August 2021

Opening unknown links can be a risk factor for your business and staff. As a result, more and more business owners have incorporated fake link prevention strategies into their security training. We’ve come up with a few tips to help ensure that your staff members have the critical information on how to spot fake links. This training can help prevent hackers from gaining access to your business. In cases like this, it is better to be proactive rather than reactive after a breach.

How to Spot Fake Links: Brief Staff Security Training Guidance

If you have been considering covering bogus links with your staff security training, you’ll want to consider the following how to spot fake link prevention tips. These security training tips will help to give your staff the tools they need to stay safe and protected against the dangers posed by malicious links.

Staff Security Training Tip #1: Check URLs Before Following Them

One important tip for your staff as part of their security training is to check all URLs. A URL is the web address that you follow when you click a link. A common trick used by hackers to make the URL seem authentic is to use a similar URL mimicking a legitimate website.

For example, one switch would be disguising bogus links by changing the website name from ‘example-site.com’ to example_site.com.’ This tiny change often goes unnoticed but could lead to your staff getting caught by a fake link.

Here are more examples:

If you regularly deal with Amazon, you’ll notice that their URLs look like these:

orders@amazon.com, service@amazon.com, or membership@amazon.com

But bogus URLs will look like these:

hurry@amazon-$75.com, buddy79@my_amazon.com, or service@amazon-helpmenow.com

Often, the URL won’t contain the name of the sender at all. You may see URLs like these:

clickhere@davisneedsshoes.org, holographic_iris@$9di4!wow.net

Question any link that seems out of place. If your staff doesn’t check these carefully, it can be easy to fall into a trap.

As part of this staff security tip, make sure they’re aware to check both the name of the link and check where the hyperlink goes. Hackers can easily disguise malicious links as legitimate links by using a website name as the anchor text. But, instead of taking you to the legitimate website, the link redirects you to a fake site. Luckily, checking the destination of a hyperlink is easy, especially on computers; simply right click and you’ll get an option to see or edit the hyperlink.

Staff Security Training Tip #2: Don’t Open Unknown Emails

A second crucial tip is to ensure that your staff does not open unknown emails. For many people, this is not easy to do. After all, how can you tell whether a sender is legitimate or not? It’s easy to understand why this is so difficult. Some people struggle to decide whether the contact details for a firm are legitimate addresses or not. Luckily, we have a few tips for this.

Firstly, for text messages and telephone contacts, look up the telephone number from the source. A quick search will often give you the information you need to know. Most companies will have these numbers listed on their website’s contact details. Alternatively, if the phone number is not legitimate, many sites now exist to display shady phone numbers; as such, searching the phone number alone may be enough information to help you decide if the text was legitimate.

As part of checking a sender’s identity, you can also search for a specific email address to see if any information comes up. Most companies will have their contact email addresses displayed on their website. Check If the email address in question is on the website so you can confirm that the links are legitimate. If the exact email address does not appear on the website, you should question its authenticity.

If you struggle to find the correct information directly from a search, don’t be afraid to contact the company in question. Most companies are more than happy to help if it means preventing a scam from occurring in their name.

Checking the legitimacy of the phone number or email address is one of the best ways to check whether a link is legitimate or fake. Ensure that your staff knows to do this for any communication containing a link.

Staff Security Training Tip #3: Get the Best IT Support and Antivirus Software

As a third and final tip for your security training, we cannot stress the importance of good anti-malware and antivirus solutions highly enough. Having these in place and installed on all of your devices can provide a good security backup. This practice is vital in case someone accidentally follows an illegitimate link that tries to download harmful software.

Antivirus software is highly affordable nowadays and doesn’t take long to set up in your office. If you have any questions about this, contact us today. We will help you find the best antivirus software for your needs, as well as offer training to your staff.

In our latest series of blogs, we’ve talked about how the Covid-19 pandemic provided us with an ideal opportunity for shifting the workforce. Let’s take a look at what we’ve learned!

