Bring Your Own What?

The “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) phenomenon has caught on like wildfire in the business world.  Wikipedia defines BYOD as “the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their place of work and use those devices to access privileged company information and applications.”  Everything I’ve read about BYOD seems to indicate that it’s wildly popular among employees, especially the “Millennials.”  It’s considered a privilege, a convenience, a morale booster, a perk that’s essential to a company’s ability to successfully compete for top talent.
 

I don’t get it.

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to attend a forum that was hosted by the CIO of a major American company.  This company has, for years, handed out BlackBerry smartphones to the subset of its employees who were viewed as having a need for frequent off-hours contact, whether in the form of voice calls, e-mail, or access to corporate applications.  Thousands of these devices are deployed.  Some, of course, see more frequent use than others.  All, supposedly, represent some legitimate business need that is being fulfilled by the employee who is tethered 24/7 (or some subset thereof) to the office.

The CIO went on to describe this company’s relatively new BYOD program.  As is the case elsewhere (everywhere, it would seem,) the program is gaining new participants every day.  A large percentage of Blackberry-holders has elected to turn in company-owned phones in exchange for being set up with BYOD access via their personally-owned iPhones or Android devices.  The CIO concluded his discussion of the BYOD topic by musing aloud about what he might be able to do to entice the remaining BlackBerry-holders to jump ship.  I could easily have told him: PAY FOR THE DAMNED VOICE/DATA PLANS! 

This company, and according to recent surveys I have seen, a majority of others with a BYOD policy, contributes nothing toward the cost of owning and maintaining the device that the employee is willingly “bringing.”

Let’s break this down:

Behind Door #1 is a company-owned, company-paid-for Blackberry.  It costs the individual user nothing – nada – zilch.  All he/she has to do in order to realize the “benefit” of working while on personal time is to carry the thing around.  Not a bad deal, save perhaps for the obligation to safeguard it and to actually be productive by using it once in awhile.  If it gets damaged, the company replaces it.  Simple.  Free.

Behind Door #2 is the employee’s own iPhone (or whatever.)  He or she is already paying for voice and data access (which, for those living in a cave, is not cheap, and often comes with a volume cap – think “family share plan” voice minutes - beyond which the cost becomes prohibitive.) In exchange, the device owner enjoys the privilege of having exclusive personal use of the thing (and for playing ‘Words with Friends’ on airplanes, viewing porn on the beach, whatever.)  If the employee drops the phone, leaves it on a bus, or otherwise damages or loses it, he/she alone is responsible for the cost of replacing it.

Layer on BYOD, and a few things happen:  to the extent that the phone owner uses the device for work, those minutes and gigabytes get chewed up - the employer gets a freebie.  Additionally, there’s a contract involved (naturally) which, among other restrictions, prohibits the phone owner from lending the phone to anyone – even a family member – lest proprietary corporate data be exposed.

I ask you – which is the better deal?

Would your answer be the same if the comparison were between having a company car, all expenses paid, versus being allowed the “privilege” of using your own car for traveling on company business, without even so much as a mileage allowance? 

I didn’t think so.  So I’m back to not getting it.

There’s unquestionably a perceived cachet associated with being a BYOD participant. This reminds me of the early 1990s, when pagers were all the rage.  Pagers functioned, in essence, like a very long leash.  Paging was one-way – you couldn’t respond with any effective communication.  Instead, the thing went off while you were (in a restaurant, at a ballgame, driving, wherever) and you had to, as quickly as possible, find the nearest pay phone and make contact with the Very Important Person who was summoning you.  Cell phones were nearly non-existent; when they arrived on the scene, demand for pagers died, for obvious reasons.

I never wanted one of those things.  Cachet?  Seriously?  They struck me more like long-range house arrest ankle bracelets.  But they were seen by many as status symbols, nonetheless.  I believe they somehow engendered feelings of self-importance on the part of their users  - “Oops, excuse me, gotta run, I’m being paged {read: I am so very important that I must now drop you, dinner companion, like a hot potato, and go find a phone so as to take care of a very, very important matter.}”  

I “get” that many – perhaps most – people these days are in love with their phones.  I don’t get why, but I get that they are. Phones are status symbols now.  Etiquette has, predictably, taken a blow in deference to the elevated social standing that they impart (Excuse me, dinner partner, redux.)  No doubt this is a big factor in understanding the siren call of BYOD.

In pure economic terms, setting aside the question of “who pays,” it is more costly to operate two devices as opposed to one.  So in the aggregate, there’s an economic argument to be made in favor of BYOD.  It’s also less convenient to tote around two devices rather than one.  As implemented by most companies that have done so, however, the programs are tilted heavily in favor of the company and against the employee. 

There are a few enlightened firms out there that do offer a stipend or some other consideration that helps to defray some portion of the phone owner’s costs, but they are in the minority.  It seems only fair that, to the extent that it can be calculated, a proportionate share of the costs associated with using privately-owned equipment for business purposes should be borne by the business.  In my view, this should be the norm.  However, as long as employees continue flocking to buy-and-bring-your-own programs, the status quo is unlikely to change.