Everyone’s Adopting This New Secret To Stronger Cybersecurity…

You can’t afford to assume a simple cybersecurity defense will actually protect you from the many cybercrime threats out there. This is precisely why so many businesses are adopting a zero-trust cybersecurity model. 

Did you know that, on average, there’s a cyber attack every 39 seconds?

It could be a ransomware infection. It could be a phishing email. It could be one of the many other methods cybercriminals employ today. 

The point is that cybercriminals have an extensive arsenal of weapons to attack with—are you hoping your lone firewall will be enough to keep your business safe from all of them? That’s a dangerous gamble to make…

Stop Making Dangerous Assumptions

Sophisticated attackers have learned to play the long game, and sneak malware into a breached network and then lay dormant for weeks or months, ensuring their method of entry isn’t discovered right away. 

This gives them time to embed themselves, steal data, and more, all before they actually activate the ransomware and infect the systems. This is just one way in which cybercriminals are improving their tactics. 

Fortunately, both the solutions we use to protect ourselves, and their underlying theory and strategy are under constant development in order to stay ahead of emerging threats. 

Case in point: have you heard of “zero trust” security? According to Okta, adoption of this cybersecurity philosophy has doubled in recent years, and for good reason…

What Is Zero Trust?

The zero-trust approach to cybercrime assumes that every aspect is a potential vulnerability until it can be confirmed otherwise. That means instead of simply investing in a strong firewall and antivirus, and assuming you’re protected, every part of your IT environment and every user trying to access it is assessed for its security. 

According to NIST SP 800-207:

“Zero trust security models assume that an attacker is present in the environment and that an enterprise-owned environment is no different—or no more trustworthy—than any non enterprise-owned environment.”

This means that an organization following a zero trust security model cannot, even by default, offer any trust in any interaction in their protected systems. Risks must be continuously assessed and mitigated, and access must be continuously verified. 

It’s important for business owners to understand that every potential part of their network is a target. Given the overall connected nature of the systems, comprising one part can give the cybercriminals control over the entire environment. 

3 Basic Components Of Zero Trust Architecture

Verify And Validate

Network users are continuously validated and verified in real-time, even when they’re operating from within the network. This ensures that unattended machines, open ports, or misassigned administrator rights cannot be taken advantage of. 

Least-Privileged Access

The principle of “least privilege” is an important part of zero trust security. It ensures that every user is only given precisely the level of access they need to do their job. It’s like a cybersecurity equivalent of the intelligence concept, “need to know basis”.

Reduced Attack Surface

Organizations following a zero trust strategy must specify the most critical data and systems they use, and then defend them all together with a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity. This is far more effective than ad-hoc cybersecurity, composed of multiple separate defenses. 

The Core Principles Of Zero Trust 

As a way of thinking, zero trust is based on the following core principles and understandings:

Any source of data or computer source is a resource.

The bottom line is that any device or component that has access to data is a resource. These are assets that need to be secured, as any one of them can provide undue access to your data is breached. 

Communication must be secured no matter where the network is located.

Communication taking place within the network should not be assumed to be trustworthy. Ir must face the same authorization processes as external communication. 

Access to resources is authorized for each and every session

Just because a user was granted access for a previous session doesn’t mean they should have automatic access the next time (e.g. “staying logged in”). Furthermore, as mentioned above, any given task should only be completed with the least privileges necessary to do so. 

Authorization to access resources should be determined based on a dynamic policy. 

There is a wide range of attributes at play that can help properly authenticate a user requesting access to a given resource. Beyond simple username and password protection, a security system can also consider software versions, network location, time/date, as well as behavioral attributes like subject and device analytics, and deviations from pre-established user patterns.  

Assets need to be monitored for integrity and adherence to security posture

As mentioned above, zero trust means never assuming trust, even for assets. Managing their integrity and security posture involves monitoring them for performance, and applying patches and updates as soon as they become available.

Access is granted only after a dynamic and consistent authorization process is completed.

An appropriate zero trust authorization process should include Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM), asset management systems, multi-factor authentication (MFA), as well as continual monitoring with possible re-authentication and reauthorization as needed. 

Extensive data must be gathered to maintain an informed security posture.

Organizations need to gather and analyze data on user behavior, asset performance, and all other aspects of their networks to ensure that monitoring processes are adequately informed.  

Are You Interested In How Zero Trust Cybersecurity Can Protect Your Organization?

Our team will take care of each and every factor of your cybersecurity so that you don’t have to worry about it. Our growing network of clients enjoys the confidence that comes with robust cybersecurity, as well as the freedom to focus on their work, instead of their technology

If you’re interested in discovering more about zero trust cybersecurity and what it has to offer your organization, get in touch with our team.

3 Ways Businesses Are Evolving Their Cybersecurity

Are you falling behind the current standard of business cybersecurity? Discover what your colleagues in the business world are using to keep their organizations secure. 

The absolute biggest mistake companies make about cybersecurity is to assume that they don’t need it and that they are not a target. Or even worse, they think they are already protected, without taking any steps to ensure they are.

Here’s the reality: no matter how big your business is, or what industry you operate in, you are a viable target for cybercriminals. 

