Why guidance for phone use might benefit your bottom line
Phones have become an integral part of our lives.
It’s no wonder that people spend an average of over 4 and a half hours on their phones each day.
They are our sources of news, entertainment, communication, shopping, and much more.
But our phones pose a danger to our health as well.
Excessive screen time has been linked to dementia, disrupted sleep, and many other harmful health conditions.
And phone use can be damaging to your business as well.
This article will look at the possible negative impacts of phone use at work and what your business can do about it.
Issues caused by phone use at work
We should preface this by saying that there are certainly valid reasons to allow phones at work, and that most businesses shouldn’t ban them completely.
Employees with caring commitments, or children at school, may need to be contactable during the working day. Plenty of people will be an “In Case of Emergency” contact for someone they know, and you don’t want them to miss that call.
That said, excessive phone use at work can cause problems. Employee productivity may suffer if they are easily distracted by content on their phone. Equally, one person’s phone use may distract other employees as well.
This could present a safety hazard in industries like construction or shipping, or a security threat if your business deals with sensitive information. It’s common for defence companies or businesses that handle confidential client information to enact strict bans on phones.
Phones also offer ways for employees to access inappropriate content, which can lead to legal trouble if that is seen by the wrong people.
Create a written policy
With those possible pitfalls in mind, we’d recommend that most businesses should have a mobile phone policy in place. It might feel like overkill in a small business, but it’s better to have something in writing that everyone has agreed to than to have issues crop up and no clear idea of how to handle them.
It needn’t be a long policy, but you should have the key points outlined and included in your employee handbook, so that you have written agreement to it from yourself and all your employees.
Limit rather than ban
You might experience significant pushback if you ban mobile phones completely in your business. As mentioned above, there are legitimate reasons for being contactable during the working day. And employees are largely going to be free to do what they want during their lunch or breaks.
As such, banning phones outright is likely just to cause tension unless you have solid reasons for doing so.
Limiting their use is a better idea. It’s reasonable to ask employees not to use their phones around or in view of customers, as that can appear unprofessional and damage your business’s reputation.
You may ask them to limit phone use to lunch and other breaks throughout the day, and ensure the phones are not loud and disruptive the rest of the time.
There may also be circumstances where mobile phone usage is permissible at work, or even encouraged.
If employees use their phones as part of their job, then you should clearly outline what activities are allowed (e.g. making customer calls or using productivity apps) and what are not (playing games, scrolling social media outside of breaks, disturbing colleagues).
Set out the consequences of repeated breaches
Any policy will be ineffective unless it is clear that there are consequences for those who break it. As such, your policy should outline how different offences are handled. This will depend on the severity of the offence. Checking WhatsApp at their desk is very different to playing a game while driving a company vehicle!
Wherever phone use might present a safety hazard, such in high-risk areas, a zero tolerance approach can be outlined. Include what disciplinary action may be taken in each instance.
Distribute and enforce your policy
Make your mobile phone policy a part of any new employee induction, and share it with all existing employees to get their agreement too. Using the Findmyshift notice board is a great way to quickly share it with everyone in your organisation.
Once it’s in place, be sure to enforce these rules fairly and consistently. You might allow for a brief bedding in period while employees get used to the new rules, but after that, you need to show that you are willing to take action against people flouting the policy.
That includes you! Set a good example as the manager by embodying the policy and limiting your own phone time. Stick to your guns to ensure your employees respect the policy and your business will be better off for it.