With over 96,000 employees in the UK alone, BT constantly strives to implement forward-thinking initiatives to enhance working conditions and develop new forms of employee benefit, providing flexibility and facilities for people to improve their skills and individual performance. BT seized the opportunity to be involved with the UK Government’s HCI programme from the initial stages. To advance competitive edge in the increasing digital global marketplace, the government is investing heavily with key industry partners to improve home computing levels, Internet access and basic ICT skills across all members of society.

Driving the benefits of technology adoption and Internet usage throughout society is an integral part of BT’s business strategy. With industry analysis indicating that 77% of employees highlight greater access to ICT as a key factor that could be beneficial to their daily job performance1, BT recognised that delivering the benefits of technology to its employees could consolidate and strengthen the same message to its customers.

During the initial business benefit evaluation, the HR department became the natural champion of the HCI scheme within BT, promoting the benefits of the scheme internally to stakeholders and employees across the organisation. As Caroline Waters, Director, People & Policy at BT Group explains, “HR in many businesses now has a very business-driven role and BT is no exception. We have revenue and operational cost targets, and even media targets and we recognise that positive stories about the company can enhance our consumer brand as well as our employee brand.”

The business case for senior decision makers and employees alike was compelling. Fixed loan payments are deducted on a monthly basis from employee salaries before tax, enabling significant savings to be realised through reduction of employer’s share of National Insurance Contributions. Whilst employees accept a reduction in their gross annual salary, in return they enjoy extremely favourable loan conditions that effectively reduce the cost of obtaining a home computing system by up to 50%.

BT is currently loaning systems up to the value of £2,500 to employees who have the opportunity to purchase the equipment outright at a greatly reduced cost, at the end of the three year loan period. John Hampton, Personal Tax Manager, BT Group Taxation says, “Our priority is to give our people the greatest possible flexibility when selecting a computer. For this reason we decided to purchase rather than lease so we could offer higher value packages.” BT can now provide employees with a range of high performance Intel processor-based desktop and notebook PCs, to suit individual needs and requirements, at a fraction of the retail cost.

Whether the home computers are used to undertake e-Learning courses, play games and DVDs, or surf the Internet, BT aligns home computing use with significant increases in both IT literacy and employee productivity. By making it possible for employees to obtain PCs based on Intel® Pentium® 4 processors or notebooks based on Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology, BT ensures that employees have high performance and headroom to run their favourite applications. From the lowest to the highest salary earners, this additional company benefit increases employee retention, is attractive when recruiting new personnel and demonstrates BT’s commitment to investing in people’s personal development.