BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
BYOD is a practice where businesses/ employers allow their employees to bring their own personal devices to work. This practice is becoming more and more popular, and with anything there are both pros and cons. Let us examine some of the benefits and issues with the practice BYOD.
PROS of BYOD
The BYOD practice and benefit companies financially because they don’t have to purchase equipment to provide to staff. Not only does this cut the cost of purchasing the equipment but it also cuts down on the cost to maintenance and repair them as well. This money saved can be used towards other things. Also, The ability for employees to work almost anywhere is said to increase productivity. Employees no longer have to be at a work station to get work done.
CONS of BYOD
One of the biggest concerns with the BYOD practice is security. Often times when employees are able to log into the companies Wi-Fi in opens the door way for intrusion. Employees also often share their computers with other people which could be harmful to important company files. A problem that also arises with the BYOD trend is that it it also hard to regulate what employees are able to do on their personal devices.
What should be done?
Companies should create BYOD device policies. Policies should include listing which devices are allowed, as well as:
· Which employees are allowed to bring their own device?
· Who will pay for the management and repairs of the device, the company or the employee?
· What type of devices are acceptable, Are devices with cameras and video-recording capabilities allowed?
· What are the consequences for not complying with the policy?
Sources/ Articles:
I hadn't heard of this before-very interesting! The first thing I thought of, though, is how will employee activities be regulated on their own devices? When an employee is using company devices, they can easily be monitored because the device is company equipment. However, is it an invasion of privacy for actions to be monitored on the employee's own device? What would be appropriate to monitor? It would concern me also that using my own device for company matters would just be inviting security risks in. I don't think I'd be too keen on using my own device for work purposes, in most cases. Obviously every situation is different, but I think that using one's own device is opening the door for privacy and security issues.
ReplyDeleteSarah,
DeleteHow employees activities will be regulated is also a concern for employers. Like you brought up in your comment it becomes a problem when you try to tell someone what to do on their device. This issue has brought up some challenges to the BYOD to work. One solution is to implement policies to avoid conflict.
Like Sarah, I hadn't heard that this trend was rising in the business world. Similarly, I agree that it would be almost impossible to regulate employees usage unless they agreed to having a monitoring device installed in exchange for the company agreeing to handle all repairs of their device. Even still, I like to have a clear seperation between work and home and it's nice to have the traditonal desktop in the office with the option to supplement your work from your home's personal device.
ReplyDeleteAlso something to consider is that even in today's age where eight year olds have cell phones, not everyone has a laptop or ipad. Should they be expected to buy their own?
Lauren,
DeleteI don't think everyone is required to bring theirs on device. It is just an option and a growing trend.
That is a good idea. It still has some negative effects, but overall it sounds like it would help the company a little more cost wise. It still distracts the employee from their job though. And leaves wifi open for hackers. I guess there's no way to completely get rid of Internet misuse in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteI feel like there are some other pros that haven't been examined such as the employees having easier access to their work if they want to work on it at home or something. I do agree though that the cons outweigh the pros because of the security issue, with personal computers it is a lot easier to break into the system. Also the information isn't on a secure network so therefore it is more at risk to become available to the public domain.
ReplyDeleteSara Nauman