Mobile business shifts behaviors – and costs – back on employees
The growing acceptance of employees using their personal devices at work – particularly smartphones and tablets – has several advantages for both employer and employee. But the burden of paying for service is shifting to the employee.
Recently, iPass, the nation’s largest commercial WiFi network, released its Q1 2013 mobile workforce report. It points out some interesting trends that can impact business behaviors and have the potential to add unplanned expenses for employees. (Read it: goo.gl/syzeh)
• In Q1 2013, the average mobile worker carried three devices. That’s a decrease from 3.5 in 2012, which is attributed to an increase in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) acceptance. Workers last year were often carrying two smartphones: one to access work resources and one for personal use. As BYOD grows, mobile workers are able consolidate to one device. That trend is coupled with a significant drop in the number of workers taking laptops with them, as tablets and iPads become more full-featured with more secure apps.
• As more employees use their own smartphones, they’re more aware of their data usage. In 2012, 30 percent of mobile workers said they didn’t know or didn’t care how much data they were using. In the first quarter of this year, that number is down to 17 percent. The risk for businesses is that employees are less responsive or nimble as they watch data tick up and worry about overage charges.
• Seventy-five percent of the mobile workforce say they have access to Wi-Fi 11 hours or more each day. That’s great, although it’s often an expensive proposition: In airports and hotels, Wi-Fi can cost up to $15 a day. At many facilities, free Wi-Fi is offered, but it’s ratcheted down considerably, making it barely functional for basic email. Businesses may find their mobile workers having to increase data plans to offset the cost, availability or quality of public Wi-Fi.
The evolving issue with data is who is paying for it: the employee who wants the convenience of using his own device, or the employer whose work requirements may force much greater data usage? How will we determine how much of the data throughput has been streaming “Sons of Anarchy” at the airport or downloading client reports? There are some ways to reduce the amount of data you use and also make it easier for your potentially mobile recipient to handle incoming information more easily.
• Skip attachments. All the “dolling up” that we used to do to make documents pretty and printable just gets in the way of getting to the data. Unless your corporate culture demands it, put full text in emails, and don’t include images unless they truly are necessary to provide information.
• Write better subject lines. Be clear about what your email is about and how urgent it is. Subject lines like “Stuff,” “Follow up” or “Interesting story” force the recipient to open the message to see if it is something important. If that message has 10 photos of the weekend at the beach, you are both using a lot of data on something better done at home.
• Don’t send digital files – video, audio, photos – over email. Consider whether your recipient needs to see it or keep it. Use in-app uploads to YouTube, DropBox or other locations and provide a link only. A mobile recipient can view what he needs and wait until he is back in the office to download. Make it possible for the receiver to choose the best method and timing.
Has your company got a plan for BWTD policy? It’s the next evolution of BYOD. Stay tuned for more. Got a question or comment about this or any other tech topic? Go to facebook.com/thedigitalmaven and post it for discussion.
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Laura Haight is the president of Portfolio (portfoliosc.com), a communications company based in Greenville that leverages the power of technology and digital media to communicate effectively with clients, customers and your staff. She is a former IT executive, journalist and newspaper editor.
