By Ed Sowers, Risk Management Expertise Specialist
Look around you. You’ll likely spot people sporting FitBits®, Apple Watches™, and other wearable devices that track heart rate, number of steps walked, and sleep patterns – just to name a few. Fueled by a growing consumer desire for self-monitoring and health tracking, wearable technology has tripled in use over the past four years. Recent studies have shown this growth is fueled by consumers’ willingness to embrace fitness technology, with over 80% of consumers agreeing they would embrace the same.
These gadgets, once confined to personal fitness tracking, have now become mainstream, with global sales projected to exceed $60 billion by 2025. This trend extends beyond personal use, making its mark in industrial applications. But why the surge in popularity, especially in the workplace?
What is Wearable Technology?
Wearable technology or “wearables” are smart electronic devices that are worn close to and/or on the surface of the skin, where they detect, analyze and transmit body signal information such as vital signs, and/or ambient data. In some cases, that data is used to provide immediate biofeedback to the wearer. From simple lifestyle changes to enhancing overall health, users have found these devices beneficial, and their impact extends beyond personal well-being.
Wearables in the Workplace
Employers and industry leaders are catching on to the benefits of wearables, leveraging these devices for more informed risk management decisions and to improve overall operational performance.
In a collaboration with an insurance company pioneering change in Workers’ Compensation and smart wearable technology, Amerisure initiated a pilot using wearable technology at select healthcare agencies. The reflex wearable device uses sensors and biomechanical analysis to determine when employees are working with incorrect posture, providing real-time feedback if excessive bending, twisting, or reaching maneuvers are detected. An online dashboard also provides a risk profile of their workforce and evaluates safety interventions over time, which ultimately resulted in a nearly 50% reduction in strain injuries and a 38% drop in loss severity.
Less strain can mean safer employees, as well as improved insurance costs and overall safety culture within an organization.
Across the Industries
Wearables aren’t just exclusive to healthcare. Industries such as manufacturing and construction are also adopting this technology to help prevent injuries, increase operational efficiencies, and improve overall safety culture.
Exoskeletons are another form of wearable being used in industry to proactively prevent injuries and ensure employee safety. Overexertion and strain injuries continue to be a leading cause of pain, physical disability, missed work, lost productivity, turnover, and medical expenses. OSHA estimates that employers pay nearly $1 billion in direct Workers’ Compensation claims costs for these injuries – without considering the indirect costs that do not typically show up on an insurance carrier’s loss runs. That’s why this technology is becoming a popular investment to ensure worker safety, well-being, and productivity.
In a collaboration with the National Safety Council (NSC), Amerisure Risk Management secured a safety grant which funded a pilot program for select policyholders to utilize exoskeleton wearables to pioneer solutions for the reduction of worker injuries and workplace safety. Participating organizations reported improvements in:
- Quality metrics
- Overall productivity
- Quality of care or service rendered
- Staffing levels
- Scheduling
Overall, wearable technology has become a more practical, approachable and affordable approach and recent studies have shown that Workers’ Compensation costs are reduced when using exoskeletons within the workplace.
Next Steps: A Wearable Revolution
If your organization has not yet considered the use of wearable technology, now is the time to see if this technology is right for you. You will want to evaluate operations, quality, safety and risk management to determine if wearables are needed to further your company’s mission and values. Can you find opportunity areas that could be addressed by piloting wearable technology? Potential opportunity areas or challenges to consider include:
- Increased overtime
- Increased absenteeism
- Staffing shortages
- Quality of care or service rendered
- Quality of product manufactured or constructed
- Production quotas or timeframes
- Increased Workers’ Compensation costs
- Uptick in loss trends or identified safety issues
If these are challenges that may be persistent in your organization, you should consider how to implement wearable technology in your workplace. Think about what the issues are, what the best type of wearable technology might be to address the issue, and if the costs of implementation will provide a benefit to your organization in the long term. Moving forward with wearables should also include collaboration with senior management as well as the company’s Operations, Human Resources and Risk Management teams.
You also should consider how the workforce will embrace the technology. Gathering employee input before implementation will help increase compliance. Tell your employees why the technology is being considered and educate them on how the technology will be utilized and what performance metrics will be evaluated through the use of the technology. Employee trust is key to a successful implementation. Wearables can lead to positive change, and not everyone is quick to embrace change, especially if they are uninformed about why the changes are occurring.
You should also consider your business relationships, such as those with various vendors and your insurance carrier as these relationships may be able to assist you as follows:
- In determining what wearables might work best for you
- Increased absenteeism – how the costs of implementation might be offset
- How the use of wearable technology may impact your existing business relationships
- Other relational impacts
Your network may be key in helping you determine whether wearables are right for your organization.
Construction is utilizing wearable technology to:
Manufacturing companies are using wearables to:
Consumers, employers, employees, patients, residents – everyone can benefit from wearable technology whether at home or at work, if implemented well and the data is utilized to target improved outcomes. Whether used for personal health improvement, reduced commercial insurance costs, increased employee morale, improved quality of care provided, or any other benefit, the data provided by these devices can only help us to better our performance both personally and professionally.
Safety, quality, productivity, efficiency. Wearable technology addresses all of these key values regardless of industry. Will your company be at the forefront of this technological innovation or will you be “fashionably late”?
Explore the possibilities of wearable telematics by contacting your Amerisure Risk Management expert or by visiting our website.
