By Bahar Ferguson
1. Save All Work Documents on the Server or Cloud
Assuming your company has a solid backup system in place, always saving all work to the company server or cloud will help protect against a computer crash or loss. If you do not have your entire computer set to be backed up, this is the only way to ensure your employees will not lose any important information by saving the document to a desktop or another not-always-backed-up location. This also helps facilitate multiple parties being able to work from the most updated document and accessing the work created or updated by another employee.
2. Keep Work Machines “Work Only” Machines
Companies should ideally have a strong policy against employees performing activities or saving documents that are not work-related on work machines. Not only will this help prevent or minimize wasted time, but it should also protect against additional opportunities for corrupted or virus-laden documents to be opened or saved. By requiring equipment to be used for work only, it should also prevent unauthorized users (i.e., family checking email, photos, websites, documents, etc.) from unintentionally accessing or deleting important information.
3. Teach Proper Communication
As the world continues to become more dependent on electronic communication, it is helpful for all employees to be aware of, and to follow, communication guidelines. This also goes past simple spell-check or grammar-checking. Whether it is checking to ensure the email auto-populated address is correct prior to sending or requiring certain information to be given in person or over the phone to ensure the proper tone, assisting employees to understand ways to communicate when they are representing your company is crucial.
4. Turn the Volume Off!
Having a rule in place for individual or work cellular phone volume in the office can help keep the work environment professional. It also helps keep your customer-facing employees representing the company properly when they are interacting with customers. When people are working and trying to focus and they are continually interrupted by a text tone or annoying sound alert, it is not only disrespectful of other employees, but it is an unnecessary distraction. Depending on the setup of the office, this may also be important for computer alert sounds or even music at a workstation.
5. Communicate Tech Actions
This really covers taking electronic notes or pulling up a document for reference in both meetings and in individual interactions. If you’re hosting a meeting and someone is on their phone or busy on their laptop, it is almost impossible to know whether they are checking their fantasy football score or legitimately taking notes. As such, it can really help the environment and show respect for the time, participants and content of a meeting if you are busy on your computer. While it can prove a point in a meeting to be continually asking content-related questions to the distracted employee, being proactive is always a benefit. To safeguard against this in the inevitable moment you do, in fact, need to utilize your computer while someone is talking to you, a quick, “let me pull that up” reference may help the individual understand why you seemingly are paying less attention. Another area this well-intended miscommunication can be seen is with customers. If you are with a customer or client and you need to take a note but do not have paper and a pen, prior to whipping out your cell phone, explaining that you’d like to make a note and then pull out your phone to do so, will help them feel more assured that you are providing them with 100 percent of your attention. This suggestion is obviously tailored to the style of the meeting and size of the meeting, but in smaller groups, this is particularly important.
6. Limit Multitasking
Many books and studies have rejected the productivity proclaimed by multitaskers. By limiting multitasking and tech distractions, employees should end up being more productive, efficient and accurate. Limiting the wasted time between having a text conversation while writing a memo or listening to a training while performing data entry, can result in wasted time and missed details that can be negative for the individual’s performance as well as the company overall.
7. Protect Access
Many companies may consider requiring employees to lock their screens or require logging out of sensitive websites or programs when an employee steps away from his/her desk. With masses of sensitive information being held or accessed through the work machine, someone leaving a computer unlocked and accessible, is leaving the information open to be viewed, manipulated, shared, etc. Whether malicious access or simply coming upon information that is not to be shared with everyone, ensuring proper data protection efforts are helpful in minimizing the chances of this occurring.
8. Control Remote Access
For those companies with remote workers in any capacity, it is important to put a strong policy in place for equipment usage. For example, if an employee is allowed to take a computer home, it is important to ensure proper network safety to ensure that only authorized users are using the machine or accessing the network. It is also important to implement a rule about the storing of passwords on other machines. For example, if an employee has the password to the company’s SharePoint saved on their home computer and the home computer is accessible to a variety of individuals, access to the information may be easily accessed by unauthorized individuals.
9. Properly Coach
While a nice reminder or roll-out of these policies may be a great kick-off, a lot of times people forget or their old habits slip back. Instead of calling them out directly in front of their co-workers, privately remind them of the polices and the respect required working in the office. Having documented rules or policies and equal implementation will help improve adherence and respect of the policies — all leading to a more productive and professional workplace.
Bahar Ferguson is president of Wasatch I.T., a providers of outsourced IT services for small and medium-sized businesses.