Work mobile phone use policy

[daimbardiva]

I work for a small company whose employees spend a lot of time out of the office and travelling. A number of us have been using our own smartphones for email etc which has really improved our productivity, so we've decided to upgrade existing work mobiles to smartphones.

So that folk don't need to carry two phones around we've agreed that personal use of work phones is allowed. To bring everyone onto a level playing field, we've agreed that people can shift their own numbers onto their work phone to avoid having to change numbers.

I need to produce a policy to cover this (and work laptops too) but I'm wondering what the situation would be should there be a situation where a staff member was suspended. Normally they would have to surrender their work phone and laptop, but if they had moved their own number to it, this would leave them high and dry.

Does anyone have any experience of the above?

You need to be careful of the tax implications - if it's not just for business use then it may count as a "Benefit In Kind", which the taxman wants to know about.

Do staff actually want to do that? I'd wonder what wouls happen if I left a company when I had transferred my mobile phone number, the problem of having all personal contacts on a work phone which I wouls have to give back / employer having access to personal texts and emails.

For an employer though I would have thought there would need to be a limit on cost from data use / personal calls and texts - how would that be measured?

Apart from the obvious tax issues, I wouldn't like this because using 1 phone would mean that customers/colleagues etc could ring me when I was off work, knowing that my phone would be on IYSWIM.

I suppose it depends on the type of company but I certainly wouldn't want 1 number and 1 phone. I like to switch my work phone off at the weekend

Can you put it in the usage conditions that they are strongly advised to keep a separate record of their personal contacts in case of loss of phone for any reason?

I don't think you need to worry too much about them losing their personal contacts - sure if they had 2 phones, and physically lost their personal one, they would be in the same boat.

Our sales force all have nice phones, and the general procedure is that they have a limit (in £) per month for calls (no internet access/data though).

Once they go over this limit, the rest of the costs have to be met by themselves. It means no one has to go through their bills to see if they are making too many personal calls. A friend of mine used to spend 3 days a month doing this in his job and he was very senior - so it cost the co a fortune.

Talk to a couple of network providers about their business deals - you never know what useful ideas they have come across in the past.

Oh, and if someone is suspended, the last of your worries (and theirs!) should be that they've lost their personal numbers! I'd think there would be other very serious issues at that stage!

Also Google standard phone/laptop procedures to see if there's any templates out there.

Ive pm'd you.

Re the suspension, that will depend on what the employee terms and conditions say.

For personal use on work phones, have you considered allowing use of the work phone for occasional personal calls up to a limit of a few pounds? That way, employees can use the phone for personal reasons when at work such as a call to say they are running late home or something, but still get to keep the personal one and turn the work one off. I think HMRC allow a small sum before its classed as a benefit.

You need to think about inappropriate texts and Internet use from a smartphone too, in the same way as email and Internet use from a laptop.

I would strongly recommend not doing this, for all sorts of reasons, some of which have been identified on this thread. A reasonable amount of personal use of a work phone as described by Squirted is one thing, but essentially changing their work phones into their personal phones is asking for trouble IMO.

Have always worked in roles that provide a mobile phone and I really think you are giving yourself a big headache by doing this.
All the companies I have worked at and consulted in have made it clear that work phones are for work related business.
In practice the typical usage policies were - a 'personal call' on the work phone while travelling/working late/etc. was acceptable use. But using it at home in the evenings or weekends to gas away with your friends is unacceptable use.
In practice it was monitored by looking at the bills and the handsets with the highest costs were checked over and any high spending in the evening or weekends would be questioned.
Also seems like in financial services - everyone i know has a work phone and a personal phone - there doesn't seem to be an issue with this.

Thanks for your replies - very, very useful and lots to think about there. Have pm'd you back squirted.

I know loads of places that have provided a work mobile phone- they for work purposes only - but in practice odd bit of personal use not a problem - everyone had a personal mobile and it wasn't a problem at all - and I agree it helps with work life balance if you do as you can switch the work one off !

There's no way I'd go for this if my employer offered this as an option - which they won't thankfully. My work mobile is very low tech and I'm happy with that.

I wouldn't want to be contacted by clients outside working hours and I really don't want my employers seeing who I phone or text or what websites I browse in my private life. Not that I do anything dodgy but it just isn't any of their business. I don't really know how it would work - or what access the account holder would have - but I wouldn't want to access my personal email, my FB or Twitter account if I had the slightest idea that my employer could somehow see that information.

If your employees are happy to go with it then fair enough but I think it would be far simpler for your company and it's staff to keep the two phones separate. I manage with two phones as does everyone I know.

I have a personal phone which I use for work, I get an allowance from work to pay some of the bills which is meant to cover my work calls. If I spend a lot on work calls then I can claim more if I submit my phone bill as an expense claim.
This solution works for me, it's my phone and my number and I'll keep it if I leave. Yes my clients have it, but if I get a client or unknown number call in th evening then I probably won't answer it.
I wouldn't want a work phone that I use for personal use as I am an extremely heavy data user and I wouldn't want work to pay for it, or see what I'm up to, so I'd end up getting a personal phone as well.

I wouldn't do it, a friend who I worked with work phone broke mid week and she was working on a difficult case, she gave her private number to someone with the strict instruction this was a 1 off only for that case, employee shared with Union rep, line manager and HR as they all needed the number, they did not take the piss at all they only called in office hours, work phone replaced a few day later.
but all our work phones have caller ID, so when she used it for out going calls some people had clearly written it down, the volume of calls steadily increased, over the next few months the final straw was when she was walking from her car into the hospital and someone asked her a non important question, she said "I am sorry I am not at work, I am about to get my chemo, can you ring my work number tomorrow"
the person just continued.

I thought this could be a one off, but since then I have been told by someone else he was travelling to London as his daughter was dying, answered a call, and the person just continued.
I have had to say to someone, I am really sorry this is my private number, I am at my sons birthday party.

worst thing is you can't be rude, as they could make a complaint even if you are not at work.

I would also advice against this as I know of people who phone sex hotlines, download naked pictures, play games etc. We have also had staff who have been stalked and harassed and have just taken the phones off them to deal with the issues. One member of staff claimed he was forced to be on call all he time and demanded some sort of allowance. You do not want to get mixed up in that. This policy of yours could also means that you pick up the roaming charges for staff who go in holidays abroad as it may prove difficult to prevent them from turning their phones off on holiday. We insist on a separate work phone to help manage allegations, to help comply with data protection (we deal with a lot of sensitive data via an app on the smartphone and I understand that there are viruses for smartphones these days), and to protect the staff by enabling the to switch off the phones after work.