Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become a hot topic in recent years. It’s been said to boost employee productivity and morale as they have the freedom to work with the devices that they love and choose to use. But are you doing everything that you can to make BYOD in your workplace a success? Check out these five mistakes that you’ll want to avoid.
Not Being Specific
Implementing a BYOD policy isn’t as simple as saying, “Okay, you can use your devices at work now.” It can take a lot of preparation. Part of that is writing up a specific and detailed document about your policy. The bottom line is that you need guidelines. Some specifics to include:
- Who owns the device?
- Who owns the data on the device?
- Who is responsible for the service fees?
- What happens if a device is lost or stolen?
- What types of files and applications can employees use or download?
Be sure that your employees read through these guidelines and sign an agreement stating that they’ll comply with your BYOD standards.
Not Monitoring Your Network
Because your employees are using their own devices at work, it may seem to some people that monitoring your network is an invasion of privacy. Contrary to that, it will only benefit your business. You want to make sure that the devices connecting to your network aren’t infected with viruses. And what happens when employees are having security and support issues?
It’s important that you keep tabs on your network and the devices on your network to be sure that everyone’s devices are working smoothly and in a secure manner. Be sure to have a level of IT support in place to benefit employees who are having issues with their devices or with connecting to your network.
Not Tracking the Devices
Again, there may be some controversy in whether you should monitor your employee’s devices. It may feel like you’re invading your employees’ privacy if you choose to track their location. But the truth is that this can be hugely beneficial to you and your employees.
Think about it: If you have sensitive business data circulating on an employee’s phone, what happens when he or she loses the phone? You’ll want to recover that data as quickly as possible and make sure no one else sees it. With GPS tracking, you’ll be able to track down the device and be sure that your business data doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
Not Including a Device Wipe Policy
On the same note as the mistake mentioned above, it’s important that you have a wipe policy in place. You don’t want an employee losing a device and having it get into the wrong hands. You also don’t want ex-employees running around with sensitive data in their hands.
As a safeguard against these types of situations, you should have a BYOD policy in place that allows you to wipe company data from an employee’s device in an instant. Once this policy is in place, be sure that your employees understand this and sign off on it. Also make sure that there is some way that they can back up their personal data if you need to wipe the corporate data from the device.
Not Training Your Employees
Finally, it’s important that you train your employees in BYOD. This is a step commonly missed because employees go into BYOD assuming that their employees know just how to handle their devices. But training your employees isn’t all about teaching them how to navigate their device. It’s also educating them on how your BYOD policy will work. They should understand the concepts mentioned above, such as who the data belongs to and what kinds of apps they can download on your network.
If you’re going to require employees to download specific applications on their devices that will boost productivity and improve collaboration between teams, then you should also make sure to train them in those particular programs.
Which mistakes mentioned above did you miss as you explore the possibility of BYOD?