The current landscape has changed dramatically. Businesses have had to adapt to new challenges, one of these challenges is accommodating the current workforce. In the age of digital technology, more employees would rather use their own device, such as a laptop, tablet, or phone. Bring Your Own Device or BYOD for short, is a trend that has caught on quickly. Now what impact does this have on a business you may ask? BYOD has given business’s new opportunities for growth. Business owners are under constant pressure to allow BYOD on highly secure enterprise networks. Most employees feel more comfortable using their own devices. BYOD policies can work out well for both business owners and employees if there is a clear understanding of the policies and procedures.
There are many positives to implementing a BYOD policy. The use of BYOD devices affords many opportunities for businesses. BYOD allows for increase productivity, cost savings, improved employee loyalty, and the ability to work from anywhere at any time.
When an employee can use their own device, this allows for more flexibility and comfortability. Having the flexibility of working with a personal device allows employees the ability to do their work and stay connected with their personal life. This can effectively reduce stress and increase an employee’s overall productivity.
BYOD offers a company the benefit of cutting down on cost significantly. Since these are personal devices there is no need for companies to pay for maintenance cost, device cost and hardware cost. Most of the cost is paid by the employee.
A precise BYOD strategy can help to increase overall employee loyalty to a business by allowing them to control their own work. This empowers an employee, giving them the ability to work offsite with their own personal device.
Although, BYOD policies have many pros for a business there are a few challenges as well. It is up to the business to lay out a well-defined policy when it comes to allowing a the use of personal devices. It is also up to the employee to follow the best practices for a BYOD policy. Some of the major challenges a business will face is security control, employee privacy, hacking and corporate IT policies.
Security control and control of data is a crucial first step when it comes to protecting an enterprise network. Allowing the use of personal devices will increase the need for control over data with the privacy of employees in mind. With many employees using their own device a company must be able to control the data that users have access to and ensure it is not allowed to leave the enterprise network. There are many applications that can be used to secure data on mobile devices. Data securement and device compliance are paramount to ensuring overall security.
All devices on the enterprise network should be monitored for device behavior and data exchange. It can be easy for a personal device to fall victim to a cyber-attack. The BYOD strategy should be implemented with safety and security of business information in mind. Monitoring the inflow and outflow of business data is crucial to security. A business must be able to track emails and spam to prevent phishing attacks on a network.
Corporate IT polices must be implemented. These policies will give an employee a thorough guideline of rules and expectations to follow. Having a well laid out policy will allow for the best communication as to what best practices to follow as well as the employee’s rights, obligations and consequences in breaching policies.
Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) will continue to be the preferred business strategy for the many years to come. This means businesses must be ready with the proper resources to handle the rising security needs. When implementing a BYOD policy every step must be well planned out to ensure proper implementation and security. If implemented properly the pros far out weight the cons in choosing to allow for the use of BYOD devices.