Chinese companies are watching the brain waves of their employees

Companies in China aren’t just keeping an eye on how productive workers are -- they’re also watching their brain waves.

To be clear, the devices cannot read minds. Instead they sense a person’s emotional state, with spikes potentially indicating periods of anger or depression.

But this information alone can be valuable. The newspaper spoke to an associate professor of brain science, who explained how companies use this data.

“When the system issues a warning, the manager asks the worker to take a day off or move to a less critical post,” said Jin Jia of Ningbo University. “Some jobs require high concentration. There is no room for a mistake.”

One manager at Ningbo Shenyang Logistics says the system has “significantly reduced the number of mistakes” made by workers. And Hangzhou’s State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power says it’s boosted profits by US$315 million -- but declined to say exactly how.