Here, Dr Claudia Pagliari explores the ways in which data about work and workers are being harvested and utilised by organisations, with particular reference to the health sector. She considers the benefits of human resource information systems for improving organisational efficiency, as well as for preventing problems like fraud or cross-infection.
She describes how these systems are gradually being supplemented by data from things like email, social media, apps, wearables and even implants, and how these are being processed for so-called 'people analytics'', which involves new forms of profiling and prediction. She also considers how organisations outside of healthcare are encouraging their employees to participate in digital wellness programmes and the dilemmas these new forms of datafication present for workers' privacy, rights, choices and futures.