How you benefit from giving your teams their preferred technology

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Between the employee exodus of the “Great Resignation” and a hiring pool newly empowered by remote work, it’s no secret that it’s harder than ever to retain and hire skilled and talented workers. What may surprise you, though, is that the answer to avoiding high turnover may not be as elusive as you think.

That’s because the technology you supply your workers with can have a dramatic, lasting impact not only on their productivity, but also their workplace satisfaction. Giving your employees the devices they prefer allows them to use the operating systems, software, and hardware they know best – enabling them to work comfortably and efficiently.

But it’s not just your teams that benefit from expanded choice – your organization stands to benefit, as well.

Mitigate supply constraints

The traditional logic of centralizing organizations’ hardware around a single manufacturer has been met with a disastrous challenge: years-long supply shortages that have hampered the IT industry. Having to wait months, a year, or even longer to receive new devices can paralyze your onboarding efforts and leave skilled employees unable to continue their work.

Expanding employee choice liberates your organization from the uncertainties of today’s supply chains while giving users the choice to work with their preferred devices. In a “choose your own device” (CYOD) program, whereby your organization owns a wide range of devices users can choose from, being open to multiple manufacturers and device types inherently broadens your ability to procure devices that can actually ship.

Attract and retain skilled workers

When giving your employees the ability to choose their own devices, don’t be surprised when they aren’t all running Windows. The next generation of workers is entering the hiring pool with a more diverse exposure to operating systems than ever before. With so many people growing up alongside MacOS and ChromeOS, the way they work may not align with a traditional, all-Windows environment.

End users are now expecting the same device experience at work as they are at home. When you expand employee choice, your organization’s ability to flexibly offer devices across the spectrum of operating systems will be key to attracting and retaining talented staff.

Enable collaborative work from anywhere

End users have more control than ever over how they work, where they work, and what devices they use. When your organization offers this type of user control in a way that fosters collaboration, you can reap the benefits of higher productivity and improved employee motivation.

With a secure cloud and support for multiple devices and operating systems, it’s easier than ever for employees to start work in the field with their tablet, seamlessly continue their work on their at-home desktop, then share it with teammates at the office for live review. This kind of agile workflow avoids day-to-day interruptions and allows your teams to collaborate no matter where or how they work.

Manage multiple operating systems the right way

To properly adopt cross-platform employee choice, you need a modern management tool that makes it easy to manage and deploy devices across Windows, MacOS, and ChromeOS. Legacy tools often can’t effectively support multiple operating systems, making it a struggle to provide parity experiences for all your workers across the OS spectrum.

Modern tools not only support a wider array of devices, but are also faster and easier to implement, with an out-of-the-box experience like that of a smartphone. Rather than bringing a flash drive to every new device or maintaining a gold image, your organization can now have your trusted provider provision everything remotely.

By modernizing your management tools alongside your employee choice initiative, you enable your organization to deploy and manage devices faster and more efficiently, even with a significant portion of your employees working remotely.

CYOD programs are a win-win

CYOD programs give employees the choice they want while maintaining the granular control your organization needs. Because the devices are issued by your organization, your IT teams can better implement security policies before deployment, such as blocking certain applications and websites.

Benefits of CYOD include:

• Greater control for your security teams
• Easier data retrieval when employees leave or change devices
• Fewer distractions from unwanted applications and websites
• Simplified IT management via repeatable, scalable processes

CYOD programs can include laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other assets across the spectrum of manufacturers and operating systems. With an effective CYOD initiative, your organization can impress new hires with the devices they love and increase the productivity of existing employees, all while maintaining a safe and secure ecosystem.

Transformation doesn’t have to be a challenge

When shifting to an employee-driven device model, your organization doesn’t have to spend valuable time and resources reinventing the wheel. By and large, the IT industry has at least a decade’s worth of best practices in place to make employee choice an achievable initiative, regardless of your organization’s size or requirements.

If you have questions about employee choice or don’t know where to start, work with your trusted IT provider to compare your goals against your needs and build a device program that works for you.

SHI is an industry leader in digital workplace solutions, and our team of experts is ready to help you reap the benefits of employee empowerment. Ready to get started? Contact SHI’s digital workplace specialists today.