A bring your own phone (BYOP) policy refers to a company either requiring or allowing its employees to use their personal cell phones for business business. This usage might be voluntary or required and paid for or not, however, the common element is that personal phones have access to potentially sensitive business information and a BYOP policy balances the advantages with the risks.
In this guide, we’ll discuss a few of those advantages and dangers as well as give you a free BYOP policy template and a few suggestions on how to implement you at your small company.
If your company allows or requires its workers to deliver their own mobiles, we advocate using a virtual phone service such as RingCentral. Giving your employees access into a separate business phone line via their personal cell phone is a simple and economical approach to help manage any danger.
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BYOP Considerations
The widespread proliferation of smartphones, in addition to ever-increasing data limitations and fewer utilization restrictions, has made it more common for employees to use their personal phones for business business.
A new CBS MoneyWatch poll reported that over 67 percent of employees used one or more of the own devices on the job. Other studies have found that worker productivity, morale, and accountability improve with bring your own device (BYOD) policies while the business’ hardware and service costs decrease.
But as a company owner, what considerations if you make before choosing whether to allow or require your own employees to use their own phones for work?
Who Pays?
The very first question that probably comes to mind is the cost — specifically, whether to refund your employees for using their phones and, if so, how much.
To help answer this, a current Tech Pro Research survey found that only 7 percent of businesses fully reimbursed their workers for the cost of their hardware and data expenses and just 18 percent obtained partial reimbursement. This is mostly because of large data limitations and infinite talktime plans becoming increasingly common; there is not any extra fiscal burden on the employee to utilize their personal phone for business.
If you are needing your employees to utilize their private phones for company, then you might want to offer you a partial settlement of their monthly program as a gesture of goodwill. If, however, the worker is choosing to use their own phone then this may not be necessary.
Another option is to pay for a company phone line with a virtual phone service like RingCentral. It permits you to use the exact same amount for both your mobile and desk telephone, which means you and your workers can balance productivity and flexibility without having to give a private phone number for business use. We discuss this option in more detail below. You can also click here to receive a free trial with RingCentral to see how it can benefit your company.
Securing Your Information
Another important factor to make is the security of any sensitive data. If a phone is stolen or lost, then a person might have access to sensitive business data and customer information. Likewise if an employee quits or is terminated, you would not want them to have access either.
In both cases, this may be mitigated by employing cloud-based productivity applications, such as the Google package. Because your access to the Google package is linked to your email address and commanded by a central administrator (probably you, the company owner), you simply have to deactivate the email address to remove all access to the data and applications.
Business Phone Numbers
Eventually, being able to separate your employee’s personal calls from their business ones is important for two reasons:
- It can help to establish boundaries between professional and personal life so the employee doesn’t feel like they’re always working; also,
- It makes it effortless to disconnect the employee’s extension if their job ends.
We advocate using a virtual phone assistance, for example RingCentral, to make a dedicated telephone number for your business. Using RingCentral, you may create extensions and have callers that dial those extensions offered to the respective employee’s cellular phone. Calls made from their mobile devices can also seem to arise from the business phone number. You also get helpful call management features like voicemail-to-email, call transfers, and fax support for a minimum cost — features that are usually only available through complete VoIP phone providers.
Most of all, however, is that using a virtual phone service allows you to disconnect an employee’s extension if their employment ends. This will keep them from getting any business calls or calls and making out of the organization line. This has two benefits:
- Added security for your company; also,
- The employee will not be bothered by calls for a company they no longer work at.
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Implementing a BYOP Policy
A wise and comprehensive BYOP policy can go a long way in helping to safeguard your company. You may not be able to guarantee compliance, but it’s a crucial first step.
For example, prohibiting the use of cellular devices to send offensive or explicit text messages or access offensive or explicit sites, instituting training plans to clarify potential liabilities, and requiring security measures like allowing remote wipe features. Any consequences for non-compliance ought to be made clear as well.
We advocate using this bring your own device (BYOD) policy as a template, then editing it to make it unique to telephones and your business. This will become your BYOP policy, which you may then need your employees to sign up and agree to.
This template helps to protect both your business and your worker, including guidelines for:
- Expectation of solitude, which claims Your business will respect the privacy of their personal phone and some other personal data that’s saved on it
- Accessing company resources, including any sensitive information, and not copying it onto the personal device except where it’s required for the job
- Fundamental security measures, such as password security, keeping the operating system Current, not”jailbreaking” the phone, and not sharing the telephone with family or friends
- Specifying which programs are to be used to conduct business on
The ideal place to store your policy is either in the employee handbook, or at the employee’s personnel file. Once established, consider reviewing your coverage as part of your onboarding process.
The Bottom Line
Allowing or requiring your employees to use their own phones at your business can save your business money while at the same time making work more suitable for your worker. However, there are some considerations that need to be created, including cost sharing, safety, and work/life boundaries. These can be easily mitigated by utilizing a virtual phone assistance, such as RingCentral, and executing a comprehensive BYOP policy that improves workflows for both you and your workers.
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