How do I boost employee productivity without taking away smartphones?

Every industry has its challenges, but the temptation to play on a phone at work is constant. If you are worried about phones impacting employee productivity, you need two things.

First, you need to set clear expectations about what you expect from your employees. Second, you need to show employees that you take those expectations seriously.

Of course, you can’t just ban phones altogether. Simply cutting employees off from their phones introduces more problems than it solves. That’s why you need to mandate smartphone lockdown measures on company-owned phones.

In this article, you’ll learn why locking down smartphones is so important. You’ll also learn how to get started.

What is smartphone lockdown, and how does it help improve employee productivity?

Many features of a smartphone may harm employee productivity. It’s not enough to simply block one distraction. This is where the lockdown comes in.

Locking down a smartphone means closing off access to anything that you don’t want your employees to use at work. This could be an app (such as Facebook or YouTube), distracting internet sites, or the capability to call and text friends.

Interestingly, locking down a phone does not mean simply shutting off all functionalities to improve employee productivity. Some websites, apps, and discussions are essential for work. This is why you need smart lockdown tools—ones that can block distractions without disabling the entire device.

What tools are needed to lock down smartphones?

To effectively lock down a device, you have to own it. This means you will only be able to truly avoid distractions if you give employees phones, as otherwise they could simply circumvent whatever you put in place.

Although a lockdown impacts both apps and websites, you will need separate tools for each.

First, you’ll need a kiosk lockdown solution such as SureLock by 42Gears. Modern lockdown tools will allow you to choose to allow/approve particular apps while blocking the rest, or alternately, allow most apps while only blocking a few. This lets you customize what apps can be made available, without banning apps outright. Of course, you can also lock devices down to a single app. 

Second, you’ll need a secure browser solution such asSureFox by 42Gears. The right tools can allow and block individual sites, or even allow you to filter by keyword. You can also simply keep the browser confined to one website.

How do I lock down many devices at once?

As mentioned above, you need both kiosk and browser lockdown tools. However, it’s not a good idea if you need to set up a large number of devices. This adds unnecessary time and effort to a process that is meant to save time.

You can remotely manage many devices at once using mobile device management software. However, some of these solutions do not necessarily include the lockdown tools that you need.

This is what makes SureMDM by 42Gears different. SureMDM helps you manage and secure work devices. What makes it unique, however, is its ability to remotely deploy SureLock and SureFox.

Admins can use SureMDM to push lockdown settings to any work device, including smartphones. Using SureMDM, administrators can create ‘blocklists’ and ‘allowlists’ of apps and websites. SureMDM also allows IT admins to set rules on who can use work devices to make calls or send text messages. 

A single SureMDM license also includes SureLock and SureFox, so you don’t need to purchase them separately. This means that SureMDM is a one-stop solution for everything you need to raise employee productivity.