Yesterday, FierceMobileIT posted an article regarding class action lawsuits popping up in California over BYOD (bring your own device) expense reimbursement. An excerpt from the article states:

As FierceMobileIT reported last year, a California court ruled that employers had to reimburse employees for personal mobile phone call charges related to work.

“We hold that when employees must use their personal cellphones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 2802 requires the employer to reimburse them. Whether the employees have cellphone plans with unlimited minutes or limited minutes, the reimbursement owed is a reasonable percentage of their cellphone bills,” the court said in Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc.

As we’ve discussed in many previous posts, the BYOD trend is dramatically increasing in the workplace. Yet many employers have yet to address this phenomenon in a meaningful, safe way. Without a plan in place, are you setting your company up for conflict, legal disputes or even ongoing litigation? Here are our thoughts regarding 5 things every employer must consider about BYOD in 2015:

  1. BYOD is part of the culture in our country, and as such, each company should have a well thought-out plan on how to handle employees bringing their own devices.
  2. Company leadership must determine which employees need access to corporate email, calendars, documents and data. They must also ask themselves these critical questions: Will access to corporate data via mobile be part of the employees’ job requirements? What will be the hours of day the employee is expected to answer and/or respond to phone calls or emails? How will the company reimburse for mobile data cost?
  3. Corporate data needs to be protected, and anyone given access must understand the responsibilities of corporate data on a personal device(s).
  4. Companies must develop Mobile Device Usage Policies (MDUP) for both BYOD and corporate-owned assets.
  5. Finally, organizations MUST deploy an Enterprise Mobility Management solution that will deliver, manage and wipe corporate email, data and documents. There is too much sensitive material contained within these locations for them to be left unsecured and unmanaged.

If you aren’t taking steps toward implementing these initiatives, you’re walking on thin ice, and some day, it will break! If you need help thinking through your mobile strategy, developing MDUP or deploying an EMM solution, contact us for help.