Back to work supplies

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we run our businesses. There have been some advances that perhaps wouldn’t have happened for decades without it, if at all. IT equipment and software is the first thing that springs to mind when we think of advancements in the workspace. Thanks to the need for remote working, we’ve now got a whole host of collaborative conference room technology to help us in this new working world. Conference room webcams, interactive whiteboards, and noise-canceling headsets are all things that have developed in the last year or so. For businesses returning to the office or a hybrid working scenario, these items are now necessities. It’s not just technology that employers are considering. Many employees have relished the chance to work from home in comfort, so many employers are now attempting to mimic the home environment with soft furnishings, plants, and refreshments. Also, relaxing the dress codes is a great way to shift the workforce back to the office. After all, it’s likely that employees have been just as productive in their sweats and t-shirts.

Overcoming workplace distractions

Our second blog in the series focused on avoiding distractions in the workplace. Whether an employee works remotely, in the office, or a mixture of the two, they will likely experience many distractions. There are ways employers can prevent workplace distractions, and it’s a great idea to look at working environments. Are they clutter-free, organized, and quiet? If not, employers have lots of ways they can make them so. Providing employees with noise-canceling headsets is a good idea for both the office worker and the remote worker. Distractions online can also be a problem. There are many programs now that block these popular sites during working hours. However, one vital step is to ensure that there is mutual trust and respect with colleagues. Never underestimate the power of a strong working relationship.

Workplace culture reboot

The post-Covid-19 return to the office provides the ideal opportunity for employers to shift their workforce towards a culture reboot. It’s a great time to introduce new concepts and practices and engrain them into the day-to-day life of the business. Our third blog post in the series looked at what employers might consider about their company culture and the importance of creating a positive workspace. Some ideas included having a healthy snack bar, incorporating daily team huddles, investing in team building, and empowering the staff.

Final thoughts

While there have been so many negatives over the past months, having something positive to focus on, like shifting your workforce culture, can do wonders for your business and employees alike. We hope you try to make things more positive for everyone. We hope these tips are helping you run your office more efficiently. And, as always, if there is ever anything you need help with, contact us, and let’s discuss some solutions. We’re here to help.

With the many changes that have occurred since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent crisis, employers are facing crucial decisions on how to shift their workforce into a new workplace culture reboot. This is the ideal time for looking at what we’ve learned over the past year. It’s an opportunity to focus on inclusion and diversity, and to create a positive workspace.

Creating a positive workspace with a cultural reboot

When talking about an organization, we often think of the company ‘culture’ as the ways in which things are done. The culture embodies the company’s values, vision, habits and norms that drive workers’ behaviour during their daily tasks. Lots of work habits have shifted since the first quarter of 2020. Some companies have now made a great workplace culture reboot. As we all move towards a new definition of what constitutes a workplace – office and home – it’s the perfect opportunity to look at what employees need to get their jobs done.

Workplace culture reboot element considerations

When you make the decision to reset your company culture, there are many things you can consider:

Organizational purpose and strategy – re-confirm your company’s vision and mission post-Covid-19. Is there anything that needs to change? Do the behaviours and values pre-pandemic still serve their purpose or do they need adjusting?

Behaviours and values – what do you want your working environment to look like? How will you measure and define it? Is there anything that needs to be changed in this new environment and time?

Core systems and processes – with remote working, how have your processes and operations changed? Are there any systems or structures that can be improved to help embrace the differences between employees? How could your financial, operational and HR procedures be adjusted to meet your employees’ needs better? Is there a need for greater flexibility in working hours or places?

Recognition and motivation – Have you learned anything about the motivation and needs of your employees since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic? How can employees’ needs be dealt with by managers and supervisors to open a relationship built on trust?

Employee input and engagement – how can your employees provide input into your company operations? Are there adequate ways they can give feedback? Recently, The Grossman Group ran a survey that found almost half of people who are working from home want to continue doing so after the pandemic. Not all people enjoy remote working, though, and many seek a flexible working arrangement. Being flexible can help employees be more engaged and committed in their work.

Cultural resilience – when deciding on a reboot, think about how much resilience you can build into the team. A more resilient team will be able to adapt easily whenever changes arise. According to a report by Gallup, to be resilient when the going gets tough, businesses need to make sure their employees have everything they need to work as best they can. It’s also vital to show them how their work is part of the bigger picture.

