Small businesses must monitor and police the IT-related policies of their workplace and network infrastructure, but this can be a challenging prospect. It’s critically important that companies aggressively protect their assets, data, and reputation from factors that could affect or threaten them. How can you ensure you are doing all you can to keep your organization safe through policy and procedure?
Here are three tips that stand out in regard to policing your IT policies and procedures, and they all have to do with the effective use of company technology.
Work Toward Clarity and Transparency
If you want employees to follow your IT policies, they need to be aware that they exist and they need to understand why they exist. This calls for transparency and clarity, both of which ensure that an employee can either learn more about policies as they relate to your company network or ask for help if they need to know more. Everyone should know and understand your policies, whether they are employees, management, technicians, or stakeholders in your business.
Monitor and Audit Company Devices and Accounts
Whether you like it or not, you will have to use technology to monitor your employees’ devices and ensure that no harmful or wasteful content finds its way onto your organization’s network… or your employee web browsers. You can use a Unified Threat Management tool, or UTM, to block certain types of harmful or wasteful content from your company network. You can also whitelist and blacklist various websites and applications on the user level, allowing you to control the behaviors of problem employees to a certain extent without limiting the rest of your staff.
Educate Your Employees on Its Importance
If you don’t take the time to explain to your employees why they should adhere to your policies and procedures, then they aren’t going to comply because they will just be seen as arbitrary rules. This will only make policing more frustrating for everyone involved. Be sure to train your team in an effective way to ensure they understand and acknowledge the importance of policing your network. Provide training materials through an ongoing process to emphasize that your organization is implementing the policies for the good of network security, not just because it wants to.
Governing IT is Everyone’s Responsibility to Some Degree
Whether you are an employee, an IT administrator, or a member of management, everyone must adhere to IT policies and enforce them to some degree during the workday. We can help you make it easier by working with Compudata. To learn more, call us today at 1-855-405-8889.