Is it safe for employees to use their own devices for work?

There are a lot of benefits to letting your employees use their own devices, rather than providing devices, which must be used for business. From financial gains to the integration of cloud storage systems, bring your own devices or BYOD is a fast-growing phenomenon. But with every trend comes concerns. Mainly, is it safe?

In a world plagued by constant attacks from hackers and malware, Syntax IT Support London looks into whether the BYOD trend is safe for businesses, and whether the pros truly outweigh the cons.

It’s kind of inevitable

So the first thing to mention about BYOD is that it’s probably going to happen to your business whether you like it or not. In today’s society, people take their devices with them wherever they go, and that includes work. Whether they’re allowed to work on them or not, employees will bring their smartphones, their tablets and maybe even their laptops to the office – and without the option of completing tasks on them these devices act only as a distraction for them.

Attract the staff

BYOD can be the tipping point of attracting the right employees for your business. It shows that you’re creating a level of trust in that person and their device usage whilst also acknowledging their individuality and their comfort in their own device. It’s also a good way of gaining staff who are more comfortable using technology and not bombarding them with devices they aren’t familiar with.

Cloud innovation

With the introduction of cloud based storage systems such as Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox, it’s easier than ever for work to be completed, shared and saved on multiple devices without the need for specific office systems.

By using their own devices, employees can devise or complete projects anywhere and anytime, save them to their phone or tablet, and then share them to be worked on later on another device or even by another employee. This makes the need for office tech almost unnecessary, whilst also making your employees more productive as they can easily take their work home with them.

Financial gains

BYOD is the much easier option for smaller companies or businesses that are just starting out. It’s a huge expense to buy devices for your office, especially when employees probably have equally reliable systems of their own they could bring in. A lot of cost could be saved by letting employees carry out their work on their own systems, as even a subscription to cloud software is nowhere near the cost of a whole office of the necessary tech.

Security concerns

Despite all these positive aspects to BYOD, there is still the question of whether or not it is truly safe? There are certainly risks to consider.

Does making employees carry devices to work every day put them more at risk? Well, as already mentioned, most people carry their devices at all times anyway, so this may not be an issue which stems from BYOD.

Can you be sure that their devices contain the necessary software to protect against viruses, malware and hacking? BYOD gives you less control over the devices your employees are working on, but there are ways to keep your business secure whilst still letting employees work on their own tech.

There is software out there which is designed to help alleviate the security fears that come with BYOD. Syntax IT Support London has a wide range of cybersecurity offerings which will help keep the devices your employees work on safe and secure. BYOD doesn’t have to mean a less secure business, so long as you do your research beforehand and get the right software on board.

Hey, This is Mike. Computer Eng. Working on Data Recovery Projects.