Employees using their own devices (smart phones, tablets, PCs) actively use the technology they’re most comfortable with, which has a positive impact on productivity. Some organizations are creating BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies that establish guidelines to encourage proper usage and easily integrate within the workforce. Kyle Lagunas of Software Advice recently launched a survey to get a pulse on what companies are doing to manage employee-owned mobile devices. 

Here are a few highlights from Kyle’s survey to ponder:

Fact: Employees Are Already Using Their Own Devices for Work

The question many business leaders are asking their HR administrators is: "Do we need a formal policy for managing mobile devices?" To answer this question employers need a clear perspective on how employees are using their mobile devices. To that end, the survey posed questions around employee usage.

Ownership of devices employees use for work-related purposes

The most important question when discussing BYOD is whether or not people are using their personal devices for work-related purposes. Seventy-seven percent of employees are using their own devices to some extent — either exclusively or in addition to company-issued devices — to do work. Of course, "work-related purposes" could be something as simple as checking their email. So an effort was made to gauge what other uses employees have for their mobile devices.

Employee uses of mobile devices

Survey respondents shared that employees are using mobile devices at a roughly equivalent frequency for personal and business use. Sixty-seven percent of employees are using devices for business correspondence (email, phone calls, etc.), and 44 percent are using their device, company-owned or not, for professional networking.

With 48 percent of employees using mobile devices to access company data, one would think most companies would implement a policy with guidelines for proper usage. However, another survey question revealed that only 30 percent of respondents’ companies had a policy in place for managing personal mobile devices.

Will BYOD Become a Higher Priority?

Considering the majority of employees are already using personal devices for work-related purposes, it’s surprising that only 12 percent of organizations without a BYOD policy plan to adopt one in the near future (half of those are currently developing policies). Thirty percent of participants without BYOD policies said that instituting one wasn’t a priority, and 33 percent plan to modify their plans for managing use of personal mobile devices in 2012.

With today’s mobile workforce, it makes sense for restaurant owners to readily embrace and adopt the use of mobile technology by their employees. They can use it for a myriad of things from reviewing their schedule and exchanging shifts to giving kudos and props to the server of the night. Employees can even encourage customers to provide valuable feedback via Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook. In doing so, they can showcase social media tools for the restaurant. In turn, this can encourage interaction with the customer who will receive special offers and coupons for participating and making recommendations to other customers.

The mobile device is here to stay. The only question left is, how is your restaurant going to manage it. Is your staff BYOD and policy free?

Want to read the entire survey results? Check out the report on Kyle’s blog.

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