How can you design mobile device policies that align with your organizational culture?

1 Assess your needs and risks

Before you draft your mobile device policies, you need to understand your business goals, your mobile device usage, and your potential risks. What kind of devices do you support? Who owns them? How do they access your network and data? What are the legal and regulatory requirements for your industry and location? How do you protect your data from theft, loss, or unauthorized access? Conduct a thorough assessment of your current situation and identify the gaps and vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.

2 Define your objectives and scope

Based on your assessment, you can define your objectives and scope for your mobile device policies. What are the expected benefits and outcomes of implementing the policies? How do they align with your organizational culture and values? Who are the stakeholders and users involved? What are their roles and responsibilities? How will you communicate and enforce the policies? How will you measure and evaluate their effectiveness? Be clear and specific about what you want to achieve and how you will do it.

3 Choose your policy model

When managing mobile devices in the workplace, there are a few models to choose from, such as Corporate-owned, personally enabled (COPE), Bring your own device (BYOD), and Choose your own device (CYOD). Each model has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the organization's needs, risks, budget, and culture. It's also possible to combine different models for different groups of users or scenarios. Ultimately, it is important to select the model that best fits the organization's situation and objectives.

4 Establish your policy guidelines

Once you have chosen your policy model, you need to establish policy guidelines that define the rules and expectations for mobile device usage in the workplace. These should be clear, consistent, and comprehensive, but also flexible and adaptable to changing needs. Topics to consider include device eligibility and enrollment, access and security, management and support, usage and compliance, as well as loss and disposal. Device eligibility might include types of devices allowed or supported, as well as minimum requirements for configuration and security. Access and security should cover authentication and encryption methods, as well as security settings users must enable or disable. Management and support should involve remote monitoring and management of devices, along with backup/recovery procedures, updates/patches, support options/channels for users. Usage and compliance should involve acceptable/unacceptable behaviors/activities, data privacy/retention policies, legal/regulatory obligations. Loss and disposal should include reporting/handling lost/stolen devices, wiping/locking remotely, disposing/recycling when no longer needed.

5 Educate and engage your users

It is essential to ensure that your mobile device policies are understood and followed by your users. To do this, you should provide written policy documents in simple language, as well as conduct orientation and training sessions to demonstrate the policies. Additionally, send regular reminders and feedback to reinforce the policies, using positive messages to encourage good practices. Furthermore, offer support and assistance to your users to help them resolve any issues or problems with their devices or policies. Make sure to involve your users in the process and make them feel valued and respected. Through these methods, you can ensure that your mobile device policies are effective.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?