What you need to know
- An IBM study has revealed that employees using Macs were 22% more likely to exceed expectations in performance reviews compared to Windows users.
- Those employees using Macs also generated 16% more sales proceeds compared to Windows.
- The employees were also found to be more satisfied with their software and work in general.
An IBM study presented on November 12 has revealed that employees using Macs were 22% more likely to exceed expectations in performance reviews compared to Windows users.
According to AppleInsider - IBM's CIO Fletcher Previn presented the study and said:
"The state of IT is a daily reflection of what IBM thinks and feels about its employees... I've said it before - when did it become OK to live like the Jetsons at home but the Flintstones at work? We aim to create a productive environment for IBMers and continuously improve their work experience, and that's why we introduced our employee-choice program to IBM employees in 2015."
Back in 2015, IBM gave employees the option to choose a Mac computer for work instead of Windows. The study covers some 200,000 devices since the inception of the Mac@IBM program.
Employees using Macs were not just more likely to perform better in individual reviews. The study also suggests that they also generated 16% larger proceeds when generating sales deals
In terms of overall job satisfaction, IBM reported that Mac users were 17% less likely to leave the company compared to Windows users, and only 5% of users felt the need to ask for additional software, compared to 11% for Windows.
Not only that, Macs proved more cost-effective, as IBM found that a team of only seven engineers is needed to maintain 200,000 Macs, compared to 20 for the same number of Windows PCs. 98% of Mac users found migration during setup simple, compared to 86% of users moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10. And Windows users were apparently five times more likely to require on-site support than Mac users.
As early as 2015, IBM had made it clear that giving employees the choice of Macs in the workplace had significantly cut its tech support workloads. However, these numbers probably aren't cut and dry. It seems quite a stretch to suggest that when considering performance review, sales proceeds and job satisfaction, simply using a Mac instead of Windows could be such a big factor. Or does it? Could a different device really make such a big impact on employee performance? Maybe you have a story about switching from Windows to Mac (or heaven forbid from Mac to Windows) in the workplace, let us know!
