6 Key Considerations for a Successful BYOD Policy
What are the key considerations for a successful BYOD policy? As mobile devices become more sophisticated, bring your own device (BYOD) policies are quickly becoming the standard for companies looking to provide a proper mobile experience. BYOD programs allow employees to use their own mobile devices for corporate work, which brings forth an abundance of advantages. Not only can it improve worker satisfaction and productivity, but it can also reduce overhead costs since the company isn’t responsible for device management anymore.
However, in order for a BYOD policy to succeed, your company must have the proper practices in place. Both your business and its employees need to understand the risks of letting an employee-owned device be used or corporate work. Below, we’ve listed the six key considerations for a successful BYOD policy.
Is your business evaluating mobility management solutions to help manage mobile, IoT, or other devices and enable a successful BYOD policy? Our free 2020 Buyer’s Guide contains profiles on the top vendors in the mobility management field and their key features and functions. It also lists questions you should ask yourself and prospective vendors before you choose a solution.
Clear rules for employees
BYOD doesn’t mean employees can just start using their personal devices for business tasks right away. When designing your BYOD policy, your company needs to outline the process for approving an employee’s device for corporate uses. A device needs to be properly vetted by your enterprise before it can be deployed into the business. The approval process needs to analyze the device’s current state of security, as well as assess the compatibility of the operating system and install a mobility management agent onto the device.
Access management
For a BYOD program, you don’t want any user accessing your devices and services if they aren’t authorized to. Your BYOD policy should outline identity and access management protocols to ensure that only authorized users are allowed to access a device and the data contained within. At the base level, strong passwords should be implemented, alongside other authentication methods like biometrics and transaction checks.
Employee management responsibilities
Under a BYOD plan, the user is responsible for the maintenance of their mobile devices rather than the IT department. This frees up the schedule of IT employees so they can focus on other, more crucial tasks. Enterprises can balance this out by mandating that devices are updated and taken care of, with specific penalties in place if these regulations aren’t met.
Mandatory security policies
Your users can often be the biggest security threat to your enterprise, and this hold true for BYOD policies as well. When your enterprise integrates a BYOD program, it needs to promote safe and secure device usage by establishing mandatory security policies. These policies should include not connecting to public WiFi and only installing trustworthy apps to a device. If necessary, your BYOD policy should include penalties for not following these protocols, or incentivize users who follow them diligently.
Employee privacy
When your company implements a BYOD policy, your employees might be concerned about their personal privacy. They may feel like a BYOD program is an excuse for your enterprise to spy on its users, or to access personal data stored on their phones. This, of course, isn’t the case — but you need to communicate this to your employees. Your company must address employee concerns concerning data privacy, especially if you’re installing an EMM solution to help manage devices.
Lost or stolen device protection
You never want to think about it happening, but your BYOD program needs a system in place in case a BYOD device is lost or stolen. Users need to report a lost/stolen device to your enterprise as soon as they can; reducing the time between when a device goes missing and when your company learns about it reduces the time that a device with sensitive data is exposed to harmful actors. Some mobility management solutions also include geographic locating features so you can track down devices that get lost.
Looking for more info on the benefits of mobility management for your company’s mobile devices? You should check out our free 2020 Mobility Management Buyer’s Guide. We profile the top vendors in the mobility management field, their key capabilities, and our Bottom Line for each.
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