby told the Journal.

"It would be very surprising if some provider doesn't start giving employers data about individual employees when they ask for it. That's not illegal. But do you really want your employers following around what you are doing? It's a creepy way to work."

Dr Waber said his clients must sign forms agreeing they will not have access to individual data.

But he added that individual data can reveal a lot; he can even tell if an employee is likely to quit or get a promotion just by looking at their work patterns.

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Could this 'shower' cure jet lag?

The Delta light shower claims to help cure the effects of jetlag. Picture: Delta Air Lines

• Delta Air Lines unveils light shower design
• Claims it will help cure the effects of jet lag
• How to beat jetlag

IT'S one of the most common side effects of flying long-haul. The plane has finally touched down at your dream destination but you want nothing more than to find your hotel and crawl into bed.

It can take days to combat the effects of jet lag.

But one airline is attempting to find a solution to this problem - with a "light shower".

Delta Air Lines unveiled its "Sanctuary Space" at a recent TED conference in the US, and it was the Phonton Shower that had everyone talking.

The "shower", designed by Wieden + Kennedy New York with the help of a sleep expert, is the first of its kind and claims to "wash away" the effects of jet lag on the body.

"Research by Oxford neuroscience professor Russell Foster shows that bathing in light can alter natural circadian rhythms to help people recover from jet lag," a sign next to the Phonton Shower declared.

"The photon shower by Delta puts this research into practice."

It's based on research determining that jet lag occurs when the body moves quickly through multiple time zones.

"Our brains contain a master clock that coordinates the circadian rhythms of our body's many systems," a Delta spokesperson said. "The symptoms of jet lag occur because the body gets off schedule, not only because of the day/night pattern of its new location, but with itself. This is where light comes into play."

So how does the light shower work?

It's a stall-like chamber that creates a light sequence for passengers to "bathe" in. Those wanting to try it out input their travel data on a touch screen inside the chamber for a personalised light sequence.

A photoreceptor in the eye that senses light and regulates our body clock responds strongly to blue light and a particular wavelength of 480 nanometres.

Delta says it rapidly resets the body clock.

A Wieden + Kennedy spokesman Jamie Carreiro said a lot of work went into the design.

"Not only was there the build of the physical structure, there was the app to run the device, there was animation that had to be created to project the blue light in an elegant way, there was an algorithm that had to be developed to create custom jet lag therapy calendars that users could take home, all the way down to a very specific sound design," he said.

"Flowing blue animations appear before you on the LED wall. They're particularly impactful because these LED panels are typically used for large on-stage displays, so being right up close to a screen like this is really rare. It has a strong effect.

"At times, it really feels like it's raining light."

Delta have hinted they'll find a use for the light showers in the future but have yet to confirm which - if any - airports will receive them.

We can't wait.
 

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