This Company's New Perk Is Implanting Microchips in Employees Is this the future?
By Rose Leadem
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Would you have a microchip implanted in your hand to make getting into the office or purchasing food in the cafeteria more efficient? Most employees at Wisconsin-based tech company Three Square Market would.
Fifty of the 80 employees at Three Square Market have signed up to have a grain-sized chip placed under the skin between their thumb and index fingers, which can complete tasks that involve RFID technology with the simple wave of a hand.
Related: How to Give Your Employees Real Benefits, Not Just Cheap Perks
"We foresee the use of RFID technology to drive everything from making purchases in our office break room market, opening doors, use of copy machines, logging into our office computers, unlocking phones, sharing business cards, storing medical/health information and used as payment at other RFID terminals," CEO Todd Westby said in a statement.
While employees are not required to get the microchip implants, a majority are hopping on board. The company has partnered with Swedish company BioHax International, which already has a number of its own employees with chips injected. However, Three Square Market will be the first company in the U.S. to employ such a program.
The chips are FDA-approved, removable and do not have GPS tracking. "Nobody can track you with it," Westby said. "Your cellphone does 100 times more reporting of data than does an RFID chip."
Related: The Well-Being Perks You Never Thought to Offer
While many employees are excited about the new technology, some are understandably hesitant. "I'm a little nervous about implanting something into my body," Melissa Timmins, the company's sales director, told The New York Times. "I think it's pretty exciting to be part of something new like this. I know down the road, it's going to be the next big thing, and we're on the cutting edge of it."
Maybe it's time to forget about summer Fridays or free lunches -- this could be the workplace perk of the future. The chips, which run $300 a piece but will be covered by Three Square Market, will be implanted in employees on Aug. 1 at the company's "chip party."
