As discussed in an earlier blog post, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies have transformed the frontline employee experience connecting disengaged staff to the latest information on products, promotions, and company news. Effective BYOD policies have also empowered frontline associates to use their personal devices to get access to information that will help them succeed in their role, increasing their confidence, skills, and overall employee experience.

With the changing workforce composition, especially in retail, hospitality, and the foodservice industries, brands are eager to hire and retain top talent in a competitive job market. Implementing a BYOD policy enables companies to focus their efforts on building a mobile program that speaks to the soon-to-be majority of the global workforce—millennials and Gen Z—helping to improve broken communication between frontline staff and head office through the power and convenience of mobile.

To get you started on your BYOD journey, we’re highlighting key considerations and best practices for implementing an effective policy.

Considerations in creating a BYOD policy

1. Labor Laws

Have a strong understanding of labor laws and regulations, specific to country and state, before implementing a BYOD policy into your organization. Two key considerations with labor laws and regulations are overtime compensation and reimbursement for cellular data usage.

• Overtime compensation: To avoid any risk of associates spending large amounts of time using workplace apps and tools outside of work, clearly outline usage expectations in your BYOD policy.
• Reimbursement for cellular data usage: Having to pay toward an employee’s phone bill is a particular concern for companies in specific states, i.e. California. To reduce the legal obligation of paying a percentage of your employee’s phone bill, make your mobile program voluntary, and clearly outline in your BYOD policy when and where your frontline staff can interact with company apps and tools.

2. Security

One of the biggest concerns, when implementing new technology into a workplace, is security. To mitigate security risks, implement an enterprise-grade tool that helps to regulate and manage access to company platforms, while also creating centralized communication across your organization.

While frontline associates should be encouraged to adopt BYOD and company platforms, the use of public-facing apps for work-related tasks should be discouraged. To ensure clarity, clearly outline in your Terms of Use a list of approved apps, tools, and websites associates can use while at work.

3. Terms of Use

While you want to encourage your frontline to use their smartphones for work purposes, you’ll still need to clearly outline usage expectations. Here’s what to include:

• Voluntary or compulsory: Begin your BYOD policy by outlining whether your mobile program is voluntary or compulsory. As mentioned above, voluntary programs reduce the legal obligation of employers having to pay a percentage of employees’ personal phone bills.
• When and where: It’s important for employees to understand when and where they can interact with company apps and tools. Best practice is to have frontline staff dedicate a few minutes at the beginning of each shift to read new materials and share feedback. By doing so, eliminates the risk of needing to compensate your frontline for overtime or interrupting the customer experience.
• Applications and tools: Outlining the exact apps, tools, and websites keep company and staff information safe. Also, it helps to reduce distractions when your frontline staff interacts with customers.
• Corporate conduct policies: It never hurts to reiterate corporate conduct expectations when implementing a new program involving employee communication. Using an already established framework, set expectations around respectful language for when staff interact with team members on workplace apps and tools.

Things to consider when implementing a BYOD policy

Creating a BYOD policy is only one part of building an effective mobile program. Next, is implementation, which is where you’ll use effective communication, training, and engagement to achieve widespread adoption of both your BYOD policy and mobile program.

1. Communication

Research conducted by Nudge showed that 28% of frontline staff were unaware of their workplace BYOD policy, despite using their personal devices at work. That’s why creating a strong communication strategy is always key to successfully implementing a new program or policy into an organization.

Begin by equipping managers with necessary information ahead of time, so they can answer staff questions and remove any confusion or concern. Then create campaigns with clear, short, and consistent content. Once campaigns go live, analyze results, and gather staff feedback to keep content fresh, appealing, and engaging. Effectively communicating your BYOD policy, mobile program, and campaigns will truly engage your frontline workforce, increase adoption, and achieve long-term success.

2. Training

When implementing a new program into an organization, it’s crucial to offer the necessary training to make your program, policies, and frontline associates successful. As management are interacting with your frontline staff on a weekly basis, get them up to speed first, on your BYOD policy and mobile program. Host onboarding sessions specifically for management to make sure everyone is on board and that they have the right information to answer staff questions. Once management is aligned, host multiple onboarding sessions for staff to listen, learn, and ask questions regarding BYOD and the mobile program. It’s also a great opportunity to show off your new mobile platform and give hands-on training if needed.

3. Engagement

To increase adoption and engagement of your BYOD policy and mobile program, consider the following:

• Incentivize adoption: Create a competition with rewards and prizes to help engage your frontline staff,  increase adoption, and start your mobile program on the right foot.
• Seamless onboarding: First experiences will either make or break your BYOD policy and mobile program. Be sure to create a seamless onboarding process that is easy and quick for staff to opt-in to your mobile program and sign-up to company platforms and tools.
• Encourage feedback: Empower frontline staff by encouraging feedback and ideas to help nurture your BYOD policy and mobile program. Mobile engages frontline associates giving them a voice in your organization, helping to establish a connection from the launch of a mobile program to its long-term success.

