At the recent SAF Annual Convention I spoke with several flower shop owners about the need for a BYOD (bring your own device). BYOD policies define the acceptable use of personal electronic devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) in the workplace. Larger businesses have (and enforce) this type of policy. and small businesses need to do the same.
Why is it so important? The owner of a restaurant works hard to present a certain image to their clientele. They would not want pictures of the garbage disposal area and shared online. Even though they might follow all the guidelines and pass all the inspections those are not the images they want to present of their business. That goes for most businesses – there is an image they want to present to the world, and the back rooms are rarely part of it.
Lost productivity is always a concern for employers. It might take only a few seconds to check email, reply to a text message, compose a tweet or post to Facebook but all of those seconds add up in the form of lost productivity.
The content available on the internet is another major challenge. Virtually anything is available at all times but much of it is completely inappropriate for the workplace. Some of it could also be considered offensive enough to contribute to what some employees could consider a hostile work environment.
Courtesy and professionalism also matter in the retail and service industries. No customer wants to deal with employees that are distracted by their phones.
A personal device policy is something employers of all sizes need to consider.
Why is it so important? The owner of a restaurant works hard to present a certain image to their clientele. They would not want pictures of the garbage disposal area and shared online. Even though they might follow all the guidelines and pass all the inspections those are not the images they want to present of their business. That goes for most businesses – there is an image they want to present to the world, and the back rooms are rarely part of it.
Lost productivity is always a concern for employers. It might take only a few seconds to check email, reply to a text message, compose a tweet or post to Facebook but all of those seconds add up in the form of lost productivity.
The content available on the internet is another major challenge. Virtually anything is available at all times but much of it is completely inappropriate for the workplace. Some of it could also be considered offensive enough to contribute to what some employees could consider a hostile work environment.
Courtesy and professionalism also matter in the retail and service industries. No customer wants to deal with employees that are distracted by their phones.
A personal device policy is something employers of all sizes need to consider.
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