Hi,
I do not know much of which level you are at, but in any case my input is that you take answers of these Questions from the decision makers in teh organisation & only then can u formalize a policy. U can walk in with some answers but pls note that these will be changed, so largely this is an information gathering execise.
Q - Will you reimburse on actuals or upto a certain amount & at what levels?
Q - Will you provide handsets (Company asset) or cash amounts to buy handsets at different levels or not have any provisions from providing handsets?
Q - Will company pay directly to a network provider (company agreement with HUtch,) etc or is it reimbursement based?
Q - Is the purpose of the policy to make people accesible within the organisation or to provide a benefit to the employee or something else?
Q - Will u reimburse all calls upto a limit or only official calls or only official calls upto a limit?
Q - If u can find out the policy of other companies in in your industry?
I can help with the structure of some policies that I know of: -
A - A Mfg orgn provides handsets as well as number (recovers both when employees leave orgn) through a Closed User group scheme with 'Idea' which charges them a lower rate per call within the group. Bills for VP level & above are paid on actuals (directly by the company), But for other levels only official calls upto certain limits are paid & the rest is recoveed from the employee. Sales & customer service ppl are allowed highre limits fro official calls. Only employees at certain levels & holding certain portfolios (largely sales, customer service guys, VP & above as well as all the direct reports to our MD / Dept heads) are provide with this scheme. Other employees intersted in availing teh benefit of lower call rates are helped with alloting numbers within the scheme, but all expenses related tro procurement of sim, number etc are borne by requesting employee.
B - A financial organisation pays 3000 in the 2nd month of joining to all employees to buy a handset which belongs to them & reimbursed all cals upto a limit of 750 to actuals across the levels in the organisation. Though not mentioned in the CTC, this is generally informed by the recruiter when discussing salary. The company also reimburses fixed rentals & has a tie up with certain all India network provider for lower call charges within that network & employees are free to choose either thsi network or others.
Generally u should put a clause that the mobile should not be misused when the employee is on leave or on holidays. If it can wait, one should wait till the person returns.
For some time I was in recruitment & we were provided a reimbursement scheme, but after some time I noticed that candidates, consultants & all others tended to call on all days of the week. After soem time I got off the scheme & much to the ire of the internal customers (read boss) I refused to give my numbersa to anyone. ofcourse my boss had my number but since she knew that this was not being paid for by the company she had to think twice about giving it to the ppl who called heron sunday mornings for it. Nonethless this is an extreme case & the organisation just had major culture issues. But you should consider the nuisance value & show a healthy respect fro employees' work life balance.
Sorry for being so long & hope this was helpful
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