What is a work cell phone policy?

A cell phone work policy establishes guidelines and rules for cell phone use during business hours. It typically includes guidelines for using personal and business cell phones.

As technology evolves, you may need to adapt cell phone policies to address new workplace challenges. For example, devices such as smartwatches likely require adjustments to this policy.

Reasons to have a cell phone policy

Cell phone usage may affect certain parts of your company’s day-to-day workflow. Having a cell phone policy in place may offer the following benefits:

• Safety: Most types of work settings, from warehouses to call centers, typically have potential hazards. Using a cell phone while performing various duties could cause distractions, leading to injuries or accidents. Cell phone policies help protect employees from these potentially dangerous situations.
• Customer service: Limiting cell phone use can encourage your team to be more attentive to customers’ needs and readily accessible to clients, potentially improving customer service efforts.
• Productivity: Your cell phone policy may specify when employees can take breaks and check their phones for calls, texts, social media or news. This can reduce distractions and potentially make the workplace more productive.
• Security: When an employee uses their cell phone at work, they may connect to the company’s Wi-Fi, leaving your company vulnerable to unwanted network access or an IT security issue. Cell phone policies may help keep your network secure.
• Protection of proprietary information: Implementing rules on how company-owned cell phones are used can prevent them from being compromised, which can help protect sensitive company data from unauthorized access.
• Harassment prevention: Consider enforcing rules regarding appropriate workplace communication to prevent harassment in the workplace, including interactions on social media or work messaging platforms, such as Slack, or inappropriate sharing of content that’s not safe for work (NSFW).

How to write your company’s policy for cell phones

The following steps can help you develop your policy:

1. Review relevant regulations

When writing your company’s policy about cell phone usage, review current regulations to determine what your state requires. This can help you write a policy that maintains compliance with all relevant state and federal laws. You should also revisit those regulations regularly to check if your policy needs to be updated.

2. Identify the concerns and risks

Consider your company’s core values, the potential risks, vulnerable areas and your communication preferences via mobile devices. You can use these questions as a guide:

• Do your employees supply their cell phones for work, or do they use company-provided phones?
• Do you expect employees to be available remotely for their jobs?
• Are there safety concerns for employees using phones at work, such as being distracted while using equipment?
• Should there be guidelines for personal cell phone use versus business cell phone use? If you pay for business cell phones, you may restrict what calls can be made. Some companies allow for a reasonable number of personal calls during travel as a courtesy.
• Are there privacy and security concerns with using cell phone cameras in the workplace? This might include proprietary equipment designs, client information or employee privacy that need to remain confidential.

3. Determine the parameters

The details of your work environment help you set restrictions. This might include when employees can use cell phones and what they can use them for while they’re at work.

These parameters may change depending on the situation. For example, if your workplace has several potential hazards, you might require employees to keep their cell phones turned off or secured while working. In a casual office setting, you might leave personal cell phone use up to the employees, within reason.

4. Draft a policy

With the parameters in mind, you can draft a structured company policy for cell phone use. Here are some points you may include:

• Purpose: Explain the reasoning for the cell phone work policy and how phone usage can affect the workplace. You might use evidence to support the need for a policy, such as research regarding its impact on productivity.
• Expectations: Outline what you expect of employees regarding phone use. Provide specifics to avoid misinterpretation. You might include when employees can use their cell phones during the workday and where they can use them, such as in the break room.
• Consequences: Notify employees of the disciplinary action associated with violating the cell phone policy. This might include a graduated system with an initial warning.

5. Get feedback from relevant parties

Asking other collaborators to provide feedback on the policy can help you refine the details. Members of the human resources (HR) team may be beneficial since they likely have experience in policy creation. Other managers and company leaders might also offer input.

3 best practices for a cell phone at work policy

Here are three suggestions to consider when creating your cell phone policy.

1. Equip employees for work

Many employees use their cell phones for work-related tasks, such as storing contacts, performing work-related research, scheduling meetings, using productivity apps and messaging colleagues about work-related tasks. If cell phones support employee productivity, write policies acknowledging their need for work while requesting employees limit their usage to professional tasks.

2. Communicate clearly

Your policy should state when and where employees can use their cell phones and any disciplinary actions for violations. A clear set of guidelines generally helps reduce miscommunication.

You may introduce your cell phone policy during employee onboarding, potentially asking team members to confirm they’ve received this information via signature or email verification.

3. Address cell phone use on the road

Your cell phone policies may also cover usage at work and during business travel. Consider the following policy guidelines for safety:

• Prohibit all texting while driving, and label vehicles as text-free zones.
• Ensure the employees’ work procedures or duties don’t require them to text while driving.
• Communicate safe practices. For example, you might suggest phones be set to “silent mode” when driving and calls sent to voicemail. If drivers receive important phone calls, you might request that they pull over before answering calls.

Examples of work cell phone policies

Consider using one of these examples to guide your company’s cell phone policy:

Cell phone policy example #1

This cell phone policy aims to form a work environment that’s productive and free of distractions.

All employees must operate under this policy, regardless of position. It’s the company’s expectation that all cell phones remain off or on silent during normal business hours so daily workflow remains undisturbed. Employees are expected to only use their personal cell phones for emergencies or while taking an unpaid break. They must refrain from using their cell phones while operating a motor vehicle or the company’s heavy machinery.

Failure to follow this cell phone policy will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Cell phone policy example #2

The cell phone policy aims to create consistency in our workplace operations, including how we minimize distractions. We believe limiting personal cell phone use mitigates risks to the company.

Although we recognize the need for personal cell phones at work, employees should use them only intermittently or outside of working hours. When using cell phones, employees should move away from colleagues to prevent distractions. Cell phones aren’t to be used to record or share confidential company information. Employees aren’t allowed to use the company’s network to download illegal or inappropriate materials from the internet.

We reserve the right to monitor company-owned phones, network activity or personal devices while on the company’s network and take disciplinary action up to and including termination for violations.