Managing the new era of mobile in the workplace

Mobile computing has added a new dimension to how employees work and how companies manage security. Smartphones, tablets and laptops all present unique benefits and risks.

As the workplace changes to the technological advances in the mobile workplace, business and must balance the risk of employees using their personal devices to get work done versus the benefits of happy employees who are always connected.

According to a recent research 35% of workers buy their own smartphone to use at work. About 75% of employees would give up free food, coffee and other office supplies to use their own device at work and about 20% would give up a vacation day.

BYOD (Bring You Own Device), as discussed at https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/byod, tends to have many benefits, including spurring innovation, improving work-life balance, and increasing productivity; but on the other side it also increases pressure on IT to manage and secure devices and data.

Managers, together with the IT department should establish clear BYOD policy and guidelines for all mobile devices. Some of the challenges for the IT department are:

– Securing data without limiting mobility
– Establishing Mobile Infrastructure
– Managing multiple devices

Next to that is important that employees using BYOD are told clearly what type of monitoring and/or control of their devices is being employed. The data is being monitored and how will information about their devices be used.