Whilst they can be useful and beneficial for completing tasks, they can also be super distracting. Millennials have used these devices since they can really remember, so it’s only natural that they’ll tackle working life with the same habits too. But sometimes they can prove to be more hassle than what they’re worth.

If you feel like mobile phone usage is becoming or has become a problem in your business, then you need to implement a mobile phone policy. Not sure what one of these is? Don’t worry. This post will outline everything you need to know to ensure that you introduce a policy that will get the best out of your team at all times.

So, what kind of problems are you encountering? And how can you combat these?

Are Your Staff Being Distracted?

We know what it’s like, being slap-bang in the middle of the WhatsApp group chat social-era, it seems like your phone doesn’t stop buzzing and going off all day, every day. Whether your phone is on the desk in front of you or in your pocket, the sight or vibration of receiving a message or a phone call will naturally distract you and urge you to reply or answer.

Throughout the day, this is going to happen quite often. It’s thought that it takes 23 minutes to recover from a distraction at work. This could be anything from a chat with a work colleague, receiving an email and being distracted by your phone. If your phone is going off all day, that’s a lot of wasted time, isn’t it?

Not only are staff being distracted themselves, but surely if they’re on the phone taking personal calls it will affect the colleagues around them too. So, not only are they being distracted they’re also potentially affecting the productivity of the team. Think of all those distraction recovery minutes going to waste.

How Can You Combat This?

When introducing your company mobile phone policy, you can reduce this by banning mobile phones from desks. Encourage your employees to leave their phones in their bags and out of sight, that way they’re not tempted to use them and eliminating all distractions that mobile phones cause.

Your employees won’t appreciate you laying down the law and ruling with an iron fist, so rather than taking a complete crackdown ruling, maybe have a zone where they can use their phones in the office? Explain to your employees too that they can, of course, use their phones on their lunchtime, but whilst they’re at their desks it should be completely out of sight.

Linking the no phones rule back to your core values is a good way of showing to your workforce just how much impact mobile phones distraction has. By backing the decision up with some in-house context, they’ll be much more likely to actually follow the rule and not persist in using their mobiles at their desk.

Achieve a Work-Life Balance

A mobile phone policy isn’t always just introduced because they’re becoming a problem within the office. On the contrary, a lot of businesses will issue some of their employees with work mobile phones. This means that some employees are now easily contactable 24/7, which is a good thing in emergencies, however, some bosses decide to take advantage of this and start to ring them out of hours for non-urgent work-related matters.

As they’re taking their work phones home with them and the fact a lot of people use them as their main point of contact, it means that staff will start checking emails, checking company instant messengers and doing more work when they should be relaxing and winding down at home.

Your employees are expected to give 100 percent whilst they’re in work time and every once in a while they might have to do a late night. But, it needs to be respected that they need a break and time away from the business to look after their personal lives. So it’s important to find the right work-life balance.

How Can You Combat This?

In your mobile phone company policy, you should encourage your staff to leave work at work and enjoy their spare time. Senior managers shouldn’t be hassling workers outside office hours. If they aren’t allowed to use their phones at work, then the bosses, in turn, shouldn’t try and contact them about work matters out of hours (unless very, very urgent).

If your employees are constantly working from their phones, they aren’t getting a break. This means their personal life will suffer and they’ll feel as though they’re working 24/7. Ultimately, they’ll stop being enthusiastic and productive at work as they feel as though they’re working all the time. Which is no good for anybody.

You’ve got to make sure that your employees and yourselves achieve a good work-life balance by working smarter not longer.

Change the Way Your Company Communicates

Mobile phones can be the main way to communicate for some businesses. But if they’re causing distractions, then the system needs addressing. We’ve created a free guide that you can download below based on all the different ways to communicate within your business. Take a look today and you could take the first step towards your business operating in a more productive, effective manner.