You can’t afford to hope you’re protected. You have to make an effort to keep your defenses up to date and prepared to fend off the ever-evolving range of weapons in use by cybercriminals today. 

The Top 3 Cybersecurity Tools Businesses Are Rushing To Adopt

According to a recent study by Okta, tens of thousands of businesses worldwide demonstrate an ongoing commitment to enhancing their cybersecurity. They noted a few trends in the types of technologies being more commonly adopted, which include…

Endpoint Monitoring & Management

Basic cybersecurity technologies aren’t enough on their own any longer, which is why businesses are investing in more sophisticated solutions. Let’s consider consumer-level antivirus, to start. 

Antivirus is installed to protect at the user level, known as endpoint protection, and is designed to detect and block a virus or malware from taking root on a user’s computer, or worse, accessing a network to which the user is connected.

Because of antivirus’ limited capabilities, it’s unprepared to deal with a range of modern cybercrime threats:

Advanced Threats

An antivirus’ ability to spot threats is dependent on prior knowledge of those threats. As cybercriminals evolve their attack methods, they can easily circumvent basic antivirus defenses. 

Polymorphic Malware

Again, the signature-based tools that antivirus software relies on can be negated by employing malware that avoids known signatures. 

Malicious Documents

Antivirus programs can’t spot a threat when it’s disguised as a harmless document. 

Fileless Malware

By executing its processes in-memory, malware can avoid being spotted by antivirus programs that only scan files. 

Encrypted Traffic

Cybercriminals can also hide their activity in encrypted traffic, preventing your antivirus from ever noticing them. 

The point is that, on its own, antivirus software is not enough to defend you. The best way to improve your cyber defenses is with a comprehensive and reliable Endpoint Detection And Response (EDR) solution. EDR is an emerging technology that addresses the need for continuous monitoring and response to advanced threats.

This is a vital service that protects endpoints like laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, servers, and virtual environments. Endpoint protection may also include antivirus and antimalware, web filtering, and more.

Mobile Device Management

No matter what kind of cybersecurity you have in place at the office, it won’t extend to the mobile devices that have access to your data. 

This is a critical limitation of your cybersecurity software, and it’s obvious when you think about it—if your firewall is only installed on your work devices, but you let employees use personal devices and home workstations to access business data, then obviously you won’t be totally secure, and you’ll be left open to critical vulnerabilities that will only be more common in the coming years:

• Lost or stolen devices can do major damage to you, leading to compromised data and lost work. 
• Unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and other vulnerabilities allow intruders inside your private network. 
• Mobile devices are becoming bigger targets for cybercriminals, who use malware and other methods to attack smartphones and tablets.

This is why more and more businesses are implementing Mobile Device Management (MDM) policies and solutions. They dictate how your employees can use their personal devices for work purposes, dictating which security apps should be installed, and what best practices need to be followed. 

An effective MDM policy should also instill safe and secure practices for employees that use personal devices for business purposes. Key points include:

Dictate Mobile Device Use

Integrated into your internal network, these devices can be used to access, store, transmit, and receive business data.

You’ll need to have policies in place to regulate how employees use their devices to interact with sensitive data. Take the time to consider the risks associated with mobile device use, such as the potential for devices containing business data to be lost or stolen, infected with malware, or the potential for accidental disclosure of confidential information through sharing a device with a family member or connecting to an unsecured wireless network. 

Identify And Address Potential Threats

A risk analysis will help you identify vulnerabilities in your security infrastructure, and help you determine the safeguards, policies, and procedures you’ll need to have in place.
Whether the devices in question are personal devices or provided by your IT consulting, you will still need to have a clear idea of how they’re being used to communicate with your internal network and systems.

Assessments should be conducted periodically, especially after a new device is granted access, a device is lost or stolen, or a security breach is suspected.

Document Policies For Reference And Review

Policies that are designed for mobile devices will help you manage risks and vulnerabilities specific to these devices.

These policies should include processes for identifying all devices being used to access business data, routinely checking that all devices have the correct security and configuration settings in place, whether or not staff can use mobile devices to access internal systems, whether staff can take work devices home with them, and how you will go about deactivating or revoking the access of staff members who are no longer employed.

Set App-Based Restrictions

Maintaining mobile security isn’t just about having the right apps—it means following the right protocols, to eliminate unknown variables and maintain security redundancies:

1. Review installed apps and remove any unused ones on a regular basis.

2. Review app permissions when installing, and when updates are made.

3. Enable Auto Update, so that identified security risks are eliminated as quickly as possible.

4. Keep data backed up to the cloud or a secondary device (or both).

Make Your Staff A Part Of The Process

Everyone on your staff should be educated on how best to use mobile devices to avoid costly security errors. Your safeguards can’t protect you or your clients if your staff doesn’t understand your policies and procedures, and lacks a basic grasp of security best practices.

Your entire team should be taught how to secure their devices, how to protect business data, what the risks are, and how to avoid common security mistakes.

AI-Powered Cybersecurity

Security based on advanced algorithms that can adapt and learn creates a system that can become familiar with the normal patterns associated with each user and device, detecting anomalies in those patterns quickly.

Essentially, something known as a neural net can be used in cybersecurity efforts. Based on a robust algorithm, the neural net can “learn” to spot patterns of data associated with previously identified and classified spear phishing emails. 

