Should you give your employees work phones?

In today's connected world, smartphones are essential to doing business.

They keep dispersed teams connected, make customer touchpoints more accessible, and increase productivity across the board. 

But how do you reap these benefits without sacrificing your business's security or employees' privacy?

Broadly speaking, there are two ways that businesses manage employee mobile use:

• Directing employees to use their personal phones for work (commonly known as Bring Your Own Device or BYOD). 

• Providing employees with company-owned devices and a business mobile phone plan. 

Both options come with pros and cons.

The Pros and Cons of Giving Your Employees Work Phones

For most businesses, particularly small businesses with a limited budget, BYOD is the easy, practical, and cost-effective option.

By utilising BYOD, businesses will only have to spend little, if any, money to keep their team connected. But while it makes for a convenient solution to mobile business connectivity, evidence suggests BYOD might do more harm than good in the long term. 

A study by Oxford Economics and Samsung found that businesses that rely on BYOD see less value from mobile connectivity than businesses that provide their employees with work phones and a business mobile plan.

The study found that BYOD businesses:

• Deploy fewer business applications.

• Feel smartphones are less critical to business agility and speed of decision-making.

• Feel smartphones are less influential in effective customer service and customer satisfaction.

• Are less likely to have a mobile device management system. 

• Have higher employee turnover and lower revenue growth rates.

• Have less security measures in place, making them an easier target for cyber attacks.  

The evidence is clear: a business mobile solution adds value to your business and will help you harness growth opportunities. Conversely, BYOD's informal, ad-hoc nature makes it a stop-gap solution that will harm your business in the long term.

Why Should I Give My Employees a Business Mobile Plan?

The benefits of a business mobile plan far outweigh its additional costs.

By connecting your team to a plan dedicated to your business, you can keep track of security, provide a consistent customer experience, and reduce employee burnout.

Here's why your business is in better hands with a business mobile plan:

Business mobile plans maintain your business's security

Data security is one of the biggest challenges businesses face. A 2021 Australian Cyber Security Centre study found that over 62% of Australian businesses have experienced a breach in the previous year. And the cyber crime epidemic hasn’t slowed down since, with the number of incidents increasing by 13% in 2021-2022. The 2022-2023 financial year saw the biggest rise yet, with the number of cyber attacks on Australian businesses going up by an unprecedented 23.7%.

Coupled with the recent increase in high-profile cyber attacks, businesses are on high alert. It's more critical than ever to find ways to protect your company's data and prevent breaches.

Standardised mobile plans ensure that your employees always use secure devices and software. When you put your business on a single provider, you can easily control what devices are allowed on your network and how employees use them. 

You wouldn't put your employees in charge of physical security, so why give them the headache of controlling your business's cyber security from their phones? Business mobile plans enable you to maintain the highest standard of security measures by keeping you in charge of your employee's work phones.

Business mobile plans keep your business in control

Successful businesses dedicate a lot of time to ensuring a standardised service.

But with BYOD, some essential elements of maintaining a consistent service are out of your hands.

For example, some team members may use carriers that offer less mobile service at specific locations or phones with different capabilities. These inconsistencies make for a less streamlined and unpredictable customer experience.

And, of course, your employees should be free to use their phones as they wish outside of business hours. But prospects and customers will often google phone numbers when someone from your business contacts them. You want to make sure your business controls what shows up when they do that.

Issues like these come with the territory of BYOD, and they leave vital aspects of your business out of your hands.  

With a business mobile plan, you can ensure your employees have the tools to provide the consistent service your customers expect.

Through purchasing a fleet of mobiles, you can easily assign each employee a phone with all the tools they need to help you run your business - all while managing that device from a centralised platform. 

Business mobile plans reduce employee burnout

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from home, BYOD was a simple solution for businesses to stay connected.

And it worked, with smartphone adoption helping businesses that would have otherwise collapsed under the weight of remote work stay productive.

But the convenience of using personal mobiles blurred the lines between work and home. The resulting "always on" attitude to work became unintentionally normalised and led to increased feelings of burnout and job dissatisfaction. 

As a business, you have a duty to look after your employees. If you don't, the recent "great resignation" phenomenon shows they'll leave, costing your business dearly in more ways than one. 

A business mobile plan lets employees clearly distinguish between work and home, giving them genuine work-life balance. Never again will they see a work notification when they're trying to unwind and connect with loved ones through their personal phone. 

Connect to a Better Business with Aussie's Business Mobile Plans

At Aussie Broadband, we get business. 

That's why we've packed our affordable sim-only business mobile plans with all the features you need to stay on top of the game. 

Managing your team’s connectivity is a breeze through the MyAussie® app. You can use the app to manage your business's mobile accounts. And if your team's plans are on the same profile, you can data share with your team** - so everyone has the data they need to keep kicking business goals. 

Both 4G and 5G* plans give you access to super-fast Australia-wide coverage on the Optus network. Optus’s 4G and 5G network services 98.5% of Australia’s population, so your employees can connect, and stay connected, to more customers. 

And there are no lock-in contracts, giving your business the flexibility to scale your service up or down as required. 

Have questions about our Business Mobile SIM Only plans? For advice tailored to your business, give our friendly Australian-based team a call today at 1300 480 905.

 *5G rolling out in selected areas. Excludes TAS & NT

**Data sharing for mobile plans on the same profile and network (4G and 5G) only. You cannot share 4G data with 5G plans, and vice versa, even if they are on the same profile.