Best Bring Your Own Device ("BYOD") Practices

By Avalon Siegel
September 19, 2020
9 min

In this hectic business world, we know that finding the right BYOD policy for your organization can be painful and problematic. If your company is beginning its new journey to adopt this policy, we will provide you with useful insights! To make it more straightforward, we have listed essential BYOD Best Practices to help you get started and effectively manage employee personal phone devices in your organization.

What's the advantage of BYOD in the workplace?

BYOD is known for its various advantages, like employee agility to work from their preferred locations & personal devices, remote crisis management, improved user productivity, and reduced communication and IT infrastructure costs. By using the proven best practices for BYOD, corporates can easily manage and reap the long term benefits from BYOD.

Empowering your workforce to take advantage of all that unlimited power at their own fingertips supercharges your business. Studies show that BYOD offers the following benefits:

Happier Employees: What employee wouldn’t be thrilled to have the flexibility to work whenever they’d like, rather than be restricted to a specific shift?
More productive employees: Employees working longer, more effectively, when employers allow them to use their personal smartphones for work.
A higher stock price: By establishing a happier and more efficient workforce, what do you get as a result? A company at its pinnacle performance.
Decreased Costs: Allowing employees to use their own devices significantly lowers your company’s communication and IT overhead costs.

Lockdown your company's data

Data theft shows no signs of stopping, making security prerequisites for all companies. Cybersecurity extends beyond just your mainframe; it includes securing both your mobiles and employees. Cyber breaches’ fears are incredibly valid and a reality that all companies, small or large, may face in this digital world. Studies show that organizations that fully deploy security measures save an average of $3.58 million in data breach costs to avoid such disturbances.

An excellent start to securing your data is to have a protocol checklist:

Establish a list of permitted devices/device operating systems.
Inform employees of any security settings that the organization intends to apply to the device via its mobile device management(MDM) system, helping encrypt and remote wipe hacked devices.
Include requirements like password requirements, anti-malware software, screen locking settings, and more.
Inform employees of their responsibilities to promptly notify the organization in the event a device is lost or stolen or will be replaced, upgraded, or sold.

Hand select your apps

Not all apps will meet your strict security standards. Therefore it’s crucial to determine which will help users in their work without compromising company data.

Once you’ve found the right apps for you, you can then recommend them to users.

Distribute a list of the company’s approved and prohibited apps. Then via your MDM system (like Cubed Mobile), you can block thereby restrict their access to such apps.
If a device is found downloading a prohibited app, you can then disable access to the network and company information.

Educate & Train

If you embed a BYOD in your company, you should take the time to train employees in the best BYOD practice. Give them the knowledge they need to protect company data and reduce the risk of having their devices compromised. Outline the consequences of failure to follow the protocols set by the company. It would be best if you also facilitated community-based support. So it’s not just about training – it’s about building a culture that makes people collaborate better.

Consider A Mobile Device Management System

Most importantly, establish a Mobile Device Management (MDM) system to help your company remotely track and oversee all employees’ mobile use. MDM systems can encapsulate all the above practices in an easy to use platform. There may be some employees who push back as they believe it can infringe on their privacy.

Thankfully, not all MDM systems track every individual move on a device. Cubed Mobile offers a tailored structure that only follows the data that employers need. Employees can rest easy knowing that their personal data is encrypted in a separate ecosystem, and only their work emails and work numbers are accessible.

To top it all off, you can selectively wipe corrupted mobile devices, only removing corporate data, apps, and settings.