What is BYOD? Policies, tips and best practices

The rise of BYOD

Many businesses allow employees to use their personal devices for work. This is called “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD).

According to BYOD Security: A Study of Human Dimensions (PDF, 1.4MB), researchers from Charles Sturt University estimate about 70% of businesses employ some aspects of BYOD. BYOD is a popular choice because it can help enable flexibility and productivity. It may also require careful management.

In this guide, we’ll explain BYOD and its benefits. We’ll also look at how to create a BYOD policy that helps you balance convenience and security.

What is BYOD?

“Bring Your Own Device” allows company staff to use their personal devices at work. These could be smartphones, laptops, tablets or other devices.

BYOD can be great for businesses because it can help reduce hardware costs. It can also give employees more control over their technology and help your staff thrive while working remotely.

BYOD devices can be useful for many different business tasks.

These might include:

• sending and receiving emails
• using work-related apps
• accessing company files remotely
• participating in video meetings
• handling customer service tasks
• using online collaboration tools.

BYOD models can help employees work more effectively. However, a clear BYOD policy is important. This helps ensure security, privacy and productivity expectations are clear.

Benefits of BYOD for small businesses

BYOD can offer several practical advantages for your business.

Cost savings

When employees can use their own devices, you don’t need to buy new hardware. Plus, you don't need to spend time and money training them on company devices which they may not be familiar with. This could help save your company money in upfront costs.

You could choose to invest these potential savings into upskilling your team or initiatives to help grow your business, such as marketing campaigns, instead.

Increased productivity and flexibility

Employees can be more comfortable using their own devices as opposed to using a new device that they’re not familiar with. This can help improve efficiency.

Improved employee satisfaction

Your staff may appreciate the freedom of working with technology they trust and prefer. This can help increase their engagement and job satisfaction.

BYOD can offer a level of workplace flexibility that many staff may appreciate.

What to consider with a BYOD policy

Before allowing your employees to use their personal devices for work, you should consider the potential risks.

Device specifications

The type of work to be done using the BYOD devices may require a certain minimum set of features and capabilities for BYOD devices. Consider if you need to set any guidelines around specific models that are acceptable for work use versus those that may not be effective for work purposes.

Security risks

Employees’ personal devices may not have the same security protections as company technology. It may be important to enforce security policies. These could be password protection, antivirus software or encrypted data storage. Mobile device management (MDM) solutions can also help to provide added security.

Data management and privacy

A clear BYOD policy should cover how your company data is stored, accessed and deleted from personal devices. You can run regular security audits to ensure everything is compliant.

Offboarding and device management

When an employee leaves your company, they may still have access to your business information on their personal devices. This might include sensitive financial data. It is important to have a process to remove their access to these files. You could use cloud-based access controls to help make this process easier and safer.

Enforcement of your BYOD and security policies

It’s not enough to just consider your policy, you also need to think about when you might need technical controls in place to enforce it. If you’re not sure of your legal obligations in respect to data protection seek professional legal advice. You might need to think about how you can restrict access to, or the ability for people to download, particular types of data on personal devices. Engage experts to help you put the right solutions in place if you need technical support.

Who pays the mobile bill with BYOD?

Managing costs is an important part of your BYOD policy. It helps to decide how you want to handle device payments and ongoing service costs.

Device payments

Many of your employees will already own a phone or laptop that they use for work. If their current device meets your company requirements, they could continue to use it without extra costs.

However, they might need to upgrade their device. You might also prefer them to use a specific model. In this case, you could choose to contribute to the cost.

This could be done in different ways, for example:

• a one-time upfront reimbursement to cover the cost of the device
• partial reimbursement to cover some percentage of the cost
• a regular contribution or allowance to pay some of employees’ ongoing costs.

No matter the approach, BYOD's core principles are the same. The employee buys the device from a retailer and owns it themselves.

Mobile service bills

There are also several ways to manage the costs of mobile service plans.

These include:

• your employee covers the full cost of their own mobile plan
• your business reimburses some or all mobile plan costs
• your business provides a SIM-only business plan.

SIM-only business plans

A SIM-only business plan may offer a good middle-ground. This is where your employee brings their own device, but you connect them to a business mobile plan.

This approach has several benefits for businesses and employees:

• the business has more control over the network provider and service quality
• the business can access support from the network provider
• security features, like data encryption and mobile device management, may be available.

BYOD best practices

A well-planned BYOD strategy can help your businesses run more safely and effectively.

Here are some best practices:

• create a clear BYOD policy and outline rules and expectations from the start
• provide cybersecurity training to help employees recognise risks like phishing scams
• encourage automatic software updates to help keep devices secure
• use secure apps and networks, like VPNs and secure messaging apps, to help improve security
• set up remote wipe capabilities to ensure your data can be erased from lost or stolen devices.

Getting started with a BYOD policy for your business

BYOD can offer flexibility, convenience and cost savings for your business. It is important to have a clear policy to help protect your sensitive data and manage cybersecurity risks.

Your company BYOD policy should include detailed guidelines. These include rules for acceptable use, security measures and cost-sharing options. The right strategy can help keep your employees productive and motivated.

Telstra offers a range of solutions that support BYOD for small businesses. If you offer BYOD, or are considering it, check out our range of options. These include mobile phones and plans, including SIM-only plans.

The right mobile solution can help keep your team connected while keeping your company data safe. Explore how to choose the right mobile service for your business.

Seek expert help to consider what’s best for your business

We recommend engaging a qualified legal, financial or tax professional for tailored advice that is specific to your business. This includes understanding any obligations you might have around data privacy. This article is general in nature and doesn’t account for your specific objectives, situation, or needs. It’s important to consider these factors when making any decisions for your business.

Before you make any decision regarding any information in this article you should consult your own legal, financial or tax adviser to consider what’s most appropriate for your business situation and needs. They’ll be able to tailor advice to help you meet your own unique objectives and make the most of BYOD for your business. Once you have a clear policy, you can also consider if you need to engage expert help to put in place technical controls to help you enforce it.