Report: Staff willing to fund own IT equipment for work

Nearly three-quarters of a Unisys online poll say they’d be willing to pay at least part of the cost for technology for work if they could choose it themselves.

32% of the iWorkers said that they would be willing to pick up the full cost. 21% said that they would pay up to half of the cost and 21% would fund up to 30% themselves.

About 26% said they wouldn’t pay anything toward the purchase of their own IT equipment, saying they viewed such purchases as being the responsibility of their employers.

“The results of the web poll are interesting as they hint at a coming trend. While our Consumerisation of IT research shows that New Zealand employees are less willing to purchase their own IT devices to use at work than the global average, those Kiwis who do buy their own devices are choosing the ones that allow them to be more mobile in their work: lap tops, mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs,” said Brett Hodgson, Managing Director of Unisys New Zealand.

The only exception was the Blackberry, which was more likely to be purchased by the employer.

"Clearly the increasing use of consumer-style IT in the workplace is an unstoppable trend which organisations should embrace," Hodgson continued. "However, if some of these devices are employee-owned, organisations need to work out how to manage the insurance, security, HR and legal implications before they are attached to the corporate network.”

Some companies offer a car allowance so why not an iPhone allowance? Would you be prepared to contribute to the cost of a flash new smartphone?