A telecom-web convergence company has brought out a BYOD User Survey titled ‘Employees’ Choice for Mobility’ gathered responses from the UK, US and Spain.
The survey found that three in ten UK employees solely use their personal mobile for work related tasks. In comparison, almost half (49 per cent) of US and Spanish respondents use just their personal phone for work. Further, 13 per cent of UK respondents use both their personal and corporate phone for work; and almost 90 per cent use their mobile phones for work outside of normal business hours.
Despite using their personal phone for work reasons, most UK employees (81 per cent) would prefer to have either two separate phones or one phone with two numbers so that they can switch between their personal and corporate communications. This preference was shared across the board with 74 per cent of US and 91 per cent of Spanish employees also choosing to have separate phone numbers for work and personal use.
One way to separate personal and corporate communications is to power corporate phone apps with virtual phone numbers. Using this technology, enterprises are able to provide the convenience and privacy employees want while also meeting the business requirements for productivity and governance.
Potential drivers for separation preferences can be found by expressed concerns over reimbursement and privacy. Respondents were moderately to extremely concerned about having to pay for business usage on their phone bills in the UK (54 per cent), US (62 per cent) and Spain (69 per cent). Additionally, employees using their personal device for work expressed concern about their employer’s ability to access their private messages. Over 60 per cent of US employees expressed privacy concerns followed by, 58 per cent in Spain and 48 per cent in the UK.
Despite the amount of work-related functions carried out on personal phones, only a small subset of employees claimed the company they work for has a formal BYOD policy in place – with US showing the highest percentage at 34 per cent, compared to 18 per cent in the UK and 25 per cent in Spain.
Thorsten Trapp, Co-founder and CTO of tyntec, said: “BYOD is the new norm, and the sooner enterprises embrace sound BYOD policies and user friendly features, the sooner they can increase productivity and eliminate concerns from IT and its employees. The use of virtual numbers accomplishes both sides of the BYOD puzzle. IT departments can ensure mobile governance over all communication devices and employees are granted separation. All that is required is for employees to install their corporate app enabled with virtual phone number, and simply switch to the app for work related communications.”
