How to Capitalise on the futuristic Benefits of IoT on HRM

The Internet of Things (IoT) as defined by Wikipedia is the network of physical devices, cars, home appliances and other things embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and networking that allows these objects to communicate and exchange data. Everything can be identified uniquely through its built-in computing system and communicate within the existing Internet infrastructure.

Employees at work are usually caught up in calls, meetings, decision-making, performance standards and many others. All those things hardly allow us to monitor productivity at any time. The need to control, evaluate and measure one's success has shifted all emphasis to wearable computing devices, fitness trackers and mobile communication tools.

According to TDengine, such devices which are operated by a technology infrastructure referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) will take the quantifiable data. HR departments will create a positive and effective work culture by analyzing employee productivity, people-related trends, communication habits, and how teams can work together to make things better.

Impact of IoT on HR

HR departments should devise strategies to absorb the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on multiple aspects of Human Resources.

1. Knowing the importance of people analytics that comes from IoT is critical to HR. There is no question that the Internet of Things will produce an unprecedented amount of people-related data and their processes. The data is of great use for decision and strategy makers.
2. IoT improves employee happiness. Employees, supervisors and Human Resources holding Internet-enabled mobile devices are linked round the clock to each other.

For example, they can book meeting rooms immediately, interact with any member of the team, exchange ideas and do many more. In this way, IoT optimizes the productivity of the workday of the workers and offers better work experience.

1. A flexible work climate would be a blessing for future generations. Trust me it would be a big contributor to IoT technology. IoT will allow HR to build flexible workspace, with flexibility in managing work via mobile and wearable devices.
2. With the same technology, employee wellbeing can be tracked and evaluated continuously. If corrective action to improve the health of employees is taken on time, the intention of implementing technology would be successful.
3. Just as HR technology simplified Continuous Performance Management, it was also positively impacted by IoT. The improved interaction of IoT devices helps to create a digital community in which managers and employees can constantly interact, exchange feedback on the success of each other, improve skills and encourage each other to improve.
4. Trackers make it easy to manage mobile workers without much to worry about and track their activities.

The downside of IoT on HR

1. Security Breaches - Unfortunately the IoT is also vulnerable to failure and intrusion because so many apps will communicate in ways that have never been possible before. 70% of the Internet of Things systems most widely used includes significant vulnerabilities. The consequence of security risks is excessive access to user data and theft.
2. Standards and regulations - Products often work in disruptive ways due to a lack of guidelines and best practices when designing IoT products. It leads to a considerable number of IoT systems having trouble networking, configuring, and handling.
3. Privacy - Data protection problems have become popular in consumer devices, such as phone tracking devices, smart TVs to mention on a few. You can combine voice recognition or graphics with other apps to keep a watch on user activities. Secretly listening to personal conversations and keeping an eye on the movements of the consumer is the greatest danger. To realize the IoT opportunities, an ISOC (Internet Society) whitepaper indicates that well-thought-out approaches are needed to respect and secure privacy options for consumers across a wide range of services, thus promoting creativity in modern technologies.

We already have yet another surge of technology with the Internet of Things. It will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the way people work and the functions of human resources. Just as an athlete can track and improve performance with the aid of wearables or mobile devices, workers can take advantage of IoT devices and become more effective in their workplaces too.

References

1. “How Internet of Things (IoT) Will Impact in Human Resources?” Empxtrack.Com, empxtrack.com/blog/how-internet-of-things-will-impact-human-resources/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.

Ifeoma is a Business Analytics and Research Consultant at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a business management and human resources consulting firm.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifeoma-obi-92b4b9121/

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Email: ifeoma@ipcconsultants.com

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