Using these key considerations and best practices for creating and implementing an effective BYOD policy will not only set your program up for success and adoption but will also create an engaged and communicative workplace, where frontline staff are more knowledgeable and confident, ready to deliver unique and memorable customer experiences.

For more information on what to include in your policy and how to successfully implement your program, watch our webinars on BYOD for retail and BYOD for foodservice.

In today’s society, everything is connected—the Internet of Things, social media networks, and the increasing use of smartphones. However, as we continue to increase connectivity, humans are becoming incredibly disconnected, especially in the business world. A report from Deloitte outlines a significant gap between technology and organizational habits, identifying it as one of the forces driving major change in the workplace. As technological change increases, so do business productivity, however, there is still a large gap in performance potential between the two (see figure below). The cause of this gap, Deloitte says, is how businesses organize and manage themselves and their employees.

The gap in performance potential between technology and businesses can be further broken down into smaller gaps related to four main aspects: technology, individuals, businesses and public policy (we’ll be focusing on the first three for this example). The figure below shows how technology is changing at an almost exponential rate, and individuals are not far behind in adopting new technologies. Businesses, on the other hand, are slower in adoption, creating a disconnect between the two groups.

The mobile disconnect

While there are many reasons behind the gap between individuals and businesses adopting technology, at Nudge we identified one aspect that is particularly pressing—the mobile disconnect, a gap between employees mobile usage in the workplace and the lack of businesses understanding the benefits of mobile and BYOD.

Why is it a problem?

Mobile disconnect causes two problems in an organization—lost productivity and a lack of trust. Nudge recently conducted a survey of 1,000 millennials and 1,000 Gen X employees in the UK, across a variety of industries, and found 51% of employees believe using mobile devices at work helps them do their job better. However, only 23% of those surveyed said they felt encouraged to use mobile devices when at work. In frontline roles, mobile is being used for communicating with colleagues, answering customer questions, and accessing additional product information, all of which enhances the customer experience, and in turn, helps to increase sales.

Potential productivity and revenue are lost when employees are not encouraged—or worse, actively discouraged—to use mobile devices at work. Employees know using their mobile devices helps them with their jobs, but 42% worry their managers think they’re using their mobile devices for personal reasons and 30% use them discreetly in order to avoid judgment. All in all, 29% believe there is a trust issue around using mobile devices at work. Considering millennials highly value open relationships with managers, a lack of trust is detrimental to an organization.

What causes the mobile disconnect?

1. Late Adoption

Organizations have been late to adopt mobile technologies and BYOD policies, especially in industries with highly distributed workforces such as retail and hospitality. Of employees working in these sectors, only 5% feel the use of personal devices is encouraged in the workplace, despite having BYOD acceptance rates of approximately 30%. With smartphone penetration rates upwards of 80% in the UK, organizations are now playing a game of catch up with their employees.

2. Broken telephone

The mobile disconnect is also occurring due to lack of communication, resulting in confusion and misunderstanding between employees and management. Employees are unsure if they’re allowed to use their mobile devices in the workplace, with 26% completely unaware of their organization’s BYOD policy.

3. Lack of trust

Two-thirds of employees (62%) identify cultural barriers to using their mobile devices at work. Even when using mobile for work purposes, employees still experience worry, fear, and a lack of trust when using their phones at work. These feelings discourage employees further from using their devices, despite their belief that they help them do their jobs better.

Employees are using their mobile devices in the workplace, while organizations and their BYOD policies are being left behind. The disconnect between companies and their employees is leading to a loss in productivity and is being exacerbated in sectors with dispersed, non-desk workforces.

To learn more about the mobile disconnect and how your business can start benefiting from using mobile technology at work, take a look at our 2017 Market Research Report. 

Mobile and ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) strategies are infiltrating the deskless workplace fast. In fact, 79% of retailers have either implemented or plan to implement associate-facing mobile solutions by next year. It makes sense. With millennials—who are set to make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025—checking their phones more than 150 times a day, leveraging personal devices for work is key.

The increasing use of mobile solutions at work is a trend you can’t ignore, and recent figures have shown that it’s here to stay. With that in mind, an effective BYOD policy that outlines how your employees can use mobile devices at work is equally as important. So, how should you go about creating a great BYOD and mobile-use strategy?

Read our infographic below to familiarize yourself with BYOD, current mobile trends, and the benefits associated with implementing a mobile-first strategy for your deskless workforce: