Bring your own device (or BYOD for short) is a workplace policy that is used in an ever-increasing number of corporate environments. As the name suggests, it’s a green light to use your personal devices for work-related matters.
Since employee satisfaction is a hot topic these days, this policy is being put into practice much more often compared to what used to be the norm. And it’s for good reasons too:
1. Catering to everyone preferences
Millennials are a generation that’s particularly picky about the type of devices they like to use. Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to force an iOS fan to use an Android tablet or smartphone. Flexibility, on the other hand, has been proven to raise morale, loyalty, as well as engagement. Such an employee is less likely to run away to another employer or take an excessive amount of sick days.
By allowing your employees to use their own devices, you not only avoid the costs associated with having to buy extra equipment, but you also grant them more freedom. Two birds, one stone. Speaking of which…
2. Saving money
Here’s another obvious advantage of BYOD: if you allow employees to use their own devices, there is no need to buy as much company equipment. And the fewer expenses you have to carry on your shoulders, the better.
Just imagine the opposite scenario where you’d have to buy a device for every employee. Not only would you have to pay for the device itself, but also the operating system, programs, maintenance, and so forth. This could quickly lead to quite a substantial cost per device, and the more employees you have on board, the more the overall costs are going to escalate.
3. Working remotely
Being able to work remotely has several perks and benefits. For starters, there is no better way to live a traveler’s lifestyle. You can work from anywhere in the world by using nothing more than the laptop in your backpack. Moreover, if you have the skills necessary, the poor economy in your local area is suddenly no longer a limitation. You can work with companies from all over the world that recognize your talent.
Remote employees, however, do bring their fair share of risks. Luckily, the majority of them can be avoided. For example, if an employee attempts to connect to the company’s network from public WiFi hotspots often found at coffee shops, hotels, and restaurants, sensitive company data is put at risk.
Getting a business VPN for your company and ensuring your employees always use it is a good way to protect your sensitive information (find out more here). A VPN encrypts all of the data, traveling to and from the computer. Therefore, no one can intercept the connection and see what is being sent.
4. Increasing productivity
The more comfortable someone is with using a particular device, the easier it’s going to be for them to be productive. As everybody knows, increasing productivity is the key to improving your bottom line. Many of the workers tend to be faster on any given task if they’re allowed to do it from a device they’re comfortable with using.
Furthermore, by allowing your employees to bring their own devices, you won’t have to spend valuable resources on training them. You do, however, still have to make sure they understand the most common cybersecurity risks and what they can do to prevent a disaster before it gets out of hand.
5. Balancing one’s career and personal life
Life is all about balance, and if you can find the golden line between getting things done and being fulfilled in your personal life, more power to you. Carrying work-related files on a personal device could expose it to being stolen by an unauthorized third party, but if you take all the necessary precautions, the benefits outweigh the risks by far and wide. At the end of the day, there’s nothing like solving a pressing work-related matter by whipping out your trusty smartphone and getting it done in the blink of an eye.
Consider the fact that your employees may not live in the vicinity of your office. Therefore, if something urgent comes up, demanding that they show up in person can be a tricky thing to do. In contrast, connecting to the company’s network through a business VPN allows them to resolve the issue from wherever they’re currently located. All while posing no risk to your internal IT systems.
So think about implementing the BYOD policy in your company. It might be just what it needs to make the employees happier and your expenses lower.