By incorporating this technology into an email client’s spam filter, the filter will be able to spot fraudulent incoming emails and eliminate them before they reach the recipient. 

One of the best parts about neural nets is that they continue to learn and improve the more that they are used. With increasingly more data to draw from, this Artificial Intelligence will become more and more accurate in doing its job. Investing in Artificial Intelligence technology is critical, as machines can respond much more quickly to the way these attacks are adapting. 

Need Expert Cybersecurity Guidance?

Don’t let your cybersecurity suffer, and don’t assume you have to handle it all on your own. Our team can help you assess your cybersecurity and develop a plan to protect your data.

How Microsoft Teams Supports Your Business Culture

Need help enhancing your staff members’ productivity, job satisfaction and general engagement at work? Try these Microsoft Teams apps.

Microsoft Teams is an increasingly popular collaboration tool that can help improve staff engagement and satisfaction. It allows teams to communicate, collaborate, and manage projects all in one place.

While Microsoft Teams’ range of standard features is extremely useful in the workplace, they’re not the only tools you should be using. Did you know that Microsoft Teams offer a range of add-on apps as well?

These apps, when properly selected, deployed, and managed, can do a lot to enhance your company culture. All of this has to do with your staff’s engagement in their work…

Why Do You Need To Support Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement, or the level of involvement and enthusiasm an employee has in their job, is a key factor in any successful business. A strong engagement strategy will result in employees that feel valued, respected, and motivated to do their best work. 

It is well-documented that engagement levels directly affect productivity and quality. Studies have shown that engagement leads to higher job satisfaction, improved morale, and better customer service. Companies with higher engagement levels are more likely to be profitable, attract and retain top talent, reduce staff turnover rates and create a positive work environment. 

Engagement goes beyond simply providing good working conditions; it’s about creating an atmosphere where employees want to come to work every day. This involves cultivating a sense of purpose in every worker by connecting them with the company mission statement as well as maintaining open communication between management and employees. When staff members understand how their role fits into the bigger picture, they tend to become more invested in their tasks which leads to higher engagement levels. 

In addition to this, businesses should provide opportunities for professional growth through ongoing training programs or workshops that teach new skills and help staff develop within their roles while providing increased job satisfaction. Recognizing employee achievements through public commendations or rewards can also help boost engagement levels as it creates a feeling of accomplishment while motivating others at the same time. 

Finally, fostering a culture of fun within the workplace can be beneficial for engagement levels by boosting morale and improving job satisfaction among staff members. Organizing team building activities or special company events can go a long way in helping create a positive atmosphere for everyone involved; giving people something enjoyable to look forward to on top of just their everyday tasks will help them become more vested in their role at the company overall. 

All these combined strategies contribute towards creating an engaged workforce capable of delivering outstanding results for both customers and employers alike; ultimately making employee engagement one of the most important components of any business’ success today.

3 Ways Microsoft Teams Supports Your Business Culture

Gauge Team Engagement

The first step in enhancing engagement is understanding the current state of your company culture. You can’t expect to make any progress if you don’t know where you’re starting from. 

Microsoft Teams add-on apps like SurveyMonkey, Betterworks, and Insight HR can help you keep track of employees’ engagement, demeanor, and priorities. You can create surveys to gauge how your team is doing, track progress of key tasks, and better inform your check-in meetings and performance reviews. 

Engaging with staff members and ensuring they are enjoying their work is an important part of any successful company culture. It is important to check in with staff members periodically, whether it be through surveys, meetings, or other forms of engagement. By checking in with employees, managers can gain a better understanding of how individual team members are feeling about their jobs and the company culture as a whole. 

When asking staff about their job satisfaction, employers should provide multiple ways for employees to express themselves in order to get the most accurate feedback. This could include multiple-choice surveys or open-ended questions that allow employees to provide detailed answers. 

Additionally, employers should use engagement techniques that are tailored to each employee’s needs; for example, some may prefer face-to-face meetings while others may prefer online engagement such as polls or video conferences. 

Regular engagement and assessment of job satisfaction levels is essential in making sure that employees feel valued and appreciated by the organization. Doing this can help create an environment where employees feel empowered to do their best work and reach their full potential. Furthermore, it helps ensure that teams remain productive and motivated since team members who feel satisfied and engaged with their work tend to be more productive than those who don’t.

Foster Social Engagement

Even if part of your team is working remotely, you can still maintain the social aspect of your work environment by encouraging them to post status updates and share their insights with Microsoft Teams add-on apps like AgilePolly, Decisions, and ScrumGenius.

Employee engagement and job satisfaction are key components of successful company culture. But it is not enough for employees to be engaged in their work—they must also feel connected to each other. Socializing with coworkers fosters a sense of camaraderie and belonging, which can lead to higher engagement, loyalty, and productivity from staff. 

It has been proven that when people make meaningful connections with those around them at work, they are more likely to stay in their job for longer periods of time. When employees feel like they fit into the culture of an organization, they will be more likely to continue contributing engagement and enthusiasm to their roles. This can ultimately result in lower turnover rates, better performance outcomes, and greater collaboration among staff members. 

