VIDEO: A glimpse of wearable tech for HR?

I have given a few presentations this year on how advanced technologies like wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and robotics might change work and workplaces, but often in these talks it has seemed like the concepts have felt a little remote or not totally relevant to folks in the audiences (usually HR/Talent pros).

It is one thing to envision how connected machines, robots, or drones are going to change work on the front lines, but how much, really, will they impact the day-to-day work in HR, Talent, or Recruiting? I suppose HR pros have a right to be a little skeptical about the nature or level of likely disruption.

Well before you get too comfortable in concluding that HR will be kind of immune to these kinds of technological advances, take a look at a quick (2 minutes or so) video, (embedded below, Email and RSS subscribers will have to click through), of what potential wearables might have in HR, recruiting, etc. The video is a demo of a Google Glass application prototype from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, and I think you might be able to see some obvious, (if creepy) use cases for your work in HR or recruiting.

The technology, dubbed SHORE (Sophisticated High-speed Object Recognition), gauges emotions such as anger, happiness, sadness and surprise and projects this information directly onto the screen of Google Glass, sort of annotating the face of the person you're speaking with. 

Pretty cool right? 

An application that gives you a better read on the emotions of the person with which you are speaking?

Isn't a lot of HR/Recruiting centered on actually speaking with people, getting a read on them, trying to possibly get behind what they are actually saying?

Wouldn't this kind of a technology, (when further developed and refined), have some role in HR/Recruiting?

VIDEO: Wearable tech in the oil field

Quick shot for a busy Friday - if you are at all interested in how, where, and for which type of workplace use cases are likely to be impacted by the introduction of wearable technologies like Google Glass, then check out this short video from Wearable Intelligence, a developer of custom applications for industry that can be deployed on the Glass platform (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through).

In the video embedded below, we see how custom apps overlaid on the Glass device, allow field workers to access training information, log status reports, verify safety procedures have been followed and more - all while keeping their hands free to actually get their work done.  

Really interesting and definitely cool, right?

Glass and probably eventually other wearable devices are going to become one of the essential tools for the types of field workers that need to simultaneously access and interact with lots of data and content, but also can't have their hands tied up with smartphones or tablets, since they actually have to work with their hands.

It is early days, but as you can see in the video the possibilities are almost endless.

And one more thing, I doubt any Glass-hating types would dare to hassle any of these oil field workers that you see in the video for wearing Glass. The irony in all this? Glass and other wearables might end up developing into a real working person's tool as much as a prop for the snobby elites.

Have a great weekend!

On our wearable technological future workplace

If you haven't yet, you should really spend some time reading Josh Bersin's excellent piece on Forbes, 'The 9 Hottest Trends in HR Technology... and Many are Disruptive.' In the piece, Josh combines his insight into the HR and HR technology markets to offer up his view of some of the most important, and potentially impactful trends for HR and the workplace in the near and semi-near future. 

Josh hits some trends that have been brewing for a few years now, (video, social, and Big Data in talent management and HR), but it is his last trend 'Watch for Wearable Computing and the Internet of Things', that interests me the most, and I wanted to touch upon briefly here.

Josh describes the potential for recruiting applications that run on wearable devices like Google Glass, (something I wrote about on the blog some time back), and a different kind of wearable device from Hitachi that monitors employee movements, activities, and interactions in the hopes of helping the organization (and the individual), 'learn' about when and with whom they are most productive, inspired, and efficient. I even blogged about a similar technology all the way back in 2011.

We all like to say that endless meetings suck the life out of us at work, but with a kind of 'work logging' device that could track the time and participants in a meeting, then perform some analysis about how much or little 'great' work got done soon after, then an organization might be able for the first time be able to 'know' the true cost of their propensity to endlessly gather around large, wooden tables.

And as I wrote about in 2012, a 'Glass' type device to help inform, monitor, and help an interviewer (or manager) adapt on the fly to interactions with candidates or employees seems to hold incredible potential for increased accuracy and productivity. Additionally, the ability of Glass (and presumably other technology), to record and immediately make available digital records of these interactions will provide a real-time capability and mechanism for in the moment feedback, coaching, and improvement.

But there is a downside to this, certainly, for the worker anyway. The loss of perceived privacy namely. While we have all come to accept the fact that while on company time and using company equipment and networks that our digital activities can be and probably are being monitored, most of us would be less willing to sign up for offline (hallways, meetings, the cafeteria), monitoring as well.

