Internet of Things(IoT) – The Future of IoT in Human Resources(HR)

I would not be surprised if anyone asked, “What does the Internet of Things (IoT) have to do with HR?” The reality is that the abstract meaning of the IoT is that things will be getting inter-connected and smarter.

‘Internet of things’ is all about?being connected via internet from device to device, machine to machine or system to system.

Take notice, software is creeping out from computers and phones to inhabit the regular objects of everyday life: cars, appliances, clothes, houses, streets, desks, paper, electricity, packages, glasses, watches, jewelry, buildings, toys, healthcare…etc.

HR’s job is becoming the management of the data associated with people(employees and employers). The way we work and the things we do look different when viewed through the lens of data and evidence.

HR is going to be the tip of the spear in the workplace. Since most people are not very good at self assessment, the flood of data will come with hard realisations. It will be HR who end up helping employees navigate their emerging discoveries about themselves. HR will be asked to explore and handle the human impact of IoT.

Human resources (HR) professionals too are being besieged with a host of digital technology innovations in every aspect of HR functioning, from recruiting to learning to compensation to knowledge management and much more to come.

Digital transformation is being experienced by customers, employees, vendors and partners in the ecosystem at varying degrees through a variety of digital applications. Internet of Things (IoT) is one such innovation that has until recently been mostly associated with systems related to manufacturing and products designed for the external market place or customers.

The?Internet of Things?(IoT) has already started to have an impact on ‘everything’. It is no surprise that it is starting to show up at the ‘workplace’. By 2020, the predicted 20 billion IoT devices will be generating and sharing a massive amount of data. This is making CEOs and Human Resources Executives to think how to incorporate IoT in HR to be part of the full digitalization strategy.

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is a computing concept that describes a future where everyday physical objects will be connected to the Internet and be able to identify themselves to other devices.” - Kouroupetroglou, 2014

IoT has now entered into the workplace and presents several exciting possibilities to the HR domain and employees to engage in new ways and rethink their work environment. IoT is a complex concept to relate to as the phrase does not accurately capture the idea behind several smart objects that are connected to one another. There are two key elements brought together in IoT—medium of communication and connectedness with growing number of smart objects. As the connectivity expands the capabilities of the objects and the connected system, it helps generate valuable data whose analysis provides extremely valuable insights to decision makers.

In the context of HR domain, there is an urgent need to develop its own strategy and capabilities to interface with multiple dimensions related to connectedness. The connectivity devices that employees use such as phones and tablets are yet to be used to their full potential to serve an organisation’s needs. While many organisations are working round the clock to deliver superior consumer experience, designing similar employee experience has not yet received much attention.

IoT applications capture data from the object aggregating that information across a data network, and act on that information in order to improve business efficiency. So far as a society we have been able to gather data - from the simple to the complex. On the simple side, we are able to track movements, GPS, and interaction time with technology. On the complex side we are able to look at genetic makeup and monitor biological functions like the heart rate and sleep time.

What do we do with this data? We attempt to model and analyse it and find patterns in the data, some also sell it to the highest bidder. The animating force behind IoT is “That which you measure, you can grow.”

IoT in HR has two different perspectives, the first one is training to prepare the talent of the company for the new knowledge and skills needed in the new reality of IoT. The second one is the use of IoT internally to learn the behaviours of the talent in order to define new strategies to improve talent performance and productivity, and profitability of the company.

Employees are all continuously operating as “corporate athletes”—dealing with too many decisions, too many emails, and too many meetings in very little time. Organisations, as business people, need tools to track the productivity of the talent, as badly as athletes.

IoT is still in its infancy, so the long-term implications of its impact on HR are still unclear. But employers, HR managers and IT staffing agencies need to start focusing their attention on the potential impact of this phenomenon on the following:

• Employees
• HR policies
• Organisations (as a whole)

In business as well as consumer applications, increasing efficiency is only one angle for IoT technology, and it seems a natural next step to look to instrument and augment human workers themselves. After all, plenty of employees already wear smartwatches and carry smartphones—and ID badges that open doors and allow access.

?As technology evolves and IoT devices start communicating even better, there will be more opportunities to dig into enhanced automation. But as always with smart technology, there’s going to be a concern with regard to employee privacy and?security?breaches.

IoT in HR – Employee Privacy: When employees are sharing data continuously in real-time, employers are going to know exactly where they are and what they’re doing. This can be quite frightening for employees and it also has the potential to violate their privacy. That’s the reason why these issues need to be addressed by the employer to ensure that employee privacy is always maintained.

IoT in HR – Security Breach:?We have already seen many scenarios where corporate security was breached via email. It’s only going to get more complicated as company data (products, services, talent) will be automatically accessed and shared among a variety of company / personal devices. With so many devices on the network, it dramatically increases the potential of being breached if proper security protocols aren’t followed continuously.

IoT is science that you can use to improve the way you work. And you will generate a competitive edge while doing it.

Can employers convince everyone to use the same technology to make work more efficient, productive, and pleasant? All that data offers great potential for workplace gains—as long as everyone’s on board with the program.

Why is IoT important for HR?

There are probably two major IoT challenges for any organisation where HR is the success factor. The first challenge is outside in: Absorbing IoT big data.

HR should have a sound strategy for maximum agility when absorbing the impact of IoT. This primarily refers to having the right workforce composition. The optimal balance in modern core skills, like agility, collaboration, cognitive flexibility, creativity and organisational development. It all comes down to educating and preparing the organisation to absorb the big data that comes from IoT.