Simple ways of creating a positive workplace

As well as looking at the wider organizational structures and processes, there are some really simple ways of creating a positive workplace for a cultural reboot. Here are some ideas:

Have a healthy snack bar – Many people have suffered from their eating habits during the Covid-19 pandemic and are keen to get back on track. Having a healthy snack bar will not only be appreciated by colleagues but will mean they are ready to tackle their work with adequate nutrition behind them.

Team huddles – having a short morning meeting that is no longer than 15 minutes is a great way of starting the day. It’s simple and repetitive and gets people motivated and on task ready to start their day.

Team building – when your teams have a great relationship, everything else will fall into place. Consider investing in team-building sessions to ensure there are positive working relationships with team members of all levels. When you get on with people and respect them, you’re more likely to work harder!

Staff empowerment – employees will work better with less micromanagement. Hand tasks and responsibilities over and see how they turn out! Another way to empower staff is to give them the opportunity to contribute. Creating an open forum for suggestions is a great way of ensuring employees feel heard.

Use lunch & learns – these are perfect opportunities for voluntary, informal conversations and learning opportunities amongst employees. They bring people together in a casual, low-stakes way.

Company-wide games – don’t forget to have fun! Create a positive workplace by having regularly scheduled company-wide games or quizzes.

Whatever the reasons behind your cultural reboot, the post-Covid-19 pandemic return to work is the ideal opportunity to embrace new practices. If you have any questions about getting a workplace culture reboot, contact us today. We are here to help.

It’s fair to say that everyone gets a little distracted at work from time to time. Even with intentions not to procrastinate, it can be a real challenge to stay on task. It can seem almost impossible to avoid distractions. According to statistics, workplace distractions account for a sizeable loss in productivity. Typically, a manager has an interruption every 8 minutes. Also, employees will spend around 28% of their working time dealing with unnecessary interruptions. So, how can we work towards preventing workplace distractions? Let’s take a look at some strategies to reclaim focus. We’ll also look into the different distractions that can be problematic for remote workers and those in the office environment.

How to be distraction-free from your workplace

Having good habits and sticking to them is one strategy for eliminating distractions. Start by focusing on your working environment. Encourage employees working from home to organize their home office so that there are few temptations to get stuck on something other than work. This task isn’t easy, however. Given that most people rely on computers for work, it is easy to be distracted by non-work-related sites. It might be wise to consider using an app that blocks certain websites during working hours.

For employees in shared offices or shared home working spaces, closing doors or using noise-canceling headsets can be helpful. Another idea is to put your phone somewhere out of reach and put it on silent mode. For those employees in open offices, it might be a good idea to try and move to somewhere quieter. Some studies show that workers in open offices report more distractions than those working in more isolated areas.

Averting workplace distractions for remote workers

Given the rise in remote working, many people who managed to work in an office environment without distractions have found themselves with distractions they have never encountered before.

For employees who shifted to work from home during the pandemic, many were distracted by their children. Some workers had to be full-time or part-time childcare at the same time as holding down their job. Thankfully, childcare has resumed, so remote workers are more ‘alone’ when working remotely. This fix doesn’t, however, mean that distractions have vanished.

Many people working from home have partners who look after young children, so the distractions or potential for distractions remain. Other distractions include realizing some jobs need doing around the house, like laundry or cooking, pets, partners popping in for a quick chat, unexpected visitors, and parcel deliveries.

One solution to preventing workplace distractions is making it clear to others at home that disruptions aren’t welcome. A simple ‘do not disturb’ sign might do the trick when paired with a noise-canceling headset.

Preventing distractions from your office work

After reading the above section about remote working, it might be easy to think that remote workers are more distracted than office workers. This idea isn’t the case, however. According to Airtasker, remote employees are more productive than office employees and are less distracted. So, what is distracting our office workers?

More often than not, it is other employees that cause distractions for office workers. Co-workers who come over for quick chats, phone calls, Microsoft Teams messaging, Google Workspace, or even emails will all slow down employees. Other non-work-related distractions include switching over to check social media, time management, and even chatting in the breakroom.

Some solutions that help to prevent these include:

Ensure employees are aware of workplace etiquette when it comes to talking to colleagues. Be sure they know your thoughts on how much chatting is allowed about non-work-related topics.