At work, we like to be able to steal away from the computers and phones and have side conversations, chats in the break room, even the occasional adult beverage or two with our peers and colleagues. The beauty of these kinds of interactions is that they are generally completely unscripted, informal, and more relaxed. Exactly the kinds of interactions that smarter people than I like Marissa Mayer talked about when she famously put a stop to remote working arrangements at Yahoo a few months back. But will these interactions be as 'free' and as valuable and productive if they are being tracked, monitored, recorded?

I do think the horse is just about out of the barn, at least on these technologies themselves. Many organizations will indeed see these kinds of wearable, always-on, always tracking, always recording devices as a simple extension of phone, network, and email monitoring that is generally accepted and expected in the workplace. Most employees have adapted to this reality by generally keeping personal, controversial, and potentially inflammatory content off of corporate devices and networks. But once the corporation extends 'monitoring' to the person, and not just the tools the person uses? Well, that is a different situation entirely.

Whether or not it takes two years or more like ten, it seems to me that we will almost certainly see more tracking, monitoring, and recording of workers of all types - from service providers out in the field, to customer service folks, to information workers at the corporate office, and who knows, maybe even to the big shots in the big offices too.

It will be really interesting when, as I first asked back in 2011, whether or not employees are going to be excited about wearing a 'workplace wire'. 

HR through the augmented reality looking glass

You've probably heard something about Google Glass, one of the more recent in a long line of experimental technologies currently under development by the technology giant. If you are unfamiliar with the project, essentially 'Glass' is a new kind of wearable computer, that is worn like and sort of resembles a pair ofGoogle Glass Prototype glasses, and (theoretically), supply the wearer with a display of information in smartphone-like format, and in a hands-free manner. Further, the Glasses can interact with the Internet via natural language voice commands spoken by the wearer.

Additionally, sporting these kind of super cool, (ok, I think they are cool), accessory 'smart' glasses currently marks the wearer as someone absolutely on the cutting-edge of new technology, and quite possibly a close personal friend of someone in a really high place at Google. While Google Glass, and it's eventual copy cat technologies, (you can read up on what Microsoft is up to with its version of the smart, augmented reality glasses here), are some ways away from widespread availability, not to mention acceptance and deployment, the buzz surrounding these technologies is continually growing - and not just in geekery circles. Even venerable Time Magazine, named Google Glass one of its '10 Best Inventions of the Year for 2012'.

The fact is, chances are like smartphones and tablets and QR codes and RFID chips and scores of other technologies before and since, augmented reality (AR) 'smart' glasses are coming to a workplace near you. Maybe not for a while, but perhaps by 2014 a workable, practical version of Google Glass or the Microsoft version will be the busy HR and Talent executives 'must have' technology accessory - sort of the 2014 version of the corporate recruiting iPad app.

Just what would you as an HR or Talent pro actually do with a pair of AR glasses?  Well some details on the usage patterns envisioned for the Microsoft project might give some clues:

The device described in Microsoft’s patent application is not intended to be used throughout the day as you are getting around. It focuses on live events like sports games or concerts, and tries to enhance your experience by beaming text and audio overlays to the action in the field. Which makes the device much more simple, since Microsoft knows you should be relatively stationary while wearing it, and won’t have to worry about you walking into stuff while trying to read information hovering in front of you.

Makes a little more sense now, right? You are sitting at the Knicks game, you pop on the AR glasses, and with a few simple voice commands you 'see' game or player statistics, a menu of options from the concession stand, maybe a live traffic report to help you decide whether to leave a few minutes early to beat the traffic.  The AR glasses are meant to improve and enhance the real-world and real world events, not substitute them for something else on the screen.

In HR and Talent, what 'real' events could use a dose of AR enhancement? I am sure there are plenty, but here are just a couple of ideas where having real time and private access to additional information would be of great benefit:

Candidate Interviews - Feedback from references, instant assessment of candidate body language and verbal cues, real-time fact-checking for candidate job history - what wouldn't these AR glasses be useful for in interviews?

Performance Management Discussions - Context is everything in these discussions. Wouldn't it be cool to have a 'live feed' of the last 3 months of peer comments scrolling by as you chat with an employee about their need to be more of a 'team player.'

Talent Planning Sessions - it would be cool to see the updated and real-time financial performance of each unit for the execs under discussion just as the CEO is advocating for one of their golfing buddies for a plum assignment or promotion

And in one last and final benefit, early HR adoption of the smart AR glasses would send an important message that no one, I mean no one, can out geek HR! 

And one really last point - I recently got some new glasses, they may or may not be prototype AR glasses.

Have a great week all!