Severn Trent Water is to spend an estimated £2 million on giving its staff
home computers.
The water company is making the investment to help educate and train its
staff in computer and Internet skills.
All of the firm’s 4,500 employees will be set a mid-December deadline to
sign up for the voluntary scheme, which started last week and will cost each
employee £12 a month for the use of the home computer.
David Akers, employee relations manager at Severn Trent Water, said,
"We hope to give as many of our staff as possible an early Christmas
present and at the same time develop the skills of our workforce.
"Business will be done more and more with computers and over the Web,
especially with customers, so we want to make sure our staff have the necessary
skills.
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"Although the home computer is for personal and not work use, the
individual benefit for our staff will have a knock-on effect at work."
The initiative is also expected to improve short-term staff retention as the
computers are on a three-year lease and any employee that leaves the company in
that period will be expected to pay the full £432 price or return the computer.