Socializing is also important because it can help boost morale. When colleagues get together outside of the office environment, they have an opportunity to relax and bond over shared interests or experiences. It gives them a chance to see each other as real people rather than just co-workers—fostering relationships that can last long after any one particular project is finished or a team member has moved on. 

Facilitate Creative Brainstorming Sessions

You can gather ideas from your team in free-form digital spaces and on virtual whiteboards with apps like Freehand, Miro, and MURAL.

Digital whiteboard apps provide an invaluable tool to support staff engagement, collaboration, and creativity. By providing employees with a virtual platform to hold brainstorming sessions, companies can benefit from the engagement and creativity of their team members. Brainstorming sessions held in digital whiteboards can be conducted from any device, allowing for remote engagement and collaboration.

Using digital whiteboards for brainstorming provides an effective way for teams to generate ideas quickly, whilst being able to easily store them for future reference. Having the ability to save these sessions digitally also makes it easier for those who weren’t present at a meeting to refer back to the notes taken during the session. 

Digital whiteboards are also visually engaging due to the ability to draw or write on the board, along with supporting images, controlling audio presentations and even providing live chat functions that enable engagement with multiple parties in real time. 

The benefits of using digital whiteboards go beyond just engagement and collaboration; they can have a positive effect on company culture too. For example, by having a virtual platform where everyone can come together in one place regardless of location or time zone, it allows people to feel connected which strengthens team spirit and corporate identity.  

This then leads to encouraging job satisfaction as staff feel like their opinions are valued and listened to, making them aware that their contributions are appreciated within their organization. In fact, the Freehand by Invision app is now fully integrated, allowing users to use a virtual whiteboard for note-taking and brainstorming during Microsoft Teams meetings. 

Don’t Let Your Staff Become Disengaged At Work

Engagement is one of the most critical components of your company culture. Make sure you fully harness the tools available to you to help with the process.

Need expert assistance? Our team has extensive experience with Microsoft Teams and can ensure you optimize the way you use it at your business. Book a meeting with us to get started. 

How To Build A Company Culture That Retains The Best Employees

So you’ve finally hired an experienced, capable new staff member. Are you sure you can convince them to stick around long-term?

Are you having trouble retaining your staff? To be blunt, the problem is undoubtedly company culture. 

The way your team feels at work every day, the way they’re managed and encouraged, and the people they work with directly influence their degree of satisfaction on the job. 

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention compensation—it may surprise you to learn that money is not the key determining factor in a given company’s culture or your staff’s job satisfaction. 

By developing the right social environment at your workplace, you can build real loyalty and engagement among your team members. I like to think our company has an effective culture, which we’re continuing to improve day by day.

Here are three key components to our process for doing so…

3 Building Blocks For A Winning Company Culture

Hire For Character Over Knowledge

A widespread effect of the pandemic is the mass retirement of older-generation professionals in the field. When faced with the prospect of pivoting to a fully virtual work environment, many of the experts that were only a few years from retirement decided to exit early. 

This has left us with a bit of a vacuum in terms of skills and experience. As novice professionals graduate from college and enter the industry, they won’t be able to directly take on the role of those who left with decades of experience. 

However, this isn’t as big of an issue as you might think. In fact, this is a great opportunity to think about the way you hire. Consider looking for new hires that have the right character, and match your culture. The rest can be managed through training and on-the-job experience.

Case in point: everyone knows you need smart people on your team to succeed, but it’s important to note that the intelligence trait is far more about EQ (emotional intelligence) than IQ (conventional intelligence), which is especially important in the IT industry, as well as every other field of work.

It’s so much easier to find someone with technical skills and education than it is to find someone that understands how to communicate effectively and empathize with others. That’s why we make such an effort when looking for a new hire to hold out for those that have just as high an EQ as they do IQ.

Make Sure Your Staff Is Motivated

Motivation is a vital part of a healthy workplace environment. Properly motivated people are healthier and happier across the board. They are more productive, and the work they get done is often of a higher quality than it would be otherwise. 

On the other hand, a lack of motivation can be absolutely crushing. It makes it more likely that you’ll procrastinate, waste time, and turn in a poor product at the end of it all. Unmotivated work can quickly lead to depression and worse.

That’s why it’s so important to think critically about the role motivation plays in your work and the work done by your coworkers or employees. If you can figure out what motivates you, you can ensure it’s a regular part of your daily life, helping to increase your workplace satisfaction and workplace culture as a whole. 

So, off the top of your head, what would you think is the number one workplace motivator? Social engagement? Business location? Money?

You might be surprised—TINYpulse recently anonymously surveyed 200,000 workers to find out what really motivates people in the modern workplace. The report, titled The 7 Key Trends Impacting Today’s Workplace, considered a number of different possible factors tied to and resulting from employee motivation, including employee engagement, retention, organizational culture, and more. 

Interestingly enough, the top five polled motivators for employees were:

• Camaraderie and peer motivation (20%)

• Intrinsic desire to do a good job (17%)

• Feeling encouraged and recognized (13%)

• Having a real impact (10%)

• Growing professionally (8%)

It’s surprising, right? Expected motivators, like salary, or opportunity for promotion, didn’t even place in the top five. Instead, those polled showed that they are motivated primarily by the culture developed by themselves and their coworkers, as well as their innate desire to be good at what they do. 

