Market intelligence firm Tractica says wearables might be the next craze for the enterprise and industry sectors, as more businesses start to launch corporate wellness programs and integrate wearables into everyday work.
Sales in the sector are expected to skyrocket from 2.3 million in 2015 to 66.4 million in 2021, according to Tractica. It sees corporate wellness as the main driver for wearable sales in the enterprise sector, at least up to 2021.
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Corporate wellness programs are already starting to integrate wearables. Fitbit has over 1,000 companies added to its program and health platform Jiff has seen an increase in its customer base by 500 percent.
The programs are about more than just getting employees healthy, they can track things like heart-rate; which could be used to track stress levels, restlessness, and time spent standing up. This data could be useful for human resources that want to have a positive working environment, not one where employees are too tired or stressed to be comfortable.
However, adoption from employees might take some time, especially if they do not trust management with sensitive and private data. If a business knows you’re routinely too tired to work optimally, will they let you off, or sack you for someone more productive?
Tractica expects more focus on enterprises’ demographics
In the future, Tractica predicts that wearables will become more focused on a certain demographic of enterprise. Augmented reality devices might become commonplace in retail to check a customer’s size or recognize they’re a returning customer — to speed up service.
Industrial wearables might take some time to enter the workplace, according to Tractica, due to the health and safety standards that block most of the current devices from entry. We are seeing a small uptake in Google Glass usage by medical and construction professionals, but this seem to be more for testing than implementation across the workforce.
Smartphones are commonplace in the enterprise sector now and thousands of businesses have set up BYOD programs and added Slack channels for employees. Now, the next enterprise tech craze could be wearables.
