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Companies are increasingly concerned about the health of their employees. Some therefore use digital tools to ensure their well-being at work. But some are worried about the abuses this could cause.
The Finnish company Framery Oy markets soundproof booths that allow employees to make calls or participate in videoconference meetings far from the hubbub of the open space. But Framery Oy engineers have found an innovative way to differentiate these enclosed spaces from others on the market. They equipped the cabin seats with sensory sensors which monitor the vital signals (breathing, heart rate, etc.) of those who use them.
Soundproof cabins with many benefits…
These new soundproof cabins are not yet marketed, according to Bloomberg. But the managers of Framery Oy are convinced of the benefits that businesses could derive from it. “The idea of being able to have an early warning signal about the climate prevailing in an organization is quite interesting. Companies only conduct employee engagement surveys twice a year. What if we could alert them earlier?“, Samu Hällfors, CEO and co-founder of Framery, told the news site.
The idea seems attractive at a time when the mental health of employees is of great concern. Stress, anxiety, depression, burn out… Psychological distress now affects 48% of workers in France, including 17% at a very high rate, according to the latest barometer from Empreinte Humaine with OpinionWay. Despite the scale of the phenomenon, workers believe that the measures taken by companies to prevent psychosocial risks are not sufficient.
A violation of privacy?
So we might expect them to be satisfied if their employer monitored their mental health. However, specialists are concerned about how they would use their employees’ personal data. “It’s one thing to share your heartbeat with your doctor, but it’s a violation of privacy if your workplace knows about it. I don’t see how this won’t end up having repercussions on an individual level“Kirsten Martin, professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame, told Bloomberg.
Indeed, aren’t companies likely to be more hesitant about granting a promotion or a salary increase to an employee who is experiencing psychological difficulties? Will they collect the health data of their employees to ensure their well-being, or to make them more efficient at work? And above all, how will they react if one of them refuses to allow their superiors to have access to their medical data?
Special legal protection
For now, all these questions remain unanswered. But they pose the risk of managerial intrusion into the privacy of employees. Because, if the company must ensure the good health of its employees, it cannot monitor it as it sees fit. During the Covid crisis, the CNIL recalled that “data relating to a person’s state of health are, in fact, subject to very specific legal protection“and that they”are in principle prohibited from processing by the employer“.
French companies will therefore risk not being able to install the new Framery Oy cabins when they arrive on the market, but companies elsewhere in the world will be able to do so. However, they will have to question the benefits they will derive from it and, above all, ensure that they do not encroach on the personal lives of employees. It is up to them to listen so that their employees feel comfortable enough to turn to them in the event of psychological difficulties.