And as companies in industries with employees working from home for almost a year determine cost saving reductions (e.g., closing, downsizing physical offices, etc.) and investing in infrastructure to increase efficiency, redefining workforce needs in the short and long term could include relying more on non-traditional staffing models, contracting, freelance, gig workers, etc.
While working multiple jobs, a term called “N-Job,” is not the norm in the country, interest is growing in “gig” work and freelancing in addition to working a full-time job, with one poll showing 13.5% of respondents having a side job and 35.7% considering one.
Just a few years ago, employers implemented new health benefit solutions leveraging health tracker apps, such as Fitbit, to incentivize their workers to be more active as a way to save on their health care cost, but also presumably because the cost of prevention is much less than that of the cure.
The digital patriarchy notwithstanding, in a time when employers, government, etc. are facing one of the worst health crises in over a century, the potential for using personal health data to go beyond contact tracing to detection and potential prevention of a COVID-19 spreader incident could result in renewed and increased use of these devices in the workplace, and greater conversation about employee data privacy.
