One Wisconsin technology company is making headlines for offering to microchip their employees.
Many small businesses rely on standard business technology, considering that each month 50,000 businesses incorporate Office 365 into their operations. But Three Square Market is putting them all to shame. They have become the first company in the U.S. that is offering to microchip their employees as a way to make their lives easier around the office.
And the employees are loving it, allegedly. So far 50 employees have signed up for this interesting benefit.
According to Three Square Market’s CEO Todd Westby, these small microchips exist only to make the employee’s lives better and easier at work. In a statement about the implementation of these devices, he explained his reasoning for introducing them to his employees. The New York Post reports:
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. Eventually, this technology will become standardized, allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.
The RFID chip is about the size of a grain of rice and is able to be implanted within seconds between the pointer finger and thumb. To use it, the employees only have to wave their hand in front of a self-service kiosk, and a scanner will read the RFID chip.
The card costs $300 and will be provided completely by Three Square Market. Their goal is to stand out among other technology companies, not only by providing new and unique technological innovations, but also by taking care of their employees. At companies offering 11 or more benefits, 66% of employees would recommend their place of employment as “great places to work”.
However, Three Square Market doesn’t just want to be a great place to work; they want to be the best place to work.
However, some skeptics believe that this RFID chip technology can become dangerous. There is a belief that even though Three Square Market is promising that the RFID chips are encrypted, secure, and don’t include a GPS tracker, the technology can easily become incredibly invasive. In theory, it could track things such as an employee’s lunch or bathroom breaks without their consent.
With these skeptics in mind, Westby brought up potential concerns to his employees when introducing the device. Despite the skepticism, there was a healthy response among employees and many cannot wait to get implanted.
Three Square Market is partnering with Swedish company BioHax International to supply the RFID chips. BioHax has already dabbled in implanting these chips into other Swedish-based firms and has seen outstanding success.
To celebrate this unique cyborg opportunity, Three Square Market hosted a chip implementation party on August 1.
