While programs and gadgets are being deployed to help companies get going or keep going during the pandemic, some workplaces may be slower to use the tools because of expense or privacy issues, safety experts say.
“You always have to be careful with privacy,” said Lorraine Martin, president and CEO of the Itasca, Illinois-based National Safety Council. “Technology always brings that added caution.”
“There will be a lot of ethical, technical considerations” with regards to privacy, said Daniel Carr, London-based company director and head of cyber for Occam Underwriting Ltd.
Cost is another factor, he said, mentioning heat-sensor cameras that can track body temperatures of workers as one example.
The workplace is in a “state of contingency,” Mr. Carr said. “You remodel an office with new technologies to rush back to normal and then there’s a shutdown. The investments that make a company more flexible are those with the best returns. Are the technologies worth the expense? That’s a difficult question to answer right now. Because of the volatility in public health policy it might not be worth it.”
Cash-strapped businesses, especially, may be slower to add new technology to their safety protocols.
“I have heard of many great technology options that would help achieve social distancing, however, I have not had any of my clients who have adopted (them),” said Jesse Valencia, a consultant with G&A Partners, a Houston-based human resources firm that provides various services for smaller companies, including safety management. “They are tightening their purse strings and adding a wearable device or software is not something that they are quite open to right now.”
