Personal mobile phone policies
October 22, 2008
We’ve had a couple of issues recently with employees using their personal mobile phones in work time, and it’s given us reason to review the way the current policy is communicated, implemented and monitored. The subject of personal mobile phones in work is likely to continue to grow, because of the continuing evolution of mobile technology and the increasing emphasis on the need to be able to communicate with anyone at any time. I’m going to sound really old now, but I remember (shock horror!) not actually owning a mobile phone, and I also remember the days before text messaging existed, yet now I’m as obsessed with checking my phone every 5 minutes as the next person. I haven’t kept up with the latest nifty applications mobile phones can offer, but with exciting new phones like the Apple iphone or Nokia 6500 Slide, it’s certain that mobile phones are a big part of everyday life, and therefore an employment issue that organisations can not ignore.
The company employee handbook in my organisation states “employees must ensure personal mobile telephones are switched off at all times during working hours”. However some managers within the company don’t mind their staff taking or making important personal calls in work time as they wish to trust their staff and feel that as long as they are not ‘taking the mick’ by spending an excessive amount of time on the phone, then there is no need to ban calls altogether. This is fine, except when you get to the situation where the manager feels that one member of staff in the team has started to take the mick, and it’s hard to address this because the individual could argue that everyone is doing the same thing, so where’s the difference? It’s not easy to determine an acceptable level of personal calls, so the most straightforward way that’s least likely to cause issues later on is to stick to the policy and ask employees to make personal calls in breaks and at lunch time.
If the company does operate a scheme such as this, there need to be a way that family members can contact the employee in the case of an emergency, so that they can still be contacted if their phone is switched off in work time. This could be part of a new employee’s induction; when the mobile phone policy is explained to the employee, ensure they are told to give the work number to their next of kin, but that this is to be used only for emergencies and not just to phone up for a chat!
If you have had any issues with employees making excessive personal calls at work, let me know.
Things to consider:Cordless Phone Batteries at great prices.
Private Investigator
Process Servers
between-art-and-kitsch
maquina tatuar
Comments
Got something to say?