Smartphones have become indispensable in today’s world. Be it personal or professional life; smartphones have made it easier. Connecting with your friends and family, checking office mail, or tracking locations, these hones have various benefits. However, the overuse of them by employees can lead to lower business productivity.
Today, we’ll consider the harmful effects of smartphones on a business. We’ll also explore some strategies to prevent the overuse by employees.
How do Smartphones Function in the Workplace?
In most workplaces, smartphones distract workers, thereby reducing their productivity. A recent study shows that employees, on average, spend 56 minutes/day on their smartphones. When we analyze these statistics concerning a full-time worker, it comes out to be 1/8th of their time. Also, their productivity goes down by at least 10 percent.
However, businesses want their employees to be available round the clock for office work. There can’t be any delay in tackling important work, even if it comes up in non-office hours. In this scenario, an employee’s over-reliance on smartphones could be advantageous to the employer.
Businesses acknowledge that unnecessary scrolling on smartphones could be harmful for an organization. But, the personal life of workers is equally essential. They cannot completely compartmentalize personal-professional issues as they earn a salary to sustain their family. Sometimes, managers can take unrealistic decisions like planning to onboard employees who don’t use smartphones or make minimal use of smartphones. In reality, the best of the talents in a company may not comply with this requirement.
Going ahead, you need to adopt a pragmatic approach to solve the problem of the overuse of smartphones. Come out with a clear policy as to what constitutes overuse of a smartphone. At the same time, respect people’s personal space and allow them to use their phones sparingly.
How Smartphones Work Outside Office?
Studies show that an average worker uses their phone for a minimum of three to four hours per day. That’s a lot of time spent checking a phone. These statistics show that smartphones play a major role in the personal lives of most employees. Hence, the affinity towards smartphones can be better utilized to achieve your business goals.
For example, try to engage with your workers outside office hours. Since they are online, they are more likely to check company messages, emails, or voicemails. In case of an office emergency, they will most likely respond by picking up your calls.
Simple Tips to Tackle Smartphone Security Issues
With the increasing use of smartphones, business security risks also go up. For instance, hackers can target vulnerable users with mobile malware strains and steal personal or business data. These hacking events can cause losses to the tune of millions of dollars.
It is necessary to introduce policies like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to prevent hacking incidents. Here, you use advanced tools to manage all the smartphone devices on the network. At first, your staff can resist this move. However, eventually, they will opt-in due to network security risks and greater awareness.Â
Want to know more about setting up a comprehensive BYOD policy for your business? If you want to explore the advanced technologies that make smartphone management easy, feel free to get in touch with the IT professionals at MyTek at 623-312-2440.
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