Mental Health Monitoring at Work: IoT Solutions and Privacy Concerns

Abstract

The fast-paced business environment and new work arrangements have elevated mental health risks, especially occupational stress and burnouts. Mental health becomes a critical aspect for occupational safety and health. Therefore, employers aim to improve employees' well-being and safety at the workplace through dedicated health initiatives. Internet-of-things (IoT) technology is increasingly being used for such purposes. However, its implementation in the workplace is accompanied by privacy concerns related to sensitive data collection. In this study, we provide a meta-synthesis of existing IoT solutions for supporting employees' mental health in office settings. We classify existing studies into use cases with possible implementation options. We also discuss main challenges emerging from privacy concerns along the IoT data lifecycle. We emphasize the opportunity for the connected workplace to improve occupational health in the future workplace,

Acceptable nudge strategies to incentivize the use of wearables and physiolytics at work: A Q-methodology examination

“…In the past, there was an emphasis on physical health monitoring, such as by measuring sedentary behaviors (Synnott et al 2016) or detecting wrong postures (e.g., improper lifting of heavy objects) that potentially cause chronic diseases or musculoskeletal disorders (Lo Presti et al 2020). More recently, and entering a completely new dimension of work surveillance (Ball 2021), organizations have equally begun to employ wearables and physiolytics devices for capturing their employees’ mental or emotional states (Lutchyn et al 2015; Naous and Mettler 2022; Rivera-Pelayo et al 2017). Using physiological indicators, such as heartrate, body temperature, or speech and voice tones, distinct algorithms are designed such that managers can recognize their employees’ mood states or psychological stress levels (Booth et al 2022; Han et al 2017).…”