More and more businesses expect their employees to own their own work electronic devices (BYOD: Bring Your Own Device). But who should pay the user fees? How do you draw the line between personal and professional use?
A survey conducted by the research firm IDC Canada shows that 73% of Canadian companies let employees use their smartphones at work and 58% even let them use their tablets. You heard that right “let.” Many situations can happen if an employee brings their own devices to work, and those situations will have an influence on the reimbursement practices related to their use.
When employees choose to use their own work electronic devices
Your company provides you with a BlackBerry and a Dell laptop, but you like working with Apple devices and your employer authorizes it because the technological structure supports it. “If an employer offers to provide devices, but the employees prefer using their own, than the employer is not required to reimburse them.” Clarifies Jean-François Pelchat, spokesperson for the Commission des normes du travail du Québec.
When employers are required to provide the electronic devices
According to the Loi sur les normes du travail, if an employee is paid minimum wage, the company must provide the devices for free and reimburse all user fees. In other cases, user-incurred fees must not cause a salaried employee to receive less than minimum wage. Although, an employer can demand that an employee pay a sum for the required device’s purchase. If an employee already owns the device, the latter does not have to pay, but must reimburse the employer for user and subsequent maintenance fees.
“For our part, we don’t offer our employees landlines, but we do provide a chip and [cellphone] plan.” Explains Frédéric Laurendeau, president of mPhase, a company that assists businesses with issues related to innovations in consumer technology.
Between the two
But what if we don’t fit nicely into either of the categories? The Loi sur les normes du travail is silent on the subject of sharing devices provided or reimbursed by an employer. How do you effectively separate time spent on personal use and professional use?
In this case, many different avenues can be taken, Laurendeau emphasizes, “The company culture, its size, the services offered, their mastery of internal technology, and their attitude towards these factors can influence the way employers treat its use.”
An employee might have to pay for the plan, reimburse it afterwards, allocate a fixed monthly payment, reimburse long-distance calls, and more.
Now, solutions like Good Technology exist that allow the installation of protected spaces on employee devices, but that give the company total control over it. “This prevents having to buy devices for employees and marks a clear line between business and employee data.” Explains the president of mPhase.
To avoid ambiguity, it is better to write up an agreement for both parties informing the internet usage ratio. “You should also ask about what data the company has the right to access on your device and what will happen when you no longer work with them, these elements should be in the agreement.” Adds Laurendeau.
For now, a good number of businesses still treat their reimbursement models on a case-by-case basis. Hopefully, clearer policies will follow with regarding BYOD policies, which delay policy adoption by businesses.