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Can You Ask Employees To Answer Emails After Hours? image e540e27d 636d 4465 a7e8 73a5ac58d873 728 600x399

As technology continues to blur the lines between our online and offline worlds, many workers are finding the distinction between work and home harder to enforce. Smartphones make it easier than ever to access work emails 24/7, and many offices operate an unspoken rule – or even a spoken one – that some emails will be answered out-of-hours. For some, it makes life easier – but for others the inability to escape work communications adds unnecessary stress. Where do we draw the line? What’s more, can employers expect or ask their workers to read emails once the working day is over?

Legally, there’s no limit to the amount of time a person can spend working per week, but, for most workers, any time spent working over 40 hours needs to be paid at an overtime rate – time-and-a-half under current Department of Labor rules. An employee working Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. already works 40 hours per week, meaning any extra work – even five minutes checking email – needs to be compensated. Checking email and typing a few quick replies might not seem like much, but workers’ rights advocates see it as a slippery slope that threatens employees’ free time (and, potentially, their right to be paid for all the work they do). It’s not just an American problem, either. Across the Atlantic, new rules are hoping to put an end to the trend of checking work emails after hours.

A new labor agreement in France, signed on April 1 by unions and certain employers, restricts almost 250,000 high-tech and consulting field workers from answering emails and other communications after work hours. Specifically, the workers – who are paid by the day, rather than the hour, and so aren’t covered by France’s usual 35-hour workweek laws – are also guaranteed one day off in seven and, crucially, companies are obligated to ensure staff “disconnect” while off work. It’s unclear what this will mean, but it’s possible that employers will find themselves responsible for ensuring workers have no need whatsoever to use company devices or software while not on the clock. To Americans, the idea may seem restrictive; however, the philosophy behind the agreement is, in and of itself, a positive one – attempting, as it does, to ensure employees get time off, while also hoping not to stifle companies’ ability to operate in a global market.

It’s not just the French that are fighting back against twenty-four hour email access. Andrea Nahles, the German employment minister, recently issued a call for “anti-stress” laws restricting emails out of office hours. She recently commissioned a report into the feasibility of banning companies from contacting employees while they were off work. In this case, the concern seems to be for workers’ health: Nahles told one Germany newspaper:

“There is an undeniable relationship between constant availability and the increase of mental illness […] We need universal and legally binding criteria.”

Germany has already passed laws forbidding companies from contacting workers during holidays, while after-hours contact has been voluntarily restricted by companies including Volkswagen and BMW. Could a nationwide ban be next? Opponents argue that large companies, dealing with multiple time zones and strict deadlines, may need workers to occasionally put in the extra hour. The answer to that, though, is simple: if workers are being paid for the time they’re asked to work, they’re no longer off work, and so any law restricting communication won’t apply. As a business, you must always ensure that all time your employees spend on company tasks is compensated.

So, could the United States follow Europe? And should companies already be wary of sending emails at all hours of the day? Right now, as long as you’re not requiring workers to take on work-related tasks without compensation, employers are more than welcome to send emails with the understanding that the employee will read and respond whenever they’re next at work. Phoning or text messaging could be more problematic – the UK’s Institute of Management has previously warned that calling workers at home could constitute an invasion of privacy and even open companies up to legal action under human rights legislation. While that might sound extreme, it’s clearly preferable for companies to have a black-and-white policy in place about when, how, and who can get in touch with workers during time off and holidays.

At the end of the day, stressed and overwhelmed workers hurt a company, and happy employees are more likely to work harder and help your business grow. No matter how laws governing email and cell phone usage may change in the future, businesses should remember that everyone has a right to a fair wage.

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messaging apps and IT security

Nearly 70 percent of companies are concerned about employees using third-party messaging and chat apps to communicate and send documents internally, according to a survey of 397 IT enterprise decision-makers by messaging and mobility specialist Infinite Convergence.

The study also found that 59 percent of IT decision-makers think third-party messaging apps and chat tools are insecure for enterprise communication, and 41 percent of companies ban the use of one or more third-party chat apps. Additionally, while 84 percent indicate that internal enterprise messaging systems are a more secure option, less than half currently use an internal messaging service.

When it comes to bring your own device (BYOD) policies, 41 percent of survey respondents indicated that more than half of their employees use personal devices for internal messaging and to access company information. "With BYOD, enterprises have to deal with a whole new realm of IT concerns that they did not previously face: the consumer's own device and the information exchanged on it," Anurag Lal, CEO at Infinite Convergence, told eWeek. "Enterprise IT teams didn’t have to contemplate that before BYOD was an option.

Not only do they have to deal with consumers' devices, but also the applications on their devices and the ability of those applications to transfer enterprise information or content." Lal explained that with the advent of BYOD and over-the-top applications, enterprises are finding it more difficult than ever to control employee messaging.

According to the survey, two out of three executives said they are concerned about employees using their personal devices to communicate and send business-related documents and information, and more than half are concerned about former employees still having access to company information on their personal devices after they leave.

The study found that at least a quarter of companies ban some of the most popular apps and chat tools for internal communication, including Google Chat (30 percent), WhatsApp (29 percent), weChat (27 percent), Skype (26 percent) and iMessage (26 percent).

Email is considered the most secure way to communicate enterprise information, according to the IT executives surveyed, with 89 percent considering it a secure medium. The study also found that only a third of companies mandate that internal communications outside of email go through a corporate-controlled messaging system.

