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Sending the Wrong Message
When it comes to issuing BlackBerries in hopes of expanding a worker's connectivity and enhancing work/life effectiveness and productivity, the latest advice is actually pretty old-school: Be careful what you wish for. According to a recent survey by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based WorldatWork, management may unwittingly be fueling resentment by providing personal digital assistants and other mobile devices without clarifying expectations and boundaries of use. Of 627 employees surveyed across multiple organizations and industries, four in 10 (42 percent) said they believe being given an electronic device means they need to be available to the company 24/7, while nearly six in 10 (57 percent) said they prefer clear boundaries between work and non-work, rather than the comingling of boundaries. What these findings in Implications of Employer-Supplied Connectivity Devices mean, says Kathie Lingle, executive director of Alliance for Work/Life Progress at WorldatWork, is that "prevailing cultural norms" will shape employee attitudes about incorporating such devices into their lives "in the absence of policy guidelines." "Since the 'ideal worker' norm predominates in both national and organizational culture," she says, "supplying devices with no mention of boundaries -- how much is enough and who decides -- is likely to send a message to employees that their work time is expected to spill over into evenings, weekends and vacations." Other key findings from the survey: * Of the respondents who said they currently use a hand-held connectivity device, 55 percent said the company supplied the device. * Three of four users said they never turn off their device. * Only one-third of the respondents say an employer-supplied device is part of a total rewards system, while nearly half believe an employer-supplied device signifies status or importance in the organization. Gayle Porter, a management professor at Rutgers University and the study's principal investigator, says talent managers "would be wise to assess in advance whether workers would view a supplied device as a perk or a tether." "If the practice of supplying devices is adopted for performance enhancement or work flexibility," she says, "the only way to ensure that employees grasp the true intent is to communicate those objectives clearly. "Otherwise," Porter says, "the practice might be misconstrued."
Defining Expectations But before a company can clearly communicate what the rules and expectations are, its leaders "first need to define for themselves what those rules and expectations are," says Matthew S. Effland, an employment attorney with Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart in Indianapolis. The first step toward doing this, he says, is to determine who should have them and who should not -- and this issue is becoming more clouded by the wider ranks of PDA recipients. "It's only been in the last couple of years," says Effland, "that the BlackBerry has been considered appropriate for less-senior staff ... where more of the general population would be receiving one." Reasons for some distributions seem obvious, where certain people must be available at all times -- such as those in law, medicine and sales. "But I have clients who are saying, 'OK, we've invested in these great devices, plus we're already giving people cell phones anyway; let's just give them this added resource.' But they're not taking that extra step," says Effland, "to determine whether they're giving these things to the right people. "They're also not establishing strict guidelines for professional and wise use of them," and they're not reminding workers "that [such devices] are being paid for by the company and can be monitored by the company." More importantly, he says, they're not making it clear to non-salaried workers that they are, for instance, "not required to respond to messages and answer or return calls or e-mails that won't fit into their workweek timeframe." "This is where overtime issues will arise that employees can successfully argue in a court of law by simply providing the data from their BlackBerry," says Effland. "This could get an employer in a lot of trouble." Effland says he expects the business world will be seeing more wage-and-hour and wage-discrimination cases coming to court in which some evidence will be based on PDA-provided data. One of the most pressing needs for mobile-device-use policies is for the company to address conversations that take place after work hours -- does company policy prohibit such conversations or clearly state the employee was not expected to answer that call at that time? "This is going to become a much bigger issue," he says.
A Failure to Communicate Unfortunately, one-third of U.S. companies have no policy in place at all, according to a survey by Mobi, an Indianapolis-based mobile-device management company. The company also found that another 17 percent don't enforce the policy they do have. Mobi's nationwide survey of 200 IT professionals and 200 employees with company-issued mobile devices, was conducted from December 2008 to January 2009. "Having a clear mobile policy that is understood by all employees and enforced is the first step toward eliminating waste from your mobile budget," an especially pressing need in a recession, says Brandon Hampton, director of Mobi. The company's survey found that three of four companies paid for more monthly minutes than were used by workers, and that one of three employees downloaded costly ringtones or other applications. Given those findings, "it's not surprising that money is being wasted on unnecessary services and other extras, because companies aren't monitoring their mobile programs," Hampton says. One of the main reasons companies have failed to create policies is that employers don't know where to begin, he says. "It can be overwhelming -- particularly if you don't have a good understanding of how employees are using their devices -- to determine a workable policy," Hampton says. Understanding how PDAs are being used and how they should be used must go both ways and must accentuate the positive, adds Craig Fearon, senior product director at CyberShift, a Parsippany, N.J.-based workforce- and expense-management solutions provider. "As long as mobile devices are viewed by employers as a means to increase productivity and provide mobile employees' access to critical business systems, a better work/life balance has been achieved," says Fearon. "The mobile device should not be seen by the employer -- or, conversely, by the employee -- as a means to have the employee on call and available 24/7," he says. "The mobile device should be seen as a tool that provides employees access to core business systems and information when they are not in the office. In today's market and economy, mobile employees and employers need this access to be competitive."
April 15, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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