It’s an extremely encouraging reality, especially compared to what most would assume. Rather than the ruthless and self-serving motivations you may expect from the majority of those in the working world, you find out that people actually usually have more heartfelt motivations.

Don’t Be Afraid To Invest In Your Staff

One challenge many managers have with corporate culture is the possible end effect of offering professional development. That is, if you invest in your employees so that they can grow and improve, won’t they just move on to another job that pays more, and benefits from your investment?

It’s a possibility—however, in the time that you have the employee, they’re likely to do better work than they would if you weren’t investing in them. I believe—and have found—that the opposite is true. 

The more you invest in your employees, the more valued they feel, and the more likely they’ll stay, as well as contribute to a high-quality service offering and an engaged workplace culture. That’s not to mention that I’m more afraid of not training my employees, and having them stick around. 

I may have saved a buck by not getting them that specific certification, but it’s not likely they’ll be contributing much to my business anyway. That’s what this is all about after all—I invest time and money in my employees, so they, in turn, invest their effort and loyalty into our company. Lastly, if you have a compelling enough corporate culture, that’s all the more reason for the employee to choose to stay with your business. 

Good Company Culture Is A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The best part of this process is that your work recedes over time. Once you get the ball rolling, the culture improves itself every time you hire another contributing team member. When you add people to your team that appreciate and benefit from your positive work culture, they, in turn, contribute to it, which only helps it to grow. 

This is opposed to hiring people who are just in it for the money, who won’t have anything positive to add to the workplace environment. With an enthusiastic and engaged staff, I then had the opportunity to get them involved with initiatives that would improve our culture.

Also, while I may not be able to directly assist with the development of your company culture, I wanted to let you know that I can help with your team’s on-the-job satisfaction, specifically when it comes to technology. If your team is fed up with apps and hardware that continually fail to meet their needs, it can slowly erode their sense of satisfaction at work, greatly affecting company culture. 

My team and I can help—we’ll optimize the tools your staff uses every day to ensure they make their lives easier, not harder. Book a meeting with us to get started.

Why You Need Onboarding Software

So you’ve managed to hire an experienced and skilled new staff member. Are you sure you can keep them around? It all starts with your onboarding…

Employee Retention Stars On Day #1

The onboarding process is an integral part of the employee life cycle. It sets the tone for a successful relationship between employer and employee and directly informs the new hire’s comfort on the job. 

That’s why successful employee onboarding can improve your employee retention rate by as much as 82%.

Onboarding new employees should be a smooth transition that allows them to quickly adjust to their new work environment and become productive members of the team. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible, either due to a lack of resources or inadequate preparation—or both. 

Key Challenges With Employee Onboarding

To make sure your onboarding process is successful, you need to provide comprehensive training materials that are easily accessible to your new hires. 

This includes providing an up-to-date job description, outlining expectations from day one, and ensuring all safety protocols are in place before they start working. Unfortunately, this can be a lot to manage, especially when you consider these common obstacles to the process:

Undefined Roles

Smaller businesses often struggle with key managerial tasks, such as employee onboarding. If the owner is too busy managing the operations of the company and lacks middle managers or an HR department, they may not be able to devote the necessary time to the process. 

Out Of Date Materials

Furthermore, with no specific staff member tasked with managing and optimizing this process, it’s more than likely your training materials are out of date. This only further complicates the new staff member’s first days on the job. 

Unengaging Training

Lastly, if you lack an actionable strategy for the development and improvement of your training materials, they likely aren’t all that engaging. A boring binder of materials, a stale PowerPoint, an outdated video; none of this will excite your new hire about integrating into your company. 

The Secret To Optimizing Your Onboarding

If you’ve been struggling with these challenges, you’re not alone. Business owners across the country know how difficult this can be. After all, 88% of companies do not onboard their new hires effectively. 

Don’t worry, there is a solution, and it doesn’t involve hiring an HR team you can’t afford. You can optimize your onboarding process with the right software.

Onboarding Software Will Change The Way You Grow Your Staff

Onboarding software is designed to streamline and improve the onboarding process for both employers and new hires.

It allows an organization to:

• Create personalized onboarding plans and guides
• Automate paperwork processes
• Provide access to important resources like training materials
• Create a system for tracking tasks that need to be completed
• Store all relevant onboarding data in one place. 

These tools make it easy to stay organized throughout the entire onboarding process. Organizations can easily create custom onboarding schedules with associated tasks and deadlines, assign mentors or supervisors to follow up on tasks, review progress at any time by accessing real-time reporting features, and use this data over time to refine their future onboarding strategies. 

As business owners implement new onboarding software, they often find that it helps reduce stress for new hires by providing all of the necessary onboarding information upfront. This increases employee engagement and job satisfaction while making it easy to answer common questions quickly and accurately. 

As a result, companies can create an enjoyable and positive onboarding experience while ensuring their new employees are well-prepared for success in their roles. 

3 Must-Have Features For Your Onboarding Software Of Choice

Like any software, onboarding solutions vary in features, capabilities, and price points. Make sure you find one that offers the following…

Integration With Your Systems

Don’t bother purchasing onboarding software without first ensuring it integrates with your systems. After all, this type of software is supposed to make your life easier, not add more work to get it to cooperate with your other applications. 

