Tax free loan of desktop and notebook PCs for home use creating ambassadors for BT’s products and services and increasing BT employees’ PC skills.

In the highly competitive telecommunications industry, streamlined efficient operations are critical to success. As one of the largest and most successful telecommunications providers in Europe, BT recognised that investing in improving access to desktop and notebook PCs for its 96,000 UK staff could positively impact employee engagement by helping employees derive greater value from their salaries, and on workforce productivity through the development of new Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills.

• Create an innovative way to help employees develop greater value from their salaries
• Create ambassadors with first hand experience of BT´s own product and service set
• Recognising the correlation between home computing use and proficient IT skills, BT needed to successfully promote employee participation in a Home Computing Initiative (HCI) to benefit from a more qualified workforce
• Increase the ICT skills of BT’s customer base, starting with employees’ friends and families, to enable better use of BT services in the future

• BT implemented the UK’s HCI scheme, offering employees the loan of high performance desktops based on the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor and notebooks based on Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology for home use as a tax free benefit
• BT invested in purchasing a range of desktop and notebook PCs, making high specification equipment available to employees at favourable fixed rate loan terms

• BT realised an operational cost saving in excess of £1million in the first year alone by reducing the amount of the payroll bill subject to National Insurance Contributions
• The solution delivers employee cost savings of up to 50% on new computer purchases over recommended retail price
• By offering tax free home computers, BT is attracting and retaining employees, boosting IT literacy and increasing workforce productivity