1. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Professorship Labourparticipation

2. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Hanze UAS: Fit for sustainable employability (Fit4SE)
Hilbrand Oldenhuis (Professorship Labour Participation)
Louis Polstra (Professorship Labour Participation)
Hugo Velthuijsen (Professorship New Business and ICT)
Martijn de Groot (Quantified Self Institute) 2 2

3. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Sustainable employability: the extent to which a worker wants to and is able to continue to perform his/her current and future jobs in a healthy and valued way (Van Vuuren, 2011; van der Klink et al., 2010) 3 3

4. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Health Sustainable employability
(e.g. Tuomi et al., 2001; Ilmarinen et al., 1997; Van den Berg et al., 2008) 4 4

5. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Aim of this project:
Studying the effect of self-tracking devices as a means to increase employees’ sustainable employability
Self-tracking devices: technology that enables its users to gain an understanding of and obtain feedback about certain physiological parameters and/or lifestyle behaviours over an extended period 5 5

6. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Self-tracking devices as a means to influence behavior
Self-determination theory (o.a. Ryan & Deci, 2000; Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013):
Intrinsically motivated behavior is facilitated when basic needs are fulfilled:
Need for autonomy
Need for competence
Need for relatedness 6 6

7. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Self-tracking devices as a means to influence behavior
Goal-setting theory (o.a. Locke et al., 1981; Latham et al., 2011):
Goal-directed behavior is better performed when:
Goals are specific and challenging
Goals are accepted (see ‘autonomy’)
Clear feedback regarding progress 7 7

8. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Supervision by a coach to formulate goals (SDT, goal-setting) and to meet need for relatedness (SDT) 8 8

9. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Participating company: ‘Museumtechnische werken’ 9 9

10. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Employees could choose one of 5 domains to be measured (‘big five for healthy life’):
Daily physical activity
Food and nutrition
Sleep
Stress
Social interaction 10 10

11. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Measures before, during and afterwards:
Quality of Life (SF12)
Interviews
Diaries/logbooks
Self-assessments under supervision of the coach
Devices’ data 11 11

12. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Technical support
Coaching: intake + 3 meetings
3-month period 12 12

13. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Results:
12 participants, 23 – 64 years, 6 males, 6 females
9 physical activity trackers (3 Fitbits, 6 Withings)
1 sleep-tracker (Zeo)
2 stress-trackers (Inner Balance, Emwave2) 13 13

14. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Fitbit: Zeo:
Withings: Emwave2: Inner Balance: 14 14

15. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Logbooks:
Satisfaction: grades from 6 to 9 (max: 10)
Mainly positive experiences 15 15

16. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
SF-12, differences before and afterwards
Functional status: V
Wellbeing: V
Physical health: V
Mental health: V
General health: ±
Groen: significant verschil in positieve richting
Oranje: trend in positieve richting
Rood: geen verschil 16 16

17. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Self-asssessments:
Physical vitality: V
Mental/emotional vitality: ±
Social vitality: ±
Giving meaning: X
Groen: significant verschil in positieve richting
Oranje: trend in positieve richting
Rood: geen verschil 17 17

18. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Devices’ data:
Based on the physical activity trackers:
Baseline compared to rest of the 3-month period:
3 devices too little data
3 devices significant increase of number of steps
3 devices no significant decrease of number of steps 18 18

19. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability19 19

20. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Interviews:
Satisfaction influenced by:
Degree to which device answered to expectations (‘unconscious’, ‘online’ measurement)
Clear-cut feedback in relation to goals
Userfriendliness 20 20

21. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Interviews:
Effect on health behaviors:
More when feedback was perceived as reinforcing
When feedback gave clear direction and was strongly related to personal goal
Sometimes cross-over effect on other domains (‘when you do one thing, it becomes easier to do another thing as well’) 21 21

22. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Interviews:
Competence concerning health behavior increased:
When feedback was perceived as positive, e.g. when goal was accomplished repeatedly
When feedback could be interpreted clearly and as such led to heigthened insight 22 22

23. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Interviews:
Personal view on sustainable employability:
In general (but not always!) no perceived increase of sustainable employability
Perceived positive effects are (in general) limited to specific health domain 23 23

24. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Coaching valuable:
Setting goals
Connecting goals to other important goals (autonomy)
Social support
Additional incentive
Very important precondition: PRIVACY 24 24

25. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
Conclusion:
‘self-tracking devices, combined with coaching can help to increase employees’ sustainable employability’
Goal-setting theory and self-determination theory valuable theoretical framework 25 25

26. Succesfactors: Devices: Devices are in line with user’s expectations
Feedback strongly related to user’s goal
Userfriendliness (functioning, battery, comfort)
Coaching (preconditions: privacy and expertise regarding self-tracking devices):
Setting goals (specific, challenging, suiting the device)
Connecting goals to ‘higher order’ goals
Social support
Information:
Realistic view of (im)possibilities available devices
Autonomous choice participation and device
Technical support constantly available
Additionally: Role of the management:
Role models
No pressure
Guaranteeing privacy 26 26

27. Self-tracking devices and sustainable employability
 Discussion:
No control group (e.g. to control for ‘season-effect’)
Disentangling effects of device and coach
Not all measures pointed to positive effects
Is ‘sustainable employability’ really increased?
Longterm effect? (4 participants bought their own device) 27 27

28. Thank you!
Professorship Labourparticipation