Have communication policies in place with regards to emails and reply turnaround time.

Consider using software to block certain websites that might cause distractions (like social media)

Have a telephone policy in place so everyone knows your expectations when using personal phones at their desks.

Teach your employees how to organize and mute notifications in Teams, M365, etc.

Hold regular, but not too many, team meetings and discuss distractions and how to overcome them. It’s possible that there are communication issues that will never be resolved unless they’re brought to your attention.

Final thoughts on preventing workplace distractions

While you cannot prevent distractions altogether, there are things you can do to help your employees stay on task. Don’t underestimate the importance of having an open working relationship built on mutual trust and respect. Many employees work their best when they’re trusted to complete their work without micromanagement. In a trusted environment, they might find themselves more focused on their work as a result. If you have any questions about shifting your current workplace, contact us today. We are here to help.

With the world slowly seeing things get back to work in the traditional sense (as opposed to remotely), workplaces are refreshing their back-to-work supplies and procedures. The Covid-19 pandemic has been catastrophic. It has also meant changes as to how we view work and the work environment. Never before have we had so many people working remotely with such success, and it’s argued that a hybrid workforce might remain in the future. We’ve all seen the news stories about remote workers quitting instead of returning to the office. This new trend needs attention. Companies owe it to employees who do a great job remotely to listen to their concerns about returning to the office. This task is not an easy task. In this week’s blog, we will bring awareness to this subject. And, for those returning to office spaces, what back-to-work supplies do we need to consider?

Back to work supplies for the conference room

One shift we’ve seen has been an increase in the use of technology to allow employees to work remotely. The pandemic motivated people to work tirelessly on creating new platforms, improve existing platforms, and invest in new technologies. There are many new collaboration tools available that are useful. One such invention is conference room technology like a webcam that follows the speaker. A conference room webcam is very different from a standard home webcam. Typically, the whole conference room can participate as the camera can capture any speaker thanks to its cameras that pan through 360°. This device makes for an excellent collaborative conference room with people participating both in-person and remotely. Another great tool is an interactive whiteboard. This board works the same way as a regular whiteboard, but the writing is shareable collaboratively. They’re essentially large-scale touch screen computers used by teachers in school classrooms. They’re now finding their place in collaborative conference rooms too.

Technology and working with others

Many remote employees have forgotten just how distracting a work environment can be. With phone calls, office conversations, noisy printers, and photocopiers, the work environment is a noisy one. One great idea for back-to-work supplies is buying noise-canceling headsets for the workforce. These headsets will help people as they reacclimate to being in a noisier environment while working again. These will also help when people are having conference calls in open spaces while on Teams or Zoom. Just because people are coming back into the office doesn’t mean conference calls are a thing of the past. It’s likely for these to continue. They probably have a permanent place in our work-life going forward. Typically, at home, most people had little background noise. In the office, people have to navigate their calls with lots of background noise.

Back to work supplies that mimic the home environment

While there were some teething problems with remote working, there were many positive aspects of working from home. To continue these benefits and to ease workers back to their desks, it might be a good idea to source back to work supplies that mimic home environments. Soft furnishings, plants, refreshments, etc., will all help to achieve this.

Other practices for shifting your workforce forwards

One idea is to allow dogs in the workplace. This choice comes with lots of consideration and planning. But, it’s been great for many remote workers over the last 12 months. Having a pet close by definitely has benefits. There’s been an increase in loungewear sales over the past year. This surge is due to people working from home and embracing comfier attire. As you ease back into the office, perhaps consider relaxing the dress code somewhat. If productivity hasn’t been affected by home working attire, are suits and jackets needed for your workspace?

Enjoy your Free Time

Finally, we must not underestimate the importance of work-life balance. What many have enjoyed about working at home is the lack of commute. This time-saver has undoubtedly improved work-life balance. It might be beneficial to structure a workforce schedule that works well for everybody. Ideas such as hybrid working and flexible working hours are considerations. We hope these tips help you transition remote employees back into the office a little more smoothly. If you need to upgrade or install new technology for this process, give us a call. We’re here to make things easier for you!