Pros and Cons of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy

Pros and Cons of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy Pros and Cons of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies are set by companies to allow employees to use their personal smartphones, laptops, and tablets for work. A BYOD policy can help set a business up for success- especially a small company- but there are definite downsides to consider. If youre thinking about implementing a BYOD policy, its a good idea to review some of the pros and cons before making a decision. Pros Savings for the company on purchasing and replacing technology No learning curve for employees Potential improvement of employee morale More up-to-date tech due to personal upgrades Cons More complex IT support for disparate devices and operating systems Higher security risks Potential loss of employee and company privacy Some employees may not have their own devices Pros of a BYOD Policy Savings: With a BYOD policy, you wont have to buy phones and laptops for every employee. Some employees may not have their own devices, but a recent Pew Research survey found that 77 percent of American adults already own a smartphone, and 92 percent of people ages 18 to 29 years old own one. In addition, employees are more apt to take better care of their equipment because it actually belongs to them. Usually, employees know that if they lose or break their company phone, its a pain, but the company will provide a new one. If they lose or break their own phone, it tends to be a much bigger deal. Convenience:  Employees can stick one phone in their pockets and dont have to worry about taking care of two devices. Preference:  If John likes iPhones and Jane likes Androids, both can happily use their preferred system. They dont have to learn new systems. Often, if your company pays to install Microsoft Office or Photoshop or whatever software the employee needs for work on an employees personal laptop, the employee is happy to have the software for personal work as well.   Efficiency: Employees have no learning curve for new equipment because they already understand how to use their own electronic devices. They can jump in on day one for immediate productivity. Up-to-date tech:  Its a huge expense for any company to update equipment, but employees are often more motivated to pay to replace their personal phone or laptop with the latest available device. Cons of a BYOD Policy Complex IT support: If every employee has a standard issue computer, tablet, and phone, its easier for the IT department to support and fix the devices. If everyone has their own device, it can become much more complex to keep the electronics functioning. If you need to install custom software, will it work on everyones devices? What if Jane isnt willing to update her laptop? What if John wants to run Linux while everyone else is running Windows? Higher security risks: What type of data does your organization generate and use? Its easy to make rules about how employees should use company devices, but its not quite so easy to tell your employees that they cant let their 13-year-old write a school paper on their own laptop. What are you going to do to make sure that your company information is kept secure? Also, when employees leave the company, youll want to remove any confidential information from any employee device. But, you dont want to delete their personal information. No one is happy if you say, “IT needs to wipe all of your photos and documents from the computer to make sure that you dont take any confidential information.” Potential loss of privacy: Youll need to determine how youll secure your companys confidential information before an employee agrees to use his equipment for work. Make sure that you state clearly, from the beginning, what you will do with classified information on the device or youll have problems when an employee leaves. If Jane is a salesperson who uses her personal phone number for work purposes when she quits and moves to your competitor, all of her clients still have her phone number in their records. When they call, shell answer, and Jane will have a much easier time to move those clients to her new company.  Even if Jane signed a non-compete agreement, if the customers come to Jane, you cant legally stop them. As long as Jane isnt pursuing the customers, shes in the clear. Conclusions About BYOD Policies A BYOD policy may work well for smaller companies. However, its wise not to make the decision based purely on the convenience and cost factors. Think about how a BYOD policy will have an impact on your business and think about what your employees want. Look to the future and make decisions about how to handle the devices when an employee leaves your organization. Suzanne Lucas is a freelance journalist specializing in Human Resources. Suzannes work has been featured on notes publications including Forbes, CBS, Business Insider, and Yahoo.