placeholder
Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

The impact of the BYOD trend on recruitment

Today, a significant proportion of businesses are sure to allow their employees to use their own devices for the odd task at work. On the face of it, allowing workers to use their own laptops, tablets or even smartphones to start or finish tasks can be incredibly convenient, especially for time-pressed employees with a deadline looming. However, recruiters need to bear plenty in mind

Today, a significant proportion of businesses are sure to allow their employees to use their own devices for the odd task at work. On the face of it, allowing workers to use their own laptops, tablets or even smartphones to start or finish tasks can be incredibly convenient, especially for time-pressed employees with a deadline looming. However, recruiters need to bear plenty in mind.

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend has seen more and more workers use their own personal devices for work purposes, whether inside or outside of the office. One thing which has been enabled by BYOD is flexible working hours, which could make it easier for some businesses to get the best staff without worrying about their ability to fulfil a nine-to-five weekday working pattern.

Extra incentives

In a survey by Egnyte, 30% of men and 34% of women said that the best possible thing about BYOD for their current or ideal role is having the ability to work flexible hours. Meanwhile, the same proportion of male respondents to the poll said that working from home was a major incentive of going along with their company’s BYOD policy.

Anyone looking for the right employee to fill any vacancy would do well to ask them in an interview whether or not they would be comfortable with using their own computer, laptop or tablet for work tasks. If they agree, it could be interpreted as a sign of them being productive. The survey showed that 59.3% of those agreeing with BYOD would work at home while 42.2% would while commuting.

38.8% of people who said they would work during their lunch hour with their own device, which acts as proof that BYOD is something many workers are willing to do in order to get the right job, even if it involves working overtime. However, the advantages of BYOD should be managed carefully while bearing in mind some of the security risks.

Responsible use

Bringing a personal device into the workplace and hooking it up to the office network might seem innocuous enough, but there could be a major problem in relation to security. If a personal device is found to be infected with malware, there is a chance that if said device isn’t cleaned, it could spread throughout the network, causing plenty of damage.

This is also an issue concerning what files are shared and accessed with personal devices. In the event of theft or loss, then important data or files could be viewed by someone with malicious intent. To be sure this never happens; recruiters should consider implementing a thorough BYOD policy, stressing responsible use in and out of the office.