The majority of Australian organisations give employees mobile phones for work purposes, but only two thirds track if calls and data downloads are personal, a new survey has found.
According to a survey by Stratatel, most businesses (93 percent) bill employee mobile phone usage to the corporate account, but 28 percent rely exclusively on staff honesty to declare personal calls or data downloads. This is despite the fact that 39 percent of businesses say that personal use of mobiles is a concern for them.
And it’s not just senior managers who are provided with a mobile phone. Eleven per cent of entities that provide mobile phones give them to all employees, 20 percent to between 60 and 100 per cent of employees, 31 percent to between 30 and 60 percent, with 49 percent of respondents providing to under 30 per cent of staff.
“Recent high profile events triggered by personal images captured on a mobile phone and leaked to the media is a salutary lesson to employers of the risks mobile phones can pose in the workplace if personal usage is not properly tracked and monitored,” the chief executive of Stratatel Mr Matthew Parry warns.
“Like most proven technologies, mobile phones are great for the workplace, but keeping track of usage, minimising risk and correctly allocating expenditure has become a challenge for many.”
“Keeping track of usage is not just about managing the asset either,” Mr Parry says. “It’s as much about ensuring unsatisfactory workplace practices are identified and addressed at an early stage.”
Refreshingly, 93 percent of respondents had a mobile phone usage policy in place, commonly stating that the phone could be used for personal calls but these are to be identified and paid for by the employee.
“Key to ensuring that mobile phones are not abused by employees is a policy that clearly articulates if and when mobile phones can be used for personal calls and then have in place the necessary process and system to ensure compliance with this policy,” Mr Parry said.
