Corporate Cell Phone Policies and Guidelines
Monday, September 26, 2005By HR Whatnot Staff
Cell phones or mobile phones are causing problems in the workplace. Issues range from excessive usage to loud disruptive conversations and annoying ringers. The best way to address these problems is to create a company policy on proper usage.
Contrary to what you might expect, employees welcome mobile guidelines. According to a recent T-Mobile survey of 5,000 employees, almost half wanted a policy on cell phone use. A Sprint survey showed that 78% of respondents feel that cell phone users are more rude than 5 years ago and yet 98% rate their own cell phone behavior as courteous or somewhat courteous.
A Society for Human Resource Management poll on cell phone policies shows that only 40% of respondents have cell phone policies in place at their organizations. Camera phone policies are even rarer, with only 7% of respondents having a policy in place.
Policies range from very strict, where cell phones are forbidden from the workplace, to moderate, where certain behaviors are forbidden, to loose, where users are encouraged to follow a set of guidelines. All can be effective, as long as the guidelines are clear and clearly communicated. Part of clearly communicating your policy may include posting signs at building entrances or in meeting room doors, to remind employees of the policy. If cell phones or camera phones are prohibited or must have the ringer disabled, post a reminder at the facility entrance.
To help guide you in creating your organization's cell phone policy, here are some of the issues involved:
- Ring Tones - Ringers on cell phones can be set to snippets of songs or popular television/movie voices. These can be offensive and inappropriate in the workplace.
- Unattended / Unanswered Ringing - Employees that leave their cell phone unattended in the office should be advised to turn off the ringer, so that it does not disrupt nearby workers.
- Loud Conversations - Employees should be reminded that cell phone conversations can be loud even when the user thinks they are being quiet. The call should not be answered if the employee is in a place that a separate conversation is not appropriate. If it is inappropriate to have a side conversation in a meeting, then it is inappropriate to answer your cell phone.
- Camera Phones - Many companies ban the use of cameras in the workplace. Unfortunately, most cell phones and mobile devices have built in cameras, so banning cameras either restricts all devices or becomes an unenforced policy. A better solution is banning the use of cameras in the workplace.
- Rude Behavior - This is the number one complaint against cell phone usage. People are rude when they talk on cell phones. They interrupt and ignore people they are with and they disrupt people they are near. In order to alleviate some of this rudeness, your policy should remind employees of the precedence rule. In-person conversations come first. Do not interrupt an in-person conversation to take a cell call. If a cell call is urgent, politely excuse yourself from your conversation before answering. If your call is going to be longer than 10-15 seconds, do not keep your in-person conversation waiting. Either excuse yourself or end the meeting.
- Driving - Company policy should discourage cell phone use when driving. Studies have clearly shown that it is unsafe to drive and operate a cell phone.
- Excessive Use - One reason for personal cell phone use in the workplace is to hide the excessive use of the phone during work hours. The company cannot monitor phone use of private phones. If this is an issue, then banning the privilege is appropriate.
- Enforcement / Infractions - Company guidelines must be enforced, otherwise they will be ignored and become useless. Enforcement can range from loss of privilege, to grounds for termination.