Before you make your choice, make sure it can work seamlessly with:

• HR platforms
• Recruiting solutions
• Payroll & benefits systems
• Reporting solutions

Gamification Options

Engaging your employees during their training can be as simple as adding a few interactive stages. Known as “gamification”, this is the initiative to improve other boring processes by incorporating quizzes, assigning badges, and displaying leaderboards.

Mobile Capability

The more mobile your workforce is, the more beneficial mobile integration is for your onboarding software. It allows new team members to participate in training and for managers to track progress in the manner most convenient to them. This will only serve to boost engagement and effectiveness. 

Don’t Let Your Onboarding Process Cost You Skilled Staff Members

In summary, onboarding software is an invaluable tool for companies wanting to streamline the onboarding process, increase efficiency, provide personalized support for new hires, and create a great first impression with potential staff members. 

By utilizing these tools correctly, employers can ensure that their organization not only recruits but also retains quality personnel in order to achieve long-term success. 

Do you need help selecting, installing, and managing the right onboarding software for your organization? Get in touch with our team today.

Hiring Crisis: 3 Lessons To Learn While Growing Your Staff

The Top 3 Considerations For Managing Your Remote Employees

Are you considering making remote work a part of your business’ operations long-term? Then make sure you keep these important considerations in mind going forward. 

3 Best Practices For Managing Remote Workers

Is remote work a permanent part of your business model?

This approach can take many forms. Maybe your staff follows a hybrid work arrangement, where they’re in the office some days and at home for others. On the other hand, maybe you have staff members that work full-time in the office, and a team of remote workers that operate on the other side of the world. 

To whatever degree you manage remote team members, one thing is clear—you have to do so carefully. 

The Pitfalls Of Remote Work

Plenty of managers and business owners have made big mistakes with remote workers. The process of giving up in-person managerial control of the workplace can be daunting if you’re used to it being that way. 

This often leads to remote team leaders micromanaging their staff members, scheduling too many check-in meetings, and tracking time down to the minute. We’ll make this clear: there’s no faster way to disengage a remote employee than by wasting their time with your managerial insecurities. 

However, with the right approach to your management strategy, you can fully activate your staff members while they work remotely…

4 Tips For Managing Remote Workers

Over Support & Under-Manage

The core issue at play with remote workers is obvious: when staff members are not in your office, how can you effectively manage them? The key is to make no assumptions about what they have, and make every assumption about what they will produce (until proven otherwise, of course). 

In other words, you should be committed to equipping your remote workers with each and every resource they need to succeed, and then trust them to deliver the services or goods they have agreed to. You should only micromanage the quality of their work experience; not their performance on the job. 

For example, ask about their home “workplace”. The space one works in is an important part of productivity. Make sure your remote worker is in a comfortable, distraction-free space that is as similar as possible to your normal workplace.

This may require investing in an office chair or a second monitor. Not everyone will have the necessary tools at home, and so, it’s recommended that you have a number of remote work bundles ready to go to maintain continuity and security:

• Laptop
• Monitor(s)
• Keyboard and mouse
• Phone system and headset
• Business-class firewall 
• AV Software

Promote Balance

Encouraging a balanced workday is important for the productivity and morale of your staff. Make sure that they are taking breaks to stay hydrated, relax, and stretch.

This will help them to be more focused and productive when they are working. Additionally, it is important to set a good example for your staff by maintaining a balanced workday yourself.

Keep in mind that this does not have to be part of a staff-wide social initiative. You do not need to schedule a group “desk yoga” break after lunch every day, as these types of activities will more often than not wear down the goodwill among remote staff. 

Instead, make sure you provide space for your remote team members to decompress. This may be a matter of encouraging them to take a walk after lunch or providing an employee-only social Slack channel (no management allowed!)

Make Sure Everyone Knows The Plan

You need to be sure that everyone is on the same page with respect to communication. Some staff members may update you multiple times per day, while others may not communicate at all unless there is an emergency. 

Establish a policy for when and how communication should take place, and make sure that everyone follows it. This will help to ensure that everyone is kept up to date with what is happening.

Our advice is to develop a culture of communication that is both ubiquitous and brief. This has the two-pronged benefit of ensuring regular communication is encouraged, without wasting anyone’s time in the process of drafting long emails or sitting through long meetings. 

Consider the following benchmarks:

• Direct messages should be as short as possible (one-word responses aren’t rude—they’re efficient).
• Emails should be 2-3 sentences.
• Phone calls should be <5 minutes.
• Meetings should be <30 minutes.

Essentially, whatever you or an employee needs to communicate should fit into this hierarchy. If you can’t address the topic in a DM, then fit it into an email. If it doesn’t fit into an email, then have a quick phone call. All of this should funnel up to your weekly or monthly staff meeting, which is likely the longest staff-wide event on the regular calendar. 

Activate Your Team While They Work Remotely

The bottom line is that managing a remote staff is largely a matter of surrendering the control you got used to in the conventional, in-person workplace. You cannot micromanage your remote staff, and so, it’s up to you to build an environment of trust, support, and productivity. 

