Comments on: Is BYOPC Really Key to Attracting Millennials?

By: JohnDKeller

JohnDKeller — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:18:03 +0000

I’m not a Millennial so what do I know, but when I was looking for my first jobs, it wasn’t the tools (PC or lack thereof) I was going to get that tipped the scales in favor of a job. Instead the $$, the potential of the job and the possible effect of taking that job on where I wanted to go career-wise weighed heavily. And yes, just getting a job was important.
I completely agree with you that BYOPC should not not be the end-all, be-all strategy for corporations to attract and retain younger generation employees AND certainly is not the only way to put state-of-the-art technology in to our employee’s hands if that is necessary.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:49:00 +0000

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by AndiMann: My latest blog:: Is BYOPC Really Key to Attracting Millennials? http://bit.ly/ctF7y3...

By: Andi

Andi — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:46:15 +0000

@ John – Interesting perspective. I like the culture aspect – very important to millennials especially, across many angles. Makes me wonder which comes first – the culture or the BYOPC program. But as an indicator of a positive culture for millennials, I can see a BYOPC program could speak volumes.

I am not convinced on the productivity argument. It may well be a valid driver for BYOPC, and anecdotally it makes some sense. But I have never seen it backed up with anything more than assertions and self-reporting. I think that one especially needs more research to be really convincing. Is the productivity cost-effective, given the typically higher costs of Macs, for example? It would be interesting to know more about it.

Anyway, you can still give staff Macs (or anything else) without running a BYOPC program. Desktop virtualization still delivers the same benefits, but by owning the systems, you avoid a lot of the legal, technical, and HR issues of BYOPC. EMA for example has Macs in our inventory, as do many companies.

Good points though – thanks for commenting.

Andi.

By: John Whaley

John Whaley — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:02:08 +0000

Andi,

Interesting article. In my experience it has been less about the BYOPC per se but rather the corporate culture that it implies. So a company that adopts a BYOPC program is more likely to attract millennials just by the fact they consider adopting such a program.

The other wrinkle is Mac, there are a lot of passionate Mac users out there who are vocal proponents of BYOPC. They make the (probably true) argument that they are much more productive when using a Mac.