Does your company have an employee guideline regarding BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategy? How do you manage employee’s privilege access to confidential company data on their personal devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other portable media? If you do not have a written policy regarding bringing in security risks along with a device at work, then it is time you sketch one.

As many companies are increasingly aware of the need for digital transformation, BYOD policy is becoming more common in the workplace. To keep up with the business need for fast-response on requirements, employees are required to stay connected all times. Hence, business leaders now encourage and empower their workforce by allowing them to work remotely, at odd hours on their own devices.

With such BYOD initiatives coming to play, employees are now able to remotely check corporate emails on the go, stay posted with latest business analysis reports at home, and also access company database anytime with their personal laptop.

Owing to such access of ease, comfort and convenience allowed to find details on company’s database anywhere and anytime you want, flexibility and productivity is the most important advantage companies derive on successful implementation of the BYOD policy. By permitting employees to work on their own devices, employers expect to help employees connect with their work better, faster, easier and more conveniently.

However, is BYOD policy really worth it? Do the perks offered by BYOD outweigh its disadvantages? Given that this plan grants employees’ access to company servers on their personal devices, there could be IT security concerns and confidential data breach issues springing up. When if a defined policy is not well-regulated and poorly-understood by the employee, the sensitive and confidentiality of business information gets compromised, if data falls into irresponsible hands.

To help you make the right decision before issuing directives on the BYOD policy, it is crucial to learn about the pros and cons of BYOD in the workplace.

See: How to Increase Employee Engagement by Adopting BYOD Policies

PROS

Increased productivity. Employees find it more comfortable and trusted, to be working on devices they’re already familiar with. They won’t need additional time to learn how to use functionalities in a new device, this could reduce on time lag and save on costs overall as well, while boosting productivity and efficiency.

Improve employee morale. Employees tend to be happier when company provides them with option of working on gadgets, tech devices they’re accustomed to.  This will increase their satisfaction towards the job and improve employee engagement.

Attract top talents. As people prefer using their personal devices quite often to respond to work emails over weekends,  this will give the company a competitive advantage in the hiring process.

Cut electronic expenses. This might be the biggest advantage of BYOD. By allowing employees to bring and utilise their own media to work, you don’t have to invest in purchasing electronic devices since employees are the ones who will buy them.

CONS

Security Risks. When employees are granted access to the company’s database on the backend, this could bring up many other security fears and concerns on, how do you control account security and ensure that the confidentiality of sensitive information is not leaded? Before framing a BYOD policy, you have to take into consideration all these factors to account, such as defining the level of access, what happens when the devices are stolen or hacked, as well as what you will do when the employees steal data and planning to jump ship.

Breach of employee privacy. BYOD presents an overlap between personal and professional data. While you want employees to keep updated with their work, this doesn’t mean that you can turn BYOD into employee surveillance. To prevent any accidental violation of privacy law, make sure that your policy has clear procedures.

Burden the employees. As stated previously, BYOD means that the cost of electronic devices will be charged upon the employee. While in fact, not everyone has such devices and even wants one, let alone purchasing them. When you impose this policy and ask them to get one for work, employees might feel unhappy and unfair.

Given the different culture between one business and another, apparently BYOD is not designed for every company. While adopting BYOD might sound like a great idea to boost employee efficiency and reduce cost-savings, it also comes with a darker side you should be aware of.

When leaders are unable to draw clear lines of demarcation into what part of information shared with customers, accounts for potential data breach, employees can clearly go ahead and present future challenges to company’,security. The key point here is to assess whether the advantages will balance the associated threats it brings.

Read also: BYOD: A boon or bane?