Employees Would Give up Key Perks to Use Their Own Mobile Devices and Apps

Corporate workers would willingly give up free coffee, paid parking, vacation days, and other perks for the ability to use their own mobile devices and apps on the job.

At least those are the findings of a recent survey sponsored by the folks at Sybase (News - Alert) and conducted by Kelton Research.

The survey of more than 500 employees in the U.S. and U.K. found that half of them would prefer to pick the mobile device they use at work rather than accepting the company’s choice. Among those using their own mobile devices on the job, 59 percent think their choice is the best option for their employer. That compares with the 44 percent currently using a device supplied by their company.

More than half (56 percent) believe that using work-related mobile apps makes them more productive. And taking a page from Apple (News - Alert), workers would even like their own app store. Almost half (45 percent) said they’d use an employer-provided app store to download company-approved business software.

In exchange for using their own devices and apps, 58 percent would renounce free coffee, 39 percent would give up free food, 26 percent would give up paid parking, and 20 percent would trade in a vacation day.

But employees don’t see their companies or IT departments as receptive to the growing consumerization of IT.

Only 19 percent of those polled said their companies make it as easy for them to work from a mobile device as they can from a PC. And almost half (44 percent) said they don’t have access to enough mobile apps that would allow them to do their job effective. Further, only 29 percent say that their IT departments are good at managing mobile devices.

But looking at things from the employer’s perspective, employees often fail to realize that they can put their companies at risk by doing work on personal mobile devices. Among those surveyed, 35 percent admitted to sending work-related emails to their personal accounts, while 29 percent said they accessed the corporate Intranet from remote locations.

Surveys like this serve as a wake-up call to IT departments and managers from employees demanding to use their own devices and apps to conduct work. But employees also need to understand the security and support implications of using their own personal gadgets on the job. The onus is then on both IT and management to not only support this growing consumerization trend but also to create policies and educate their users on the proper use of personal mobile devices at work.