How to improve employee productivity with BYOD

How technology improves productivity with BYOD

Did you know that enabling BYOD devices for your employees boosts employee productivity? According to a recent Cybersecurity Insider study report by bitglass, employee productivity increased by a whopping 68% in companies that implemented BYOD programs.

Technology in the workplace

The type of tech employers offer or enable, and how the tech is managed, can sometimes be the deciding factor for which organization a worker chooses as their employer. And it is certainly a vital factor in securing sensitive company data.

How do you handle remote employees or a hybrid workforce? What is a BYOD policy for remote workers?

Do BYOD programs really increase employee productivity?

In multiple studies spanning a decade, the answer is a resounding "yes."

According to a recent data analysis report by Zippia, BYOD increases employee productivity by:

• Enabling swift communication with colleagues
• Allowing staff to access work files while away from their desks
• Making workers more reachable, as most people are never far from their cell phones
• Streamlining communication and tasks for those working on a familiar and comfortable device

Why employees use BYOD programs

According to the Zippia report, although many employees prefer separate devices, 96% of employees use their personal cell phones for work.

Here's why:

• 31% of employees find having everything in one place more convenient.
• 28.1% of BYOD employees believe their own devices are of higher quality than the devices their employer provides.
• 71% of companies cover a portion of workers' BYOD service plans.

Organizations prefer BYOD

The average worker using their own device for work through a BYOD plan works two extra hours per day. That's an astounding productivity metric. They also save money by not buying devices for employees and are better able to reach remote and hybrid employees.

With costs down and productivity up, it's no wonder that nearly 70% of IT decision-makers approve of BYOD in the US.

Address any worries about BYOD

When organizations implement a BYOD program in order to boost employee productivity, they must address the legitimate concerns of employees and InfoSec. To create a strong BYOD program that everyone trusts, you will have to understand these concerns and mitigate them as you build your BYOD program.

For instance, organizations that take their data ownership seriously know that they are not only owners of that sensitive data but also stewards of that data. And as 88% of all data breaches are caused by an employee mistake, you'll need to take the hardest security posture possible.

But does increased security mean increased surveillance? Address any employee concerns regarding privacy proactively. Workers don't want their employers to be able to track them, see their browsing history and personal texts or keep tabs on where they are at all times.

Mitigate the security and privacy risks of BYOD

For the best plan that fosters organizational and employee trust, craft a BYOD program that focuses on threat prevention and remediation, privacy and the user experience.

Your BYOD program must have tight and multi-layered security with identity and access management, encrypted connections and powerful endpoint protection.

And for the safety of organizations and individuals alike, you need ironclad partitions between personal information and company data on employee-owned devices.

It only takes a single gap in your security armor for bad actors to get into your system. Ensure that absolutely everyone in your organization is accessing company resources safely, from trusted devices and with verified identification, in the same way.

Fortunately, there's Jamf and Apple.

There is no hardware company more known for protecting user privacy than Apple. Using Jamf and Apple, you can take advantage of native iPhone security and privacy safeguards. And Jamf's solutions depend on and work with this partitioning for the ultimate in privacy protections.

For instance, through partitioning, Apple has made it absolutely impossible for one side of a worker's iPhone to see what the other side is doing. You can't even copy and paste between work and personal applications.

Regardless of where they work or who owns the device they are using, you want a secure connection and strict security protocols for any device or person accessing company data and apps.

Using Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager to manage Apple IDs, IT can automatically enroll every device into management. While BYOD employees have control over when or if they choose to enroll or unenroll, organizations can keep unmanaged devices from accessing sensitive data with the right software and configurations.

This way, employees remain secure in the knowledge that their increased productivity and better user experience won't come at the cost of their privacy— and employers can take advantage of the boost to employee productivity that BYOD provides without additional risk to company networks and data.