Pro’s of BYOD Programs

• Happier Employees

While company phones get around the hassle of transferring phone numbers, BYOD programs give you happier employees. In fact, the BYOD trend is mostly driven by employees for the following reasons: it’s easier to work remotely, maintain work-life balance, and more sophisticated and personalized device capabilities.

A survey by Acorn Marketing also found that over 50 percent of employees said they were happier when allowed to use choose their own devices and web tools at work. They also said that they preferred working for companies that had BYOD policies in place. This translates to a higher rate of retention and a more pleasant office environment.

• More Productive Employees

As the top reasons for wanting a BYOD program focused on productivity, it isn’t surprising that employees got more done with the program. A study by Cisco found that American employees gained almost an hour and a half of additional productivity per week when in a BYOD program. That translates into over $1,000 of productivity per employee per week for your company. Between the happier employees, the saved money, and the added productivity, some companies are even offering a phone allowance to their employees instead of buying the phones for them.

Con’s of BYOD Programs

• Uncontained Sensitive Data

An employee can also pose a risk of sharing sensitive information once they’ve left the company as well. Employees with their own devices can easily walk away from a job with sensitive company information still on their phone or computer. In the age of technology, an employee will always leave a job with some sensitive information, but the information age has exacerbated the problem. Since you don’t own the phone, there isn’t an easy way to check that your employee has cleared out all their work information before leaving permanently.

• IT Issues with Compatibility

Is it possible to get the advantages of BYOD and coexisting IT services? That’s the main question most employers have asked themselves. Thankfully, many companies are creating new devices and programs to address this need. BYOD solutions focus on apps and programs that tie all employee phones together, allowing a company’s IT department to access the phones for updates and troubleshooting.

Phone companies are also working to create BYOD-friendly products. BlackBerry phones already come with the ability to separate into work and personal sides. Everything on the work side is automatically encrypted for better security. What’s more, the platform BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, a mobile management program, has also broken new ground by supporting all platforms and devices. That means no matter what type of smartphone your employees have, your IT department can support it. The BlackBerry Enterprise platform also allows users to separate their work side from their personal side, provided their phone can’t do that on its own.

The bottom line? It’s possible for a BYOD program to have the same security and benefits as a company phone, but it might take a little more thought to get it to those standards. What pros or cons do you see with the BYOD trend?

Teddy Hunt is a freelance content writer with a focus on technology. When not behind a computer, Teddy spends the majority of his free time outdoors and resides in Tampa, Florida.