× Summary: In the digital age we have already accustomed to social networks to track many of our activities and preferences. And it's not hard to imagine that a potential employer will try to get an idea of the personality of a potential employee based on information that is already available digitally on the Internet. But to what extent we are willing to have leave a trail of each of our movements and activities, even when we're home? This is becoming a reality in many companies, who are already using

In the digital age we have already accustomed to social networks to track many of our activities and preferences. And it's not hard to imagine that a potential employer will try to get an idea of the personality of a potential employee based on information that is already available digitally on the Internet. But to what extent we are willing to have leave a trail of each of our movements and activities, even when we're home?

This is becoming a reality in many companies, who are already using technologies to use the wearable technology to track the habits and activities of employees.

Companies like eBay and Coca-Cola encourage employees to use digital bracelets to monitor their daily activities, including exercise routines, sleep schedule and many others. In these cases, they use these devices as part of programs to improve the health and welfare of their workers, and they do not necessarily have access to all of the individual data. But the overall figures are enough to make a correlation between employee wellness and productivity.

And technology is also beginning to be used to track the performance of employees at work every day.

The application of this technology is growing in virtually all sectors of the economy. An example of the use of wearables to monitor performance is in the British supermarket chain Tesco.

In many of its stores, employees wear armbands that track their movements and the products they're handling. The armband provides instant feedback to employees when a task is completed in a specified time, or drives them to hurry if they have not completed an activity. As a test, some employees at a sandwich shop in Las Vegas recorded their routine using Google lenses, and then applications proceeded to evaluate their performance based on that information.

To what extent a constant monitored employee activity can improve performance? Preliminary results of a study led by Dr. Chris Bauer from the University of London, suggest that it would do quite a lot for the company. In the research, about two hundred employees were asked to use three types of wearable devices: a bracelet called acceleration meter, a brain activity monitor and a device to track movement and posture. Besides movement, posture and brain activity, devices tracked 24 hours a day data such as temperature, light exposure, and sleep patterns.

During the study, these instruments generated around 4GB of information per day and employee. The information was analyzed for trends and to compare indicators such as employee performance. This yielded very specific details; for example, there was improved productivity when employees were outside the building during lunch, compared to when they stayed inside to eat. Sleep patterns were related to how alert they were at work during the next day. According to the researcher, as a result, productivity increased by 8.5%, and job satisfaction by 3.5%, but they warn that these data are very preliminary and inconclusive.

A firm in California reported a significant change in the behavior of employees who chose to use Fitbits, an activity monitor shaped as a bracelet. There's also the case of a call center of Bank of America, where employees were measured to see how they behaved as they interacted with colleagues. The sensor reported data on where and with whom employees were talking, and how the tone of their voice and movements changed during the day.

Even though performance might improve, we must ask ourselves where does work ethic end and private life start, whenever employees are under constant monitoring, since we might not be too far from an Orwellian future where every movement is overlooked by a “Big Brother”.