We've been working from home for a while now, and whilst I originally thought of this topic before the lockdowns, it's probably more relevant now than ever. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy has been around for a while now, mainly taking off in the start-up world but now being adopted by more traditional companies, let's explore how useful it really is.
In the lead up to the pandemic, I noticed more and more clients flirting with the idea of allowing employees to bring their own devices to work. Its been a natural progression from desktops to a mix of laptops and virtual desktop solutions like Citrix to then allowing employees to use these virtual desktops on their own devices. And herein lies the paradox, who does the BYOD policy really benefit?
On one hand, you have one set of employees who believe the policy benefits them, allowing them to use superior hardware to what the company can provide, and probably get away with a bit of freedom of being able to use your device without restrictions, being able to use the Spotify app or access to Social Media sites. On the other hand, you have a set of employees who are quite comfortable using company devices and aren't interested in using their own, or better still don't have a suitable device to use.
What does this mean for the companies that employ this policy? On one hand, they have lower hardware costs, essentially running the same remote desktop without the need for physical terminals, or sending out laptops with company software builds. But, does that mean they then have a greater number of devices to support? Troubleshooting connection issues can’t be easy when adding in employees' personal devices into the mix. Most companies supply simple user guides on how to connect to the remote desktop, but I've known these to bamboozle some of the most tech-savvy colleagues I've worked with over the years. Overall for companies, the shift to laptops has enabled better workforce mobilisation, allowing for hot-desking at office locations, or allowing employees to work from anywhere (another boon for the pandemic struck organisation), and was somewhat a precursor to the next step. But is it worth it for all parties?
In my experience for Innovation Station, working on client sites has been a mix of using equipment supplied by the client and using my own laptop, a 2016 MacBook Pro. Mostly this has gone well, you either get the aforementioned access to a remote desktop or if they are using Microsoft's stack, you can access the main Office 365 tools via Mac. You do get the odd issue with the remote desktops not picking up your headphone set up, poor connection issues and Teams for Mac is a bit of a RAM and battery hog if you're using the camera all day. With that being said I'm interested to know how it performs on the new M1 MacBooks. When carrying my MacBook on site, I do find I sometimes become a little apathetic towards it, forgetting it is my own personal device and thinking it is easily replaceable like we’ve grown accustomed to with company devices. I wonder if any of you guys reading this who work in that area of IT feel the same about how user's abuse company equipment? Or even just how you feel the BYOD policy works in general?
If companies were to provide a subsidy to BYOD would that entice more employees to partake in the scheme? Similarly if employees were offered an allowance to go and purchase their own laptop they could use for work, would this make them treat the equipment better? Does the BYOD scheme actually save money overall for companies? I'd love to hear more from the readers. In my opinion, it can be beneficial to everyone involved, but not without the caveats above, I enjoy using my MacBook but it does make me consider a more compatible dedicated work laptop every few weeks and I'm sure I'm not the only one.