Ready or not, here they come. Wearable devices that is. The Apple Watch, which was introduced with much fanfare last week, is the latest example of this hot trend in consumer electronics, but it will not be the last. And their expected popularity in the consumer marketplace means sooner or later they will be a factor in the workplace, with workers either bringing in their own cherished devices, or companies themselves using them to enhance productivity and safety.

These devices also create challenges for employers, who would do well to put some thought into dealing with the concerns before they find themselves confronted with them unprepared.

Chief among them is privacy. The ease with which these gadgets can unobtrusively view, record and transmit documents, or even be used to catch passwords as its wearers walk by colleagues working on company desktop or laptop computers should be a concern.

Another is state laws that may prohibit recording without all parties' prior consent.

So is the risk to workers' privacy, whether it is in being unknowingly observed and recorded in the washroom or locker room, or by having the employer's own computer network inadvertently picking up health-monitoring data from their personal monitoring devices, and sending it off into the cloud, where it may be subject to a breach.

Many companies already have cyber and bring-your-own device policies in place, and there may be a natural assumption this leaves companies well prepared to deal with wearable devices. But as experts have pointed out, wearable devices' unique features create unique concerns that must be specifically addressed.

And the challenges are likely to increase. As history has shown, these devices are only going to get smaller, more sophisticated, less obtrusive — and cheaper.

A thoughtful workplace policy for wearable devices can address these issues in advance. As one expert has noted, a computer software company is likely to have quite different concerns than a retailer with dressing rooms.

In each case, businesses should give careful consideration to who should be permitted to use wearable devices, where they can be used, and when it would be acceptable to use them.