We know that one big challenge for business owners when it comes to remote work environments is technology. What tech does your remote staff member need? How do you ensure they have secure access to company files? Is their home network secure enough to trust?

If you need expert assistance, allow us to help. Book a meeting with us to talk further.

Remote, On-Site, Or Hybrid—Which Work Model Is Right For You?

Are you looking into establishing a new work model for your business? Executed correctly, the right work model can come with a lot of advantages.

What’s your business’ current work model? 

Over the past two years, you’ve likely engaged in some degree of remote work for your staff. Going forward, however, you may assume you’re stuck with one of two potential scenarios:

1. Your entire staff returns to work in the office

2. All of your staff continue to work remotely

We want you to know there’s a compromise between the two: hybrid work. It’s a middle ground between the two options and offers you the best of both worlds. 

Striking A Balance Between Remote Work & The Office

The core aspect of the hybrid work model is that it lets you enjoy the benefits offered by remote work without sacrificing your in-office community. 

Employee by employee, one person may prefer remote work, and the other may instead prefer to work in the office. Instead of having everyone fit into one model, you can cater to both sides. 

After all, these two opposing models offer competing advantages. Remote workers have seen a number of key benefits:

• 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home

• 76% of employees prefer to avoid their office completely when they need to concentrate on a project

• 98% of remote workers want to continue to work remotely (at least some of the time) for the rest of their careers

However, for all the ways remote work is beneficial to both the organization and end-users, it’s not without its challenges. A study found that remote workers across the country encountered a series of challenges in their daily work life:

• 19% experience loneliness
• 17% have difficulty communicating and collaborating
• 8% have trouble staying motivated

So how do you reconcile these many pros and cons that come with either option? Compromise with a hybrid work model. Doing so harnesses all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of both choices:

• Employees spend a portion of their work time at home, focusing on key tasks and projects
• The remainder of their hours are in the office, where they are available for meetings and can contribute to a social company culture

That said, it’s not as though hybrid work presents absolutely no obstacles to managers and business owners…

Key Challenges Associated With Hybrid Work

The most important consideration is your technology. Security is a complicated undertaking for work models that include remote work. In fact, 36% of organizations have dealt with a security incident due to an unsecured remote worker.

Continuing with a remote work model, whether entirely or in part, will require:

• Enhancing security measures
• Providing the right hardware for users working permanently from home
• Implementing more permanent file-sharing, collaboration, and communication tools

How To Protect Your Hybrid Business

In optimizing your hybrid working model, make sure to consider the following best practices for your cybersecurity:

Identify Risks

In order to confirm your security capabilities, you need to conduct a cyber risk assessment along with a vulnerability scan of your systems. This will help you identify potential vulnerabilities, and develop the starting blocks to a secure long-term hybrid management plan.

Train Your Staff

As some of your staff will be working from home, it’s more important than ever to ensure they receive proper awareness training. Without proper supervision, they are at greater risk of compromising the security of your business data or falling for phishing scams. Make sure they understand how to maintain business cybersecurity from their home office. 

Deploy Security Measures

Your hybrid environment will require a combination of threat monitoring, firewalls, and antivirus solutions. These defenses will form a comprehensive cybersecurity posture to protect your office network as well as your employees while they work remotely.

Need Expert Assistance Managing Your Hybrid IT Environment?

If you plan to continue with remote work in one way or another, you may need to change your model of IT support. As you and the other C-level executives at your business have likely discovered since the start of the pandemic, your ability to work remotely depends directly on your IT support. 

We can help—we’ve developed extensive experience in helping our partners to launch, optimize and secure remote work capabilities. Now that the mad rush to go remote is over, it’s time to perfect your processes, and you don’t have to do so alone. 

Get in touch with our team today to get started.

3 Reasons I’m Continuing With Remote Work—For Good

While it may be relatively safe enough to bring my entire staff back into the office for full-time work, I don’t plan on doing so. Offering remote positions has lowered my expenses and improved my company culture—find out how below.  

Discovering The Power Of Remote Work 

Regardless of whether or not COVID-19 is over for good, you need to come up with a plan for how your business will operate moving forward. 

Will your entire staff be back at work in the office? Will you maintain your current arrangement of remote jobs? Or could you strike a hybrid arrangement?

There are pros and cons when it comes down to deciding what kind of workforce arrangement might ultimately offer the most benefits versus drawbacks during times like these. However, don’t forget that keeping employees happy helps everyone involved. 

Consider the following: 

• 77% of remote workers report being more productive
• 76% of remote workers would rather avoid the office completely in order to concentrate on their work
• 98% of remote workers want to work remotely long-term for the remainder of their careers

Keep in mind, these aren’t faceless stats either. My staff feels the same way, which begs the question—why not continue with remote work long-term? I know I will.

Businesses are increasingly hiring remote workers, with half of the country working from home even before the pandemic. This means many staff members are working outside of the business’ city of operation and even further away. 

The Benefits Of Remote Work

Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve learned three key lessons about how offering remote work can improve a business:

Grow Your Hiring Pool

Expanding your reach through remote work is not only feasible but also easier said than done. 

The cost of living has steadily risen over the past few years and even more so during pandemic times; that makes hiring (and keeping) talent difficult no matter where you live today.

