In a recent survey of Atlanta and other U.S. mobile device users, BYOD Insight 2013: A Cisco partner network study, findings revealed surprising information regarding the number of people that use their smartphones for work. The survey highlighted several different issues, but what stood out was the vast difference between the number of workers who use their mobile devices for work and the number of workers who are compensated for doing business on their own devices. Companies are accustomed well-established work requirements like clothes and automobiles and computers, but like any new technologies in the workplace, personally owned mobile devices are creating issues with usage.
Should mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets be treated like clothing, cars or computers? They are all used for work in one way or another, cost money, and their use can leave the business vulnerable to a lawsuit. And for each of the three items, there are usually company policies that define how they should be used. The policies and laws for clothes and vehicles are well established, and there usually is no debate about them.
The policies around smartphones, however, are varied among all companies, and as they currently stand, also leave businesses wide open to lawsuits and penalties. ?Thus, it is worth considering these potential issues and taking steps to prevent them.
Clothes are important. A lawyer needs to wear a suit, a construction worker steel toed shoes, and soldiers wear uniforms. In order to have the job, a well-established policy is that the worker has to pay for the clothes themselves. Lawsuits aren?t very common due to clothing policies; there is the small possibility of one from a workplace safety violation, for example, someone not wearing steel-toed shoes in a construction zone, but it is unlikely.
Automobiles are similar to clothes in the establishment of policy and procedure. If a worker needs a vehicle to get their job done, they will be either provided with one, or compensated by the company. There might be an issue with a worker getting involved in an accident, and in almost all cases any financial issues arising from it are covered by insurance.
Computers are necessary to get things done at work. When the devices were owned and provided by the company, it was very clear who paid for them. The big change in the last few years is that consumer and mobile devices have become more powerful and useful than the desktop-bound devices of the past. As the results of the survey show, 90 percent of workers use their personal mobile devices for work, and only 8 percent of workers are getting any kind of compensation or stipend for those same devices.? It might be time for employers to accommodate to these changes in the workplace, but are they ready to do so?
This change in device usage can be a problem for several reasons. The first is the workplace expectation that users have access to mobile devices and can be reached in an urgent situation. That is all well and good, but once that expectation is set, it can lead to issues and questions. If a supervisor needs to reach an employee and calls their cellphone, does the worker need to answer? If the worker sets up the mobile device to access email, do they need to respond? If the company does not provide the phone and does not pay for it at all, probably not. ?And the question of who pays for it can be up for debate.
For highly paid professionals, the additional expense of a mobile device is minor, especially when compared to the increased efficiency they get. The ability to answer an email quickly, update a calendar, and hold conversations while being out and about adds literally hours of productivity to their day. They will pay for and use the devices whether the company pays for them or not. Compared to the cost of a good suit, the mobile device cost is minor.
Hourly employees, however, are the people affected by this change the most, and might be justifiably disgruntled. When they use their smartphone to navigate, take pictures, talk to someone while looking through the warehouse, or make reports from a job site using their own phone, they are paying for it out of their own pocket. Adding up the amount of hours they use their phone and comparing it to the cost of service, they could be paying somewhere between $50 and $150. For someone making $15 per hour, that is a big cost.
The managers of a company might say that the workers don?t have to use their own smartphones to get their work done, and they might be right, but these changes happen quickly. It is better to stay one step ahead of the potential issues, create a policy, and treat their employees like they would want to be treated themselves. The quickest and easiest thing to do might be to add a small mobile phone stipend to every employee?s paycheck for when they use their own phones to do work.
And instead of lagging behind the trend, companies may be able to increase the productivity of their entire organization by encouraging and promoting mobile device usage in all aspects of work: help pay for devices, hold training classes to show people how to make the most effective use of their devices, and have someone test different apps and keep people up to date on which ones work well.
Technology continues to evolve and the number of workers using their own devices to get work done will only continue to increase as time passes. The combination of features available on smartphones and the personal devices of the future ensure that people will use their own devices in the workplace. To prevent frustration and lawsuits, companies should look at how these devices are being used today and make sure they have a policy that addresses reality. To truly gain a competitive advantage, companies can embrace smartphones, help pay for them, and promote their use.
Author: Rolf Versluis
Twitter:?@adcapnet
LinkedIn:?Rolf Versluis LinkedIn
Facebook:?Adcap Network Systems Facebook Page
Source: https://www.adcapnet.com/blog/should-companies-treat-smartphones-like-work-clothes/
James Holmes Minka Kelly sex tape Colorado shooting Colorado shooting victims aurora Angie Everhart tom hardy
No comments:
Post a Comment