Final Thoughts on Cell Phone Policies

In my first Insight in this series, I explained what should be included in a basic cell phone policy. My next Insight discussed spelling out everything in the policy clearly.  

Here is an example of a time I worked with a company to create a cell phone policy: 

I had a client who demanded that everyone use their personal cell phone for business purposes, but then refused to fully reimburse anyone. Employees were only reimbursed at the end of the month for any charges they could prove were company charges, such as an overage of minutes. 

I explained to him that his company really should be accountable for reimbursing employees for the cost of their phones each month if they are making the employees use their personal cells for work reasons. 

If, for example, you use up all of your employee’s minutes by September 20, the employee still needs to be able to use his/her phone for the remaining 10 days for personal reasons, and shouldn’t be required to use his/her money to pay for what would have been within his/her allotment of minutes if you hadn’t used them all up. 

The company wasn’t really happy with my suggestions, but they thought about it more and eventually started buying cell phones for staff who were using them for work reasons more often. 

They also offered a “rent-a-phone” deal where employees could borrow a work phone when necessary. For example, if an employee was going out of town on a work trip, he/she could rent one of the work cell phones for the weekend.

So slowly, the company started to get a bit better on their cell phone policy. 

Personally, I felt this was a problematic policy. It showed a total disregard for employees and not only their personal lives, but their personal finances—especially when the company was requiring employees to be available by phone. 

I think that most companies are being smarter on the whole cell phone issue, and so they are purchasing work cell phones for employees. 

Another option is to give employees a monthly cell phone allowance, to be used to pay their personal phone bill. If you choose this option, be aware that the allowance should be substantive, because cell phones are not cheap. And if an employee is using a lot of minutes each month, for example if he/she is a sales person, the minutes will start to add up quickly. 

Final Thoughts on Cell Phone Policies 

• Make sure to encourage your employees to not talk on their cell phone while driving and to follow all the state and local laws, such as driving with a hands-free device when talking.
• Make sure your cell phone policies include hands-free devices and regulations for employees who are required to take calls while driving.
• Address texting in your policy—Employees need to know and understand that texting while driving is something they shouldn’t be doing. They should also take care when they are walking and try not to text if they don’t have to. Safety in and out of the workplace is extremely important.
  
  I was downtown the other day, and I saw a person walking and texting. This person was so engrossed in the text that she ended up walking right into a cab!
  
  So employees need to be reminded to pay attention to what they’re doing, as well as to their surroundings. 

Note: This Insight is provided as general information only. Employers are encouraged to seek legal counsel in order to obtain specific information regarding employee policies.

Here are my final thoughts on what I think employers need to know about cell phone policies.