“Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) is a concept on the rise with experts predicting more than one-third of organisations will stop providing devices to workers by 2016. But it also shows its effect on work-life balance: over half of Brits believe BYOD is encouraging them to work outside of their contracted office hours, new research from Cint and FluidSurveys has found.

In a survey of over 935 British people, some 56 per cent felt having a personal smartphone or tablet encourages them to do more “out of office” work. 59 per cent of those polled admitted to working outside of office hours. Primarily, professionals spend their extra hours replying to emails and taking work-related calls.

In the UK, six hours or more is the average amount of time spent on work in addition to contracted hours. This figure was significantly higher in the US, where over a third of professionals attribute over six hours of their personal time per week to work.

The BYOD trend seems to be doing businesses good; not just in terms of extra working hours but also in terms of costs. Nearly two-thirds of workers cover the cost of using their smartphone entirely personally; only 22 per cent claimed that their company contributed in full to the cost of their smartphone charges. However, 60 per cent of respondents felt it appropriate that their company should contribute to some or all of the cost.

Aydin Mirzaee, co-CEO of Fluidware, commented: “The BYOD revolution is highly capable of bringing a positive shift to the workplace. Allowing employees to have personal devices available to them at any time enhances overall flexibility and encourages more convenient working practices. 

“Employees can improve time management and employers can enhance the management of remote teams, across times zones – a scenario that is more and more common in our digitally connected world. I hope these survey results help to improve the use of personal devices in the workplace, to better understand the needs of employers and employees alike.”

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