As a business owner or manager, it’s important to have systems in place to monitor the health of your team. This includes not only their physical health but also their mental and emotional well-being. After all, a healthy team is a productive team! But what’s the best way to monitor your team’s health?
Enter Augmented Reality (AR). AR is the perfect tool for monitoring your team’s health, as it allows you to see through their eyes and understand what they are experiencing in real time. With AR, you can see what they are seeing and, more importantly, how they react. This information is valuable because it allows you to make changes to your environment or processes that could improve the health of your team.
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes computer-generated images on top of real-world objects, allowing users to interact with digital information in a natural and immersive way.
One of the most promising applications of AR is in the area of employee health and safety. By overlaying digital information on top of the physical world, AR can help workers identify potential hazards, avoid dangerous situations, and stay safe while on the job.
AR can also be used to monitor your team’s mental and emotional well-being. For example, if you have a team of salespeople on the road, you can use AR to check in on them and ensure they stay healthy. You can also use AR to monitor your team’s morale by checking in on how they are interacting with each other. If you see that morale is low, you can take steps to improve the situation by providing more support or training.
The greatest teacher is experienced, and what better way to understand the needs/safety of your team than by experiencing what your team goes through every day?
“I believe that augmented reality will be the biggest technological
Revolution that will happen in our lifetimes”
-Tim Sweeny
Human negligence requires particular attention because of the various risk indicators for workplace accidents. For example, when the world was fighting COVID-19, a gas leak at a chemical plant in India killed 12 people and 32 animals and saw thousands evacuated from their households. A subsequent investigation raised questions about inspection procedures at the plant, particularly during pandemic restrictions (Pillai, 2021) [1].
Augmented Reality & Team Health
Augmented Reality is an amazing, next-gen tool that can be used for various purposes: monitoring your team’s health and providing them with training. This first-hand experience will provide you with unique insight into the workings of your work system and allow you to develop new, improved strategies and working conditions.
Part of the challenge many training schemes in health and safety find is giving individuals the opportunity to develop hands-on experience while also not putting themselves or others at risk. Augmented Reality can help with this. In theory, it could help bridge the gap between the classroom and physical experience (hse-network, 2020) [2].
Real-Time
For example, let us say you have a team of workers exposed to hazardous materials daily. With AR, you can monitor their vital signs and stress levels in real time so that you can make changes to their work environment or schedules if needed. This could include adding more breaks, increasing ventilation, or providing access to counseling services.
Real-time data and feedback using an AR tool will give you a first-hand experience of your team’s working conditions and the problems they face on the job. Hazards and problems can be identified with minimal effort and risk, thus paving the way for better and safer procedures.
“If you want to see your product in the environment it’ll be used in,
AR can do that for you faster and less expensively than building a prototype”
-Matt Huybrecht
Augmented reality can help employees identify potential hazards in their work environment. By superimposing virtual objects or information onto the real world, AR can help workers spot potential dangers they might otherwise miss.
This technology can also be used to provide employees with real-time feedback on their performance. For example, a worker lifting a heavy object could have virtual arrows on their screen, showing them the correct way to lift it.
Small bits of information could be shown on the screen regarding the current task, thus reducing the chance of mistakes occurring due to forgetting the small things. A quick look at the virtual schematics in real-time overlaid on the real world seems much better than consulting a confusing blueprint just to see the correct place for the parts.
Training
‘Prevention is better than the cure. This is where training in augmented reality plays a big role in preventing work-related accidents. If you can provide your team with training on negative cases, they can be better prepared for emergencies and improper workflow.
It can help employees identify potential hazards in their work environment. By superimposing virtual objects or information onto the real world, AR can help workers spot potential dangers they might otherwise miss.
“The only source of knowledge is experience”
-Albert Einstein
You can better prepare your teams to handle these situations by creating simulations of dangerous scenarios. Employees can learn how to react in a real-world setting instead of just reading lengthy paragraphs about procedures. This type of training can be particularly valuable for those who work in high-risk industries such as construction or manufacturing.
Depending on your learner type, in-class training, demonstrations, and presentations might feel utterly intimidating. After all, you would not want to break down or make a mistake in front of your peers, let alone a customer. But, this is where AR sweeps in and saves the day. AR helps employees learn vital concepts and internalize essential skills in an easily digestible manner. As a result, learners can make as many mistakes as needed until they know how to solve the problem in the best possible way (Designing Digitally, 2021) [3].