What’s worse is that even if there happen to be qualified professionals living nearby, they’ll likely move on within just a few short months when faced with higher costs again. This leaves businesses like yours stuck in a cycle of hiring and recruitment. 

By expanding your hiring pool to remote markets, you can hire staff members that won’t have to resign based on changes to your local community’s cost of living. 

Eliminate Office Expenses

The fewer staff members you have in the office, the fewer in-office assets and rental space you’ll require. Over the past few years, my budget for office furniture, miscellaneous equipment, and other in-person amenities has shrunk to nearly zero. 

Now, while some of these finances have been redirected into investing in my remote workers’ home offices, a lot of that cash has been freed up for other purposes altogether. By reducing these unnecessary expenses, I’ve made my budgeting process that much more forgiving. 

Boost Employee Satisfaction

Almost everyone that works for me has reported a general boost in satisfaction since switching to remote work. They don’t have to commute, they don’t have to pack a lunch, and they don’t have to spend nearly as much on gas. 

That said, it’s important to recognize that some staff members preferred the in-office environment. That’s why, on a case-by-case basis, we’ve arranged for hybrid working arrangements for those that prefer them. Furthermore, I’ve had to be intentional in planning in-person social events and other activities to keep the social side of our company culture engaged. 

Don’t Throw Away Your Investment In Remote Work

You’ve spent the last two or three years learning how to run a company remotely—why let that experience go to waste just to bring your staff back into the office?

With the right strategy, remote work can be an important part of your organization’s long-term success. However, it needs to be done correctly from the start with a plan that includes how employees will interact and collaborate remotely, in both a secure and productive manner. 

My team and I can help—over the course of the pandemic, we developed direct experience in helping our partners to launch, optimize and secure remote work capabilities.

Remote, On-Site, Or Hybrid—Which Work Model Is Right For You?

Are you looking into establishing a new work model for your business? Executed correctly, the right work model can come with a lot of advantages.

What’s your business’ current work model? 

Over the past two years, you’ve likely engaged in some degree of remote work for your staff. Going forward, however, you may assume you’re stuck with one of two potential scenarios:

1. Your entire staff returns to work in the office
2. All of your staff continue to work remotely

We want you to know there’s a compromise between the two: hybrid work. It’s a middle ground between the two options and offers you the best of both worlds. 

Striking A Balance Between Remote Work & The Office

The core aspect of the hybrid work model is that it lets you enjoy the benefits offered by remote work without sacrificing your in-office community. 

Employee by employee, one person may prefer remote work, and the other may instead prefer to work in the office. Instead of having everyone fit into one model, you can cater to both sides. 

After all, these two opposing models offer competing advantages. Remote workers have seen a number of key benefits:

• 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home
• 76% of employees prefer to avoid their office completely when they need to concentrate on a project
• 98% of remote workers want to continue to work remotely (at least some of the time) for the rest of their careers

However, for all the ways remote work is beneficial to both the organization and end-users, it’s not without its challenges. A study found that remote workers across the country encountered a series of challenges in their daily work life:

• 19% experience loneliness
• 17% have difficulty communicating and collaborating
• 8% have trouble staying motivated

So how do you reconcile these many pros and cons that come with either option? Compromise with a hybrid work model. Doing so harnesses all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of both choices:

• Employees spend a portion of their work time at home, focusing on key tasks and projects
• The remainder of their hours are in the office, where they are available for meetings and can contribute to a social company culture

That said, it’s not as though hybrid work presents absolutely no obstacles to managers and business owners…

Key Challenges Associated With Hybrid Work

The most important consideration is your technology. Security is a complicated undertaking for work models that include remote work. In fact, 36% of organizations have dealt with a security incident due to an unsecured remote worker.

Continuing with a remote work model, whether entirely or in part, will require:

• Enhancing security measures
• Providing the right hardware for users working permanently from home
• Implementing more permanent file-sharing, collaboration, and communication tools

How To Protect Your Hybrid Business

In optimizing your hybrid working model, make sure to consider the following best practices for your cybersecurity:

Identify Risks

In order to confirm your security capabilities, you need to conduct a cyber risk assessment along with a vulnerability scan of your systems. This will help you identify potential vulnerabilities, and develop the starting blocks to a secure long-term hybrid management plan.

Train Your Staff

As some of your staff will be working from home, it’s more important than ever to ensure they receive proper awareness training. Without proper supervision, they are at greater risk of compromising the security of your business data or falling for phishing scams. Make sure they understand how to maintain business cybersecurity from their home office. 

Deploy Security Measures

Your hybrid environment will require a combination of threat monitoring, firewalls, and antivirus solutions. These defenses will form a comprehensive cybersecurity posture to protect your office network as well as your employees while they work remotely.

Need Expert Assistance Managing Your Hybrid IT Environment?

If you plan to continue with remote work in one way or another, you may need to change your model of IT support. As you and the other C-level executives at your business have likely discovered since the start of the pandemic, your ability to work remotely depends directly on your IT support. 

We can help—we’ve developed extensive experience in helping our partners to launch, optimize and secure remote work capabilities. Now that the mad rush to go remote is over, it’s time to perfect your processes, and you don’t have to do so alone. 

Get in touch with our team today to get started.