BYOD Policies and HR Training

This has a number of advantages, including reducing the cost of providing equipment to the company's workforce and the increase in productivity that can be obtained by allowing employees to work on their own personal However, this policy can also pose serious challenges to the company's HR department, requiring extensive human resource training if the business is to avoid potentially costly issues rising from a BYOD policy. 

Company Policy, Training and BYOD

An effective BYOD policy will require developing and implementing company wide standards and ensuring that management and employees alike are fully aware of their responsibilities. One of the most important questions regarding a BYOD policy is how to encourage the policy without exposing the company to excessive liability.

Policies to Encourage BYOD

Encouraging BYOD requires that policies be developed to support the employee use of their own devices. Such policies can include the following strategies:

• Creating a company app store of approved applications for use by employees and allowing subsidized or free purchase of those apps.
• Offering stipends for those employees who purchase devices intended for use in a BYOD program.
• Ensuring that there is technical support for work-related and private device use alike.

By making use of these policies, a company can help encourage its employees to seek out and purchase devices that are suited for BYOD, thus reducing company equipment procurement costs.

BYOD and Restrictive Policies

However, it is vital that a company develop policies to ensure that any BYOD program will not it to legal or financial risks. This includes ensuring that devices are properly used and that there are policies in existence to ensure that confidential records will not be compromised due to employee error.

Some common policies to include in human resource training programs regarding BYOD programs include the following:

• Restricting what types of apps an employee can place on his or her device. This is especially important due to the rise in malicious apps that can harvest data from the device.


• Requiring that employees using their own equipment allow company IT departments access privileges. This will also require human resource training to instruct IT personnel in how to respond if they discover illegal information, such as child pornography, on an employee owned device.


• Employees should also be required to allow their employer to install utilities that can remotely modify or delete company information on their devices. This is especially important when developing policies regarding terminated employees who have confidential company information on their device.

BYOD is becoming an increasingly important concept, but it is one that requires effective planning and human resource training on the part of management and HR personnel alike. By doing so, a business can take advantage of the cost and productivity benefits of implementing a BYOD policy while minimizing the potential for financial or legal misfortune.