There are now few businesses that don’t need some or all of their staff to have access to a mobile phone in order to do their job, yet the majority of firms still operate a ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) policy.
BYOD means staff use their own smart phone or other network-enabled personal mobile device for both personal and professional purposes.
Being able to use a smartphone for work has been shown to increase productivity and also improves the agility of the business, enabling it to respond and react to changing demands and circumstances faster and more effectively.
However, relying on your customers to use their own device may also be hurting your business, a new study has found.
The research, carried out by global forecasting and quantitative research company Oxford Economics, also found that businesses operating a BYOD strategy also risked undermining data security, harming employee engagement and loyalty, and limiting technological capacity.
In addition, businesses that favour a BYOD policy to avoid the capital investment needed in supplying company-owned devices are unlikely to be saving as much money as they think they are.
Though the survey was conducted in America, the results are likely to be relevant in other developed territories, including the UK – meaning that the cost of compensating employees for own phone use versus the cost of supply a company device saves just £1.50 per user per month.
It’s thought that many organisations fear the overheads associated with a company mobile device approach but don’t consider the ‘cost’ to the business of an inability to leverage the true potential of mobile technology to transform and streamline workflow.
Why do businesses prefer a BYOD approach?
Cost is just one reason for some organisations to avoid investing in a company-wide mobile strategy. The other key driver is ignorance over the benefits that a corporate mobile technology strategy can deliver.
Although a third of organisations recognise that they lag behind competitors operating a company mobile scheme, few are able identify the ways in which a change in approach can open up new growth opportunities.
Generally, BYOD businesses run fewer business apps that would improve workflow systems and productivity and around two thirds don’t believe that smartphones are critical to organisational agility, decision making, and customer/client satisfaction.
The security issues
If your employees are using their own mobiles for work – often downloading and using company apps – you have no way of enforcing any of the security protocols that mobile device management (MDM) offers to protect your data and systems.
While employees often do agree to their employer operating some form of MDM (around 40% have some sort of system operating effectively), it is hard to enforce this. By contrast, effective MDM is in force on 93%+ of company-issued mobile devices.
You also run the risk of systems running incorrectly or not at all because your business relies on the user manually updating their operating system and/or apps, rather than having updates forced on them.
Company mobile schemes lead to faster growth and higher turnover
The results of the study suggest that the efficient management of company-issued smart mobile devices optimises agility and productivity, which in turn creates greater turnover and a healthier bottom line.
Better employee retention and engagement
Many employees resent having to use their personal devices in order to do their jobs well. They see BYOD schemes as a form of corporate penny-pinching, and this fuels resentment and a decline in employee goodwill, engagement, and loyalty.
As a result, companies operating BYOD schemes tend to experience higher staff turnover than those issuing company mobile devices – generating not only a loss of skills within the organisation, but also increased costs in recruiting behind the vacancy.
If you’d like to find out more about how a company mobile scheme can drive your business forward, and how we can support you in designing a cost-effective strategy tailored to your specific needs, please get in touch. Our friendly, expert team is waiting to help you.
