Wearable tech wristband monitors your mood and tells employer if you’re unhappy
A new wearable technology has been created which tracks your emotional state and send the results to your employer.
The silicone wristband, called the Moodbeam, looks like a heart rate tracker, but it doesn’t track your physical health.
The device links to a mobile app and web interface and has two buttons – a yellow one and a blue one.
To work, the wearer must press the yellow button if they are happy and the blue one if they are sad.
The gadget is aimed at businesses who want to monitor staff wellbeing while they’re working from home.
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Staff will be given the wristband to wear and can press the button throughout the week to provide feedback – though they can of course refuse to.
Managers can then look at an online dashboard to see how their team is doing, reports the BBC.
The wearable device can be helpful now that the coronavirus pandemic has caused many companies to send employees to work at home where managers can’t physically check in with them.
Moodbeam co-founder Christina Colmer McHugh said: "Businesses are trying to get on top of staying connected with staff working from home.
“Here they can ask 500 members: 'You ok?' without picking up the phone.”
Christina came up with the idea when her daughter was struggling at school and wanted her to have a way to tell her mum how she was feeling.
It was launched commercially in 2016.
UK charity Brave Mind uses Moodbeam.
Trustee Paddy Burtt said: "One member of the team was in an uncomfortable place, struggling with a huge workload, and disillusioned with what was going on.
“It's not something he would have flagged up, and we wouldn't have known about it unless we had seen the data."
Mental health charity Mind estimates that 60% of adults thought their mental health had got worse during the first lockdown.
Now that Britain is experiencing its third national lockdown this figure may get higher.
So, it’s important for UK firms to ensure staff wellbeing is being taken care of.
Mind added that as more people work from home, “it is really important [that employers] commit to prioritising staff mental health.”
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