Why do Australian companies need a mobile phone policy?

When there is no corporate mobile phone policy, don’t complain if employee behavior costs the business - both in reputation and the bottom-line!

Is it really necessary to have a mobile phone policy – no one takes any notice of company policies anyway!

The point of having a corporate mobility policy is that it protects the interests of the company; and promotes the safety and productivity of individual employees.

Furthermore without one, a Company could be failing in its legal responsibility to apply due diligence to workplace practice.

It is also risking the loss of commercially sensitive information or intellectual property and is vulnerable to exploitative and costly behavior by employees

Top four risks of not having a mobile phone policy 

The risks of not having a mobile phone policy revolve around four key areas

1. Risky employee behavior
2. Corporate network security vulnerability
3. Trending cost escalation
4. Loss of Productivity

RISK #1  Employee Behaviour

A Company that does not formally disavow risky employee behavior around mobile device use opens itself up to accusations from employees that they “thought the behavior was acceptable.”

Some of the more common risky behaviours include:

• Using a mobile phone while driving
• Circulating inappropriate content via email
• Using messaging apps to bully, exclude or intimidate co-workers 

Employees have been known to be remarkable creative about justifying unreasonable behavior with their corporate devices.

Techradar.pro researched employees to find out some of the more salacious activities they get up to on their corporate phones and tablets, and the results made interesting reading.

More than half - 53% - of respondents use their work devices for personal activity, from shopping to social networking, gaming and pornography.

Some 3% admitted to having 'sexted', taken compromising photos of their partner or installed a pornography app on their device; while 5% have watched or listened to pirated material, and 2% have used the popular dating app Tinder.

While it is against the law in Australia to handle a mobile device while driving, the 2013 Community Attitudes to Road Safety survey showed that 32 per cent of drivers will admit to reading a text message and 18 per cent of drivers admit sending a text message while driving.

Risky employee mobile device use can have disasterous consequences for individuals and a Company including:  

• embarrassment or humiliation
• injury or death to the employee or a bystander
• a harassment or intimidation/bullying claim against the Company
• a workplace safety claim against the Company
• increased costs incurred
• loss of productivity

Having an open unprotected mobile device is like inviting a stranger to come into your office and do what they like.

So says Mathew Donnelly, Mobility and MDM Engineer at VoicePlus.

“The risk to the company network security is limited only by the skill of the hacker. With very little effort a experienced hacker could cause untold chaos to a Company network through an unprotected mobile device." 

A corporate mobile phone policy would prevent employees from

• Holding unsecured corporate files or information on a mobile device
• Downloading and using unapproved apps
• Opening the door to the Company network
• Compromising email programs

RISK #3 Trending Cost Escalation

Without a corporate mobile phone policy in place, a Company is reliant on each employee to apply their own interpretation about what is acceptable use of a corporate mobile device. 

This can be the equivalent of opening the corporate wallet and saying “help yourself.”

In Australia most companies who provide their workers with a mobile device will do so with an associated telco service plan with built-in allowances for voice and data activity.

The excess charges for exceeding the allowance or for use which is not included in the allowance can be exhorbitant.

The most common types of non-compliant use include:

• 1900 numbers including adult services, competition hotlines and gambling
• 1300 numbers for directory services or premium messaging services
• international roaming charges where a roaming data pack has not been applied
• downloading entertainment from the internet such as movies, tv shows
• online gaming
• browsing video content on the web

RISK #4 Loss of Employee Productivity

Twenty-four percent of workers admit they spend at least an hour a day on personal email, texts and personal calls.

Australians have become so addicted to their smartphones that they can not imagine not checking them during business hours.

In fact the addiction to being always connected has even been given the (non)working title – nomophobia – by health professionals in the United States.

Australian schools know first hand the power of the mobile phone distraction. Most have already learned instituted a “not seen, not heard” mobile phone policy, and some schools have even taken to collecting phones at the start of class and returning them at the end of class.

Australian companies, however, have not really caught onto the massive impact on productivity that technology distraction has. Companies have not spelt out their expectations around personal mobile phone use and have not put management processes or consequences for non-compliance in place.

How to Build a Mobile Phone Policy that employees respect

A mobile phone policy will address all four of these risks and give employees clear guidance about acceptable and appropriate behaviour in their mobile device use.

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