Since going mainstream in 2017, employee purchase programs have transformed the remote management of connected devices, gaining even more traction during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many reasons for their popularity, with benefits that include affordable device access for employees, significant reductions in device breakage and repair costs, impressive contributions to the circular economy, and considerable time savings.
Simply put, an employee purchase program is a type of device recovery program with policies outlining how company-issued connected devices are returned to the company or purchased by employees.
I recently had the opportunity to speak about these programs on Apkudo’s podcast. Based on my experience facilitating and setting up successful employee purchase programs, I’d like to share how enterprises can minimize challenges and maximize the benefits of these programs for their business and employees. There’s a strong desire to establish these programs in the connected device industry, but they often aren’t successful.
Self-managed device recovery programs can be extremely challenging. They require significant support and uplift because companies tend to have hundreds, or even thousands, of devices that need to be recovered from all over the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an almost immediate requirement to manage connected devices remotely, but most companies were not ready. They had no time to prepare, so they had to figure out what needed to be done through trial and error.
Many companies rolled out employee purchase programs to incentivize their employees to keep their devices and avoid the manual device return process at the time, but without the proper policies and systems, those programs weren’t successful.
Success depends on establishing effective processes such as compliance management, payroll deduction management, and automated communications.
Despite the challenges, the benefits of these programs—for employees and enterprises—have companies today moving as quickly as possible to implement them.
One benefit is what we can call a “hand-me-down” approach to used devices. Let’s say you have a kid going off to college and needing a tablet, or you have a younger child getting their first phone. Neither needs the latest and greatest device, which is where employee purchase programs come in. They allow you to provide a fully functional device to your family or friends at a significantly lower cost.
Employee purchase programs are also time-savers for employees and businesses. Since employees can purchase and keep their devices, they don’t have to handle shipping or schedule a time with their IT team to return their devices to the office. This reduces the time needed for device reconciliation, resulting in a higher device recovery rate.
Another benefit from an enterprise perspective is that when employees know that they can purchase their devices, device breakage goes down significantly, resulting in fewer service tickets, lower repair costs, and less time dealing with warranties.
A large pharmaceutical company we work with told us that, because of the employee purchase program we helped them establish, they saw device breakage go down from 18% to only 1%. Their employees knew their corporate-issued device would be theirs in two or three years, so they were inspired to take better care of it.
The circularity benefits are also significant. Since employees can purchase their devices, they remain in use for a longer period of time, which results in a considerable reduction in materials such as cardboard, plastics, bubble wrap, and fuel. These materials are typically used when devices are shipped back and forth in the device return process. An employee purchase program helps reduce the consumption of these potentially harmful materials.
One of the first questions we typically receive about employee purchase programs is, “How do we set the price for each device?” Most companies have multiple device models in their environment, making it challenging to set accurate but fair prices for each device.
Based on our work with customers, we have a large dataset of device and market parameters. Our team of experts can examine the current market conditions, considering product releases and rollouts, to determine a fair price for your device models and team.
Given the seriousness of data breaches, where millions of dollars are at stake, ensuring the security of your company-issued devices is another top priority. To ensure robust data security, examining the systems and processes you use for your recovery program is essential: What is your unlock process? Who is your contact for unlocking devices, and what security measures do they follow? What mobile device management (MDM) or unified endpoint management (UEM) application is used? These are all vital considerations.
Apkudo centralizes data to enable remote device wiping, lowering the risk of data breaches. Remote device wiping also reduces the logistics strain on internal teams, allowing companies to avoid relying on a warehouse group to receive and inventory devices through their existing returns process.
So, what’s needed to establish an effective and profitable employee purchase program? One critical factor in rolling out an employee purchase program is identifying your source of data.
At Apkudo, we can work with your data source, whether it’s a human resources system, managed mobility services (MMS), telecom expense management (TEM), or a unified endpoint management (UEM) provider.
If you have a large device refresh coming up, establishing an employee purchase program with Apkudo can result in great success because we can get into the deployment side of your refresh project. When new devices are shipped out, we can provide your employees with a QR code to scan straight out of the box, allowing them to purchase their old devices seamlessly.
Our conversation during the podcast about employee purchase programs was even more informative and wide-ranging than this article can convey. I hope you’ll listen to the entire recording or contact us to learn how Apkudo can help you establish and manage an effective employee purchase program.