More than three quarters (77 percent) of enterprise IT executives indicate a highly secure, simple and intuitive internal messaging service would be valuable compared to their current enterprise communication system. Of the respondents who said they currently have a regulated internal messaging system in place for employees, more than half said they cannot remotely wipe information sent through that system from an employee’s device. "Enterprises need to train their end users to exercise a level of responsibility when transferring enterprise information.

Employees need to be aware that their consumer apps are not secure and only use enterprise approved or mandated apps for internal communications," Lal said. "In today’s environment, where enterprise information is breached constantly, this is the only way companies can have control over how information is exchanged within the enterprise."

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mobility and it security

As the rate of stolen mobile devices has increased, the average time for IT departments to respond to this security threat has also grown, according to a Kaspersky Lab survey of global IT security professionals.

The report found that more than one-third of employees (38 percent) take up to two days to notify their employers of stolen mobile devices, and 9 percent of employees wait three to five days. The percentage of employees who notified their employers the same day the incident occurred decreased from 60 percent to 50 percent from 2013 to 2014.

The cause of this delay is employees becoming slower to notify their employers of missing devices, with only half of employees reporting theft quickly. "I suspect there is some embarrassment and or fear of reporting a lost, or perhaps stolen device," Mark Bermingham, director of global B2B product marketing for Kaspersky Lab, told eWeek. "Employees will often spend time, which ends up being critical time searching for and hoping to recover the device before giving up and reporting to your organization."

Across businesses that experienced mobile device theft, 19 percent said the device theft resulted in the loss of business data, meaning businesses have approximately a one-in-five chance of losing data if a corporate mobile device is stolen.

The survey also found that the rate of mobile device theft overall has continued to climb over the years, with 25 percent of companies experiencing the theft of a mobile device in 2014, a significant increase from the 14 percent reported in 2011. However, as stolen devices become more common, employees appear to be responding more slowly, with only half of employees in 2014 reported a stolen device on the same day the incident occurred.

The growing prevalence of stolen mobile devices may be a contributing factor to employee apathy, since a stolen smartphone might now be seen as a somewhat common occurrence, and not a rare crisis that demands attention. "I’d hope the trend would improve, but to accomplish this more training and expectation setting needs to occur between organizations and employees when dispensing and or activating BYOD mobiles," Bermingham said. "Some of this training needs to focus on the importance of speed in reporting a misplaced device, which may actually be lost or stolen." He noted that often, with the right administrative tools in place, like remote lock and find and misplaced device can more easily be retrieved. "

Additionally, in the event of loss remote wipe becomes critical and in this case the sooner the better," he said. "Enforcing policies like required passwords can also help to bolster security for events where devices are lost or stolen by making it more difficult for data and or sensitive business information to be extracted from these devices."

When looking at behaviors of employees in specific regions, North American employees are the slowest to respond based on 2014 survey data, with only 43 percent of North American employees reporting a stolen device on the same day as the incident.

The Asia-Pacific region saw the biggest change year-over-year with only 47 percent of employees reporting same-day notification in 2014, a drop from 74 percent in 2013.

However, the rate of mobile device theft varied significantly across regions. The Middle East reported the lowest rate of mobile device theft by far, with 8 percent of businesses reporting an incident, followed by 15 percent in Japan and Russia.

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wpid-image002.png An effective BYOD plan must balance control with convenience. Here's what to keep in mind.

Managers often believe a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy is a silver bullet to solving mobile communication problems within their organization. Thoughts of "I don't need to purchase hardware for employees" or "Workers are more productive with their own device" can mask the challenges that often accompany BYOD programs. Today's business environment is becoming a target for data breaches and various security risks, so organizations cannot afford to overlook security when developing a BYOD strategy.

However, there's a fine balance when implementing BYOD security regulations -- you don't want to be so overzealous about security that employees' work is hindered. Done right, BYOD can reduce technology expenses while increasing end users' productivity and improving office morale. An optimal enterprise mobility strategy provides comprehensive device security without impeding employees' pace of work.

For example, many companies have traditionally forced users to connect with a VPN before accessing company resources. On mobile devices, that process is a real pain. It's also not practical -- since most users switch between work and personal tasks, it actually discourages users from staying connected and productive. Companies can implement in-app VPNs and Micro VPNs, which automatically connect specific apps to the corporate network without requiring users to make that connection manually. Companies can also distribute secure browsers that allow users on to internal links that automatically connect to Intranet sites or web application servers without manually launching and connecting with a VPN.

Without a well-designed and unified device management strategy in place, companies risk exposing their most sensitive data to outside sources -- and even competitors -- while stunting employee innovation. Here are three ways to create a plan that maximizes the benefits of BYOD while mitigating the threats.

1. Be transparent with employees.
Attempting to hide unflattering aspects of a BYOD plan can backfire if employees discover them. Being truthful about employee privacy rights and enterprise mobility management (EMM) components fosters a sense of trust between decision makers and their corporate team. We see this often with companies we work with: They explain that the technology is designed to protect and secure, but that it may collect employees' personal location information and personal apps. Be clear that you're not trying to play Big Brother, and that there are privacy filters installed to restrict access to most personal identifiable information (PII).

Building BYOD trust works both ways. CIOs and company leaders should feel confident that their employees are responsibly embracing the freedom of enterprise mobility -- and if at any point the leadership team feels that workers are not handling company data securely, they have the option to implement stricter BYOD controls.

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