Safety
Think about AR imaging that shows the real-time temperature of a seal. Before the employee starts to work, they can see how hot the seal is and its cooling rate. They know seal A is too hot to touch right now, but seal C is cool and safe.
This can also be used for safety alerts. Working in hazardous conditions where the danger may not be as readily apparent with just your senses, equipment is needed to monitor the environment.
These monitoring systems can be linked to the AR device of the workers so that instead of consulting safety officers before every action, they can just get a heads-up on their screen, which can warn them of the danger or show them their current environment information.
“Simply put, we believe augmented reality is going to change the way
We use technology forever. We’re already seeing things that will transform
The way you work, play, connect and learn”
-Tim Cook
Predictive alerts and reminders of safety standards can help prevent the loss of life due to work-related accidents. Imagine performing electrical maintenance on a machine with an AR diagram to show the step-by-step repair. Not only that, but the goggles worn by the worker also have a gentle flashing indicator showing the wire containing the high-voltage current.
Benefits
There are many benefits of using augmented reality for health and safety in the workplace. AR can help you monitor your team’s health, as well as their work environment and surroundings. This information can be used to improve workplace safety and ensure that employees work in a safe environment.
AR can also help you train your employees on safely using equipment and machinery. This can reduce the number of accidents in the workplace, as well as improve productivity. In addition, AR can also help you create a virtual environment for your employees to practice in before they start using real-world equipment.
The benefit of using AR is that it is built upon technology and devices currently in use. The majority cost will be coming up with integration systems; even then, the projected cost is much less than that of next-gen innovations. Plus, these systems are a one-time cost with very little maintenance.
Overall, augmented reality can positively impact health and safety in the workplace. It can help you monitor your team’s health, as well as their work environment and surroundings. This information can be used to improve workplace safety and ensure that employees work in a safe environment.
AR enables new efficiencies that every firm must explore. As we have noted, it can significantly lower the cost of training, service, assembly, design, and other parts of the value chain. It can also substantially cut manufacturing costs by reducing the need for physical interfaces (Porter & Heppelmann, 2017) [4].
Using predictive warning systems and safety reminders will greatly reduce workplace injuries or loss of life. This will prevent accidents and save the company money if the faults can be detected and fixed before they escalate and cause major damage to property and products.
Conclusion
Monitoring your team’s health is important for many reasons. It helps you identify problems early so they can be fixed before they cause too much damage. It also allows you to create a healthier work environment for your team to be more productive.
AR’s rise to prominence as an investment in safety will be rapid. AR technology uses devices and products that are already in circulation today. It is naturally intuitive and has already seen quick adoption by many industries for various purposes.
AR is the perfect tool for monitoring your team’s health because it allows you to see their eyes and understand how they feel in real-time. With AR, you can see what they see and, more importantly, how they react to it.
This information is valuable because it allows you to make changes to your environment or processes that could improve the health of your team. The cost projections for AR technology are poised to be much lower than other next-gen factory innovations.
It also has the added benefit of being a one-time cost with little maintenance. Then there is also the cost saving in preventing injuries and damage to company property thanks to the predictive warning system and heads-up warning displays.
In the workplace, AR can enhance trainees’ and seasoned workers’ learning and comprehension. Additionally, AR can boost employee engagement and safety awareness, alleviate training costs, and lower learning curves (Fade, 2021) [5].
AR is a versatile tool that can be used in various ways to improve health and safety in the workplace. Augmented reality could be the answer if you are looking for a way to take your health and safety training to the next level.
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References
[1]: Anu Pillai, 24th November 2021, How Industry Could Use Augmented Reality To Improve Workplace Safety
[2]: hse-network, 3rd July 2020, The Use Of Augmented Reality In Health & Safety
[3]: Designing Digitally, 17th June 2021, What Is Augmented Reality And How Does It Benefit Employees
[4]: Michael E. Porter & James E. Heppelmann, November – December 2017, Why Every Organization Needs An Augmented Reality Strategy
[5]: Lorne Fade, 12th February 2021, The Benefits Of Augmented Reality For Employee Training
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