IoT will generate an unprecedented amount of data associated with people and how they perform their jobs on a daily basis. This data is worth gold for decision makers to optimise the strategy of the company.

The second challenge is inside out: Connecting brainpower to generate your own IoT contribution

Generating letters and paying salary(ies) is a commodity in HR. The true challenge for HR is to?connect the brainpower?of the workforce and create your own apps to connect with the IoT. How? By generating ideas on how sensors and devices can improve your existing products and services. The power to innovate is the power to differentiate and stay ahead of the curve.

Productivity at the Cost of Privacy: HR Weighs in on IoT

Your Employer is Watching

People analytics has its usefulness but it can also be abused. In a perfect world, employees consent is first taken into account before their privacy rights are infringed upon.

Trackers or in the least smartcards can be used to track individual’s whereabouts and movements especially for the remote mobile employees. Research from Mary Young in 2013, showed that, “almost 75% of employees believed their employer was capturing data about them without their knowledge.”

Understandably, people are wary and a little worried.

Certain collected metrics, like an individual's whereabouts, time spent in the bathroom, time spent idling, and time spent at the computer, are TMI or too much information. Research suggests that manufacturers shipped 1 billion IoT devices in 2015, and analysts predict that the market will continuously grow over 3,000 percent - so this trend is likely to increase.

Who is responsible? The front-line personnel in operations that install the sensors and the data analysts on the back-end who choose what metrics to dedicate their time to. The same sensors that can be used to track helpful and innocuous data can equally be programmed to show sensitive data that breaches privacy.

How do we not breach too far into personnel data? By not opening the Pandora’s box. As a data scientist, just because you can install a sensor to track how often your truck drivers use the bathroom doesn’t mean you should. (And if you track it for the sake of your own curiosity, that doesn’t mean your findings need to be published or sent up the chain of command to shrewd executives whose primary concern is shareholder value). Be judicious in your genius use and think about yourself being monitored that way.

But It’s Not all Doom and Gloom

The truth is that “If you can track one employee, you can track a crowd. If you can track a crowd you can optimise routes.”

Optimised routes for nurses and doctors in hospitals can mean faster E.R. response time, saving potentially thousands of more people per year who would have otherwise had more complications from waiting too long.

Optimised routes for shippers can mean avoiding accidents and making the most of each trip. Trackers can monitor alertness on the job. Truck drivers, pilots, and ship captains can be scanned for fatigue while driving, and be alerted ahead of time, preventing accidents.

Bottom Line for HR Professionals

Bottom Line for HR professionals and other professionals setting the culture: It comes down to educating and preparing the organisation to absorb the big data that comes from IoT.

IoT is rich in potential for Human Resources. It’s what these companies do with this information that’s critical.

HR has the opportunity to be distinctive by thinking through how sensors and devices could add value to their own services and develop own apps to connect with the IoT. The consumer-friendly lighting and temperature control systems could be adapted for work environment as well . The systems designed for smart buildings to adapt to varying temperatures and lighting requirements could now be connected to the phones of individuals, thus increasing employee productivity.

Further, IoT enabled building systems could provide real-time access to the location of employees, the analysis of which could help derive insights on workflows and efficiencies related to workflows. Electronic calendars could be integrated with the office networks to automatically book meeting rooms, customise comfort parameters in such rooms ahead of meetings and optimise occupancy factors.

Learning management can also be automated with in-depth analysis, recommendations and furthermore, more system integration. Learning management and performance management can be integrated together to give out better results.

Examples:

1. Increase in transparency among employees- allowing employees to see their own performance just by immediately accessing data and the system would then show the areas the employees need to improve on, and automatically in each training session, the system shows the covered training sessions and percentage of improvement.
2. ?Predicting functionality of the employee – with the use of IoT, showing the workload expected from the employee and skills necessary for the position. With connecting profiles like LinkedIn, the system can then match to find employees matching the skills required and employees who are seeking for vacancies.

Data Is The Key To Unlocking Value From IoT

Companies are facing another wave of technology that will have a big impact on the way we work. The human resources department is in a unique position to prepare the workforce for this new way of working and to utilise the big data generated by IoT.

IoT is a science that you can be used to improve the way you work and you will generate a competitive edge while doing it. Digital services are extending way beyond movies and books to embrace every possible service in every major global vertical industry.

Conclusion

Who would have thought that an Internet of things?would be so important for the human resources department? And yet here we are.

The better use of data to make HR decisions is now a trend worldwide. Digital transformation in organisations doesn’t just develop —someone has to take the lead and steer the company toward digital change. Most CEOs view digitalization as a positive change in their businesses, not a destructive one. The majority of CEOs also associate digital change with higher profit margins. In our digital age, it is no longer profitable to resist digital change. Forward-thinking leaders have recognised this, and they are personally taking charge of the digital transformations occurring in their organisations.

What is worth noting is that there is no need to wait for IoT to arrive or mature, it is already happening around us. It is up to the organisation and HR department to be conscious about it and start taking advantage of its presence by getting connected to the ecosystem.

The IoT will provide fully integrated project management functionality that will allow for sharing of real-time data and help organisations realise smarter workforce planning. HR managers will be able to use this real-time data to make instant decisions on recruiting and hiring based on the predictive needs of their organisation and its projects.

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