Member Article

Managerial mistrust around mobile device in-store

40% of retail staff think that trust around mobile device use at work is an issue, despite it making them more efficient at their jobs, new research from workplace performance platform, Nudge Rewards, reveals.

Despite Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) at work becoming commonplace in the retail sector, it seems there is still widespread confusion and managerial ‘mistrust’ around mobiles in the workplace. More than two thirds of retail staff (37%) said that their employer does not approve of mobile devices being used within stores.

While a nearly a third (31%) of employees said they are not allowed to use personal devices at work, a further quarter (26%) said they are confused about personal device policy at work. In addition, 40% of frontline staff said trust around mobile devices is an issue, with managers and senior teams not trusting employees to use devices responsibly.

Nearly half (44%) of retail employees who serve customers claim mobiles are helpful when dealing with shoppers and 48% said that they help them to do their job. Nearly a third (32%) of all workers said that they use their connected devices to answer customers’ questions, meaning they can enhance the consumer experience and drive additional conversions. A further 33% use their mobiles to communicate with colleagues about work related issues, enabling them to speed up internal communication throughout the organisation and breakdown information bottlenecks.

However, in spite of the benefits mobile-use brings to frontline staff across industries, 41% worried either their employer or customers would assume they are using their device for personal purposes, even when they are using it for work-related activities, prompting them to use their mobile discretely for fear they are being judged by management.

Gary Topiol, Managing Director EMEA at Nudge Rewards, commented: “Even in this digital age, it’s clear there is a disconnect between what benefits mobile devices and BYOD policies can deliver – both in terms of consumer experience and organisational efficiencies – and managerial mistrust around employees’ use of mobiles in the workplace.”

“To ensure that staff have the tools they need to effectively fulfil their role and deliver against heightened customer expectations, companies need to place more trust in their employees and embrace BYOD usage to ensure they can provide the best customer service possible,” he concluded.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Reporter .