How To Make Your Employees Feel Safe And Confident At The Workplace
Workplace security concerns such as employee negligence, external threats and data leakage are significant concerns for business executives and technology experts. Statistics show that human factors contribute to the most data breaches leaving 68% of top business executives concerned about their business security risks. Daily global business security headlines concern most IT professionals, just as millennial employees suggest personal security as significant workplace stress. Why not consider these tips to make your employees feel safe on the job?
- Encourage honest communication
Your employees should feel free to voice out their thoughts, opinions and suggestions. Encourage a workplace culture where your working teams know it is okay to speak up and be heard. For this reason, it would be helpful to consider ways to enable your staff to make their thoughts heard immediately and figure out opportunities to do more without any fear. It is common to see today’s businesses preaching an honest, open communication culture, although only a few get to walk the talk.
With many managers discouraging dissenting opinions, employees are forced to toe the line and act according to their bosses even when there are better ways to deliver on the job. This doesn’t only affect employee motivation but obstructs staff development, productivity and efficiency.
- Train your employees
Employers recognise the chances of risks and the need for security training, yet only a few equip their employees with the necessary skills to avert or handle it. It is helpful to make your employees appreciate why they should lock computer screens when they move away from their desks, create strong passwords, and other safety procedures during an evacuation. Keep them informed on areas inaccessible to guests and how to recognise company guest badges. It also helps to train your staff on who to notify when a security concern or threat is.
- Secure your employees private or personal information
A study has shown that one in every four Australians has suffered some form of identity crime. Identity crime serves as a foundation for many other crimes, such as fraud. Therefore, it is vital to take proper steps to secure your customer identities and your working teams. It is common practice to see your staff writing down sensitive information like credit card details on documents. Like with your sensitive client information, consider secure document destruction to prevent confidential information from falling into the wrong hands. Additionally, document and paper shredding and document destruction are cost-effective and easily ensure document destruction policy compliance.
- Emphasise community safety importance
It is one thing to develop new security measures and guidelines for your workers, and another when you’re not ensuring strict compliance, or even better, allowing your employees to adapt their strategies. It is best to provide training materials and communicate clearly to all your working teams. Eventually, one way for ensuring everyone feels safe is to point out their actions and how it positively or adversely affects them and the entire workplace community. Ensuring everyone follows the agreed-upon guidelines and procedures will provide the proper safe atmosphere for your staff.