4 BYOD Mistakes Employers Must Avoid

Featured article by Anna Johansson, freelance writer, researcher, and business consultant

As the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend becomes increasingly popular for large enterprises and small businesses alike, the need to discuss best practices and proper implementation also grows. While the decision to launch a BYOD policy can be very advantageous and prosperous, going in without an understanding of potential mistakes is essentially a disaster waiting to happen.

Don’t Make These Mistakes

Corporate BYOD policies have grown in popularity tremendously over the past 12 months. However, just because there’s significant growth, doesn’t mean every company is reaping positive rewards. If you want to get the most out of your policy without putting your business at risk, make sure you’re avoiding these costly mistakes:

1. Not Being Specific

You can’t just launch a BYOD policy and assume that all of your employees know what’s going on. You need to be as specific as possible regarding every single aspect of the policy. This means touching on subjects like device ownership, restrictions, service fees, responsibility for lost or stolen devices, and limitations on which applications can be downloaded and used.

When launching a BYOD policy, you should dedicate some time to training your employees and answering any questions they may have. As for employees who are brought on at a later date, they should be given some educational material and walked through the intricacies of the policy by a manager.

2. Failing to Monitor the Network

In order to make sure your company is safe and protected from outside threats, there must be active monitoring of not only the network but also individual devices accessing the network. To some employees, monitoring their devices may seem like an invasion of privacy. However, you can’t afford to tiptoe around.

A failure to monitor both the network and devices can result in serious security issues down the road. If you’ve done a good job of being specific with your employees, careful monitoring shouldn’t be an issue.

3. Not Having a Device Wipe Policy

How many times have you misplaced a phone or tablet? Now think about your most careless employee and consider how many times it happens to them on a weekly basis? Multiply this by the number of people in your company and you’ll be astonished by how many times devices get lost, misplaced, or perhaps even stolen.

This is why it’s so important that you have a device wipe policy in place. If someone loses a device, you can’t afford to let it get into the wrong hands. With a wipe policy, you can clear data remotely so that nobody can compromise your data.

4. Not Considering App Safety

Just because an app is available in the App Store or Google Play store doesn’t mean it’s safe. Apps can contain malicious code that’s aimed at infiltrating devices and extracting valuable data. This includes popular games and business tools. While they may look fine on the surface, there’s something dangerous lurking beneath.

If you aren’t thinking about app safety, you’re exposing your business to unnecessary risk. Have frank conversations with employees and educate them on how to identify and avoid malicious apps. If this continues to be an issue, you may even have to place downloading restrictions on devices until you get things under control.

Make BYOD an Asset (Not a Risk)                                                                                            

A BYOD policy in your company has the potential to be an asset or a risk. To a large degree, you’re able to determine the outcome through smart strategies and careful deployment. Avoid the mistakes mentioned in this article and you’ll find that you’ll more than likely end up on the positive side of things.

About the Author

Anna is a freelance writer, researcher, and business consultant. A columnist for Entrepreneur.com, HuffingtonPost.com and more, Anna specializes in entrepreneurship, technology, and social media trends. Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.