In The News: "Firms Adjust to Workers & Their Gadgets"

Today's San Jose Mercury News talks about employees using personal mobile devices to connect with company networks.

The security issues are chilling, both intrusion into the company network and loss of company data through employee carelessness. One firm permits personal device access with very tight controls and has the ability to erase all data, business and personal, from the device. That approach makes sense to me but does raise the employee privacy issue.

helpdeskHR recommends:
1. Know your employees and factor that into your decision on the use of personal devices
2. Have a signed acknowledgement of whatever policy you adopt to document employees' prior knowledge of the policy governing them - this is always very important
3. Include in the acknowledgement the disciplinary ramifications of non-compliance
4. Implement a policy that works for your situation and apply it uniformly

I do not recommend checking employees' personal devices unless you have a strong reasonable and defendable justification for doing so. If it is just a suspicion, get professional advice from helpdeskHR.

Lance