By Jonathan Steele
August 15, 2023
Beverage. Phone. Laptop. Those are just a handful of things we think about when we hear “Bring Your Own.” Whether it’s a restaurant’s bottle policy or the plan with your carrier, there are plenty things that Bring Your Own can be. When Motus talks about BYO, we’re offering a very specific reimbursement solution to companies with mobile workers. So what is a Bring Your Own program? And when does it make sense for your company? Let’s take a look.
A Bring Your Own (BYO) program is a solution in which employers reimburse their employees for the business use of their personal assets. Employees have been using personal assets for work for decades. Many weren’t paid for this use. Recently, companies came to understand how essential business use of personal assets was to their organization’s success. So which assets are included in a bring your own program? Let’s have a look.
A Bring Your Own program includes three main assets: devices, home office and broadband. Each of these pieces plays an essential role for employees working entirely in office, entirely remotely or has a hybrid schedule. Different employees may use some more than others. We’ll dig into each of these further below, beginning with device.
An employee’s personal phone or tablet can be an essential work tool. Do your employees access work email on their phone? Do your employees make calls to the office while at a project site? Are any of your employees communicating with vendors from their personal phone? If they’re using personal assets for work, the company should reimburse them. Companies that don’t provide reimbursements may expose themselves to legal risk.
Paying employees for their home offices might seem like a stretch, but there are some points to consider. First, office space isn’t cheap. Companies spend $100’s of dollars per employee per square foot on leased area. Businesses that cut down on their office space can control costs considerably. Second, employees working from home spend more on heating and utilities than employees who go into work. Helping them with those costs won’t come close to the expense of corporate real estate.
If an employee is working from their home, there are some essentials to perform their job. An internet connection is one of them. While an employee will be paying for their internet regardless of whether they work from home or not, this does not exempt employers from reimbursement obligations. Additionally, employees working from home may see increased productivity with higher speeds, something they might more easily afford with monthly reimbursements.
There are four main benefits employers see with a BYO program. Those benefits include optimized spend, gained efficiencies, attracting and retaining talent and mitigating risk. Let’s learn a bit more about each of those, beginning with optimized spend.
It can be a challenge to find new ways to control corporate costs. Reimbursing employees for the business use of personal assets—phones, tablets, home office, broadband and more—could be an area of opportunity. Using a BYO policy that matches the needs of your company, employers can tailor reimbursements to the roles and locations of their mobile workforce. The result? Instead of overpaying employees with fixed stipends, companies can provide equitable reimbursements that accurately reflect business use. With a standardized, accurate reimbursement, employers gain insight into the right payment amounts and better understand which roles require higher payments and which don’t require the same amount of device support. Additionally, the right BYO policies can also appeal to talent both inside and outside the company. Finally, employers have more oversight over payments.
Boosting productivity. Who doesn’t want more efficiencies in the workplace? Well, with a BYO program from Motus, administrators know how much their employees are being reimbursed for and why. The result? No more stipends that lack accuracy, or waiting around for expense reports to be submitted. With the right BYO program in place, employees receive timely, accurate rates. That’s a load of work off the shoulders of admins. Gone are the days of combing through phone usage or knocking on doors to ask who gets what. The Motus platform provides dashboards that show exactly who qualifies and what reimbursements they receive.
If you’re thinking reducing travel and expense reports fits under “Gain Efficiencies,” you’d be right. But we want to really get this point across, so it’s getting its own section. How does your company currently process travel and expense reports? Consider the workflow, the time spent on each submission. When employees receive a reimbursement through a BYO program, that eliminates the need for device, internet and other potential home-related expense reports. Multiply those across your workforce and you’ve saved the company quite a bit in time and money.
What benefits draw candidates to a company? What benefits make them want to stick around? Businesses are working hard to find benefits that aren’t just title changes or compensation increases. The right BYO program can provide even companies in competitive industries with an edge. An employee might use some or all of their personal assets for business. Businesses that reimburse them equitably get the advantage.
Most importantly, a BYO program means flexibility. Without the limitations of a corporate-provided device or strictly in-office work, employees can make use of their personal assets as they choose. And employers can increase the pool of potential candidates available to hire with a more open remote-work policy. Finally, a BYO program means directly deposited reimbursements. Removing expense reports for personal use benefit employers and employees.
Employees receiving reimbursements for the personal assets they use for work are more invested and engaged. And that makes sense. If you weren’t reimbursed for using your personal assets for work, day in and day out, would you be happy about it? Probably not.
Not reimbursing employees runs risks beyond disgruntled employees. Providing inaccurate payments, or payments that don’t cover the cost of business use can result in labor-law related lawsuits. This is another reason reimbursements should accurately reflect the localized rates specific to each employees. It’s also a glaring example of where stipends fail.
The Motus platform provides centralized reimbursement records, making tracking down payment information and struggling to pull reports a thing of the past. Our comprehensive, data-backed BYO solution updates rate components regularly to reflect local costs. Knowing each reimbursement is accurate gives both employers and employees peace of mind.
Ready to overcome your reimbursement challenges and implement a bring your own program? Motus is here to help. You can reach out to us and we’ll help you build the best program for your company’s goals. But if you’re still in the learning phase, we get that too. We have plenty of resources to explore, or you can take a tour of our BYO program today.
With Motus, accurately capturing business mileage has never been faster or easier.
Contact us today or take a virtual tour of the Motus Platform.
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