90% of U.S. workers use their cell phones for personal reasons during work hours, wasting approximately 1.5 hours each day.
Talking on the phone, playing games, or browsing social media websites creates a domino effect that also distracts and disturbs colleagues.
Having a cell phone policy in place sets clear guidelines on cell phone usage and mitigates these issues. In this article, we discuss what a cell phone policy is, why it matters, how to make one, and wrap it up with an accessible template to help you get started.
Let’s begin.
TL;DR
Cell phones are the leading cause of workplace distraction, accounting for 55%.
Altogether, banning cell phone use and enforcing a no-tolerance policy will do more harm than good, and a policy strikes a sweet balance between reasonable and inadvertent usage
A good cell phone policy includes purpose, scope, acceptable use, security and confidentiality, personal and company-issued phone guidelines, internet and app use, camera and recording use, texting and driving rules, social media use, monitoring, and non-compliance consequences
It enhances productivity, ensures security, protects confidential information, and sets clear guidelines for acceptable phone usage
Ready-to-use cell phone policy template to help you get started and guidance on how to actually implement the policy