Cellular phone-toting employees can be quite a liability, as we saw in the last issue of the Advisor. Today we’ll look at some cell phone safety policy points and share some good news—your policies are already written!
Here, from BLR’s SmartPolicies on CD, are crucial points to consider in creating your cell phone policy:
Training. Do you provide training or instruction manuals so that employees know the features of their cell phones?
Safety. Do you provide safety tips on using cell phones while driving, such as the following:
- Ban or discourage cell phone use while driving.
- Require drivers to be stopped when dialing their cell phones.
- Require telling called parties that they are in a moving vehicle.
- Require keeping conversations as short as possible when on the move, and ban taking notes while driving.
BLR’s SmartPolicies on CD supplies 350 HR policies, prewritten for you, and ready to customize or use as is. Examine it at no cost or risk. Click to learn more.
Voice mail. Will you require voice mail on cell phones used by drivers so they can resist answering the phone while driving?
Gassing Up. Defective cell phones have been known to create sparks. Will your policy require that the power be shut off when fueling vehicles or using jumper cables?
Accident/injury reports. Do you require employees to report any incidents resulting from cell phone use?
Discipline. Do you discipline employees who violate safety rules regarding the use of cell phones while driving?
Contracts. And off the subject of safety but on to that of monitoring expenses, do you have a policy that controls what contract employees make for cell phones used for business? As we noted yesterday, it’s common practice for employees authorized to purchase their own plans to buy a number of minutes far beyond that needed for business purposes. The extra minutes provide them with a free ride down the cellular highway for personal calls.
The easy way to keep up with policy writing needs
Cell phones and other new technology definitely pose policy challenges. The field moves so fast, it’s hard to keep up. But our editors have a suggestion on doing it, with a minimum of cost and effort.
It’s a remarkable program called SmartPolicies on CD. Its expert authors have already worked through the critical issues on some 100 critical policy topics, prewritten the applicable policies for you, and tested them at thousands of organizations over time.
Why write your own policies when we’ve already done it for you …. at less than $1 each! Inspect BLR’s SmartPolicies on CD at no cost or risk. Click for details.
In all, SmartPolicies contains some 350 policies covering those topics, arranged alphabetically from Absenteeism and Blogging to Voicemail and Workers’ Compensation—and Cell Phone Safety—among them. (To see the complete Table of Contents, click the link below.) What’s more, the CD format makes these policies easily customized. Just add your company specifics or use as is.
More important, as regulation and court decisions clarify your responsibilities on workplace issues, the policies are updated, with new ones added as needed every quarter as a standard part of the program.
SmartPolicies on CD is available to HR Daily Advisor subscribers on a 30-day evaluation basis at no cost or risk … even for return postage. If you’d like to have a look at it, click here and we’ll be happy to arrange it.