This trend is called BYOD which stands for “bring your own device”. Basically this means that employees can bring their own devices to work and use them instead of company’s facilities to perform the tasks. More broadly, BYOD is part of the process called “consumerization of IT”.
Why should companies allow BYOD?
Briefly speaking, companies allow BYOD policies because of 2 major benefits:
- increased productivity;
- reduced costs.
The pace of technological developments is really fast these days. Naturally, it’s impossible for businesses to update their facilities every time something more advanced appears. But employees want (and are ready) to buy the latest versions of all kinds of devices because it’s fun, speed and awesome new features.
This changes the way people would like to work. They want to use the same advanced tech solutions they have at home in the workplace too. It’s more comfortable, it works faster and they can get much more work done.
BYOD also brings more flexibility and freedom at work which is great for employee satisfaction. In turn, this increases productivity as employees feel it’s up to them to decide what device can help them reach productivity highpoints.
The problem with BYOD
While BYOD provides substantial benefits, it also has a number of drawbacks. The most notable one is possible security breaches. The managers may have no way of knowing how exactly the work is being done and what corporate data employees access via their devices.
With such risks it’s better to develop a BYOD policy beforehand so everyone is comfortable – employees will use whichever device they like and the company will secure the corporate data.
Is it possible to get an objective feedback?
For managers, it’s also important to have feedback on their team’s performance. This may be quite hard if employees use their own devices. So part of their BYOD strategy should be figuring out how to evaluate performance of the team while everyone is using different devices which the company cannot really control. One possible solution is to use web-based time tracking software.
Web-based time tracking software increases productivity and protects privacy
SaaS solutions perfectly suit the needs of companies with BYOD policies.
First of all, web-based time tracking software combined with BYOD policies can boost performance in the company and benefit everyone in the workplace. One of its major benefits is simplicity. Employees can create the work accounts on their devices. The software will only track the time and productivity related to work. This way employees’ privacy is secured and no one will be accessing their private accounts.
Another benefit of web-based time tracking software is that managers can view all data in a single online account. Just imagine how handy it is – despite everyone is using different devices, the data are all automatically delivered to one place.
Final Thoughts
Web-based time tracking software together with BYOD can be successfully used as an extra tool to foster motivation and enhance performance. Employees are happy because they use technology they like and know best; managers are happy because this makes the team inspired and productive.
This is not about knowing who did what at work, this is about evaluating the performance, rewarding the results and helping everyone to reach new milestones faster.
