Can Your Business Handle A Disaster?

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Business Disaster|Can Your Business Handle A Disaster?Mother Nature is a fearless beast. She throws fire, blows wind and sends floods, and we have to be ready for it all. Depending on where you are located, you may face one or all of these different natural disasters and if you aren’t careful, you could lose your business because of them. Currently, we are living in a pandemic, and your business needs to be able to handle any disaster that Mother Nature throws at it. With the right protection in place, you keep both your employees and your data as safe as possible.

Data recovery is one of the most important elements to consider when you decide whether your business can handle a disaster. Not only do you need to ensure that you are keeping your data regularly saved, but you need to be able to get it all back to be able to recover your business properly. Keeping your business going through a crisis is important, so here are some of the ways that you can keep it all going.

  • Create A Communication Plan. Before a huge storm, a flood or a fire occur, we usually have some kind of warning. If your business is located somewhere that is prone to natural disasters, you will likely be aware of the rate of fires, floods and tornadoes that occur. You have to have a communication plan in place to interact with your employees. You need to know which channels you’ll use for communication, whether that is email, live chat, video chat or text message. Information that you share with your employees will include news resources and delays that are expected on public transport. You need a plan to keep talking to your team in the event of a crisis and you should have this in place so that everyone is aware of what to do when a disaster happens.
  • Do Better with Your Digital Presence. Too little information that’s outdated is going to cause confusion. You need to ensure that your employees are up to date with their online profiles and your website should remain up to date, too. You need to have a way for customers to contact you at all times, even when a disaster has wiped out your physical office. They still need to know how to get in touch with you and this is what will help your business to continue no matter what happens.
  • Interact With Customers Better. When you talk to your customers in the wake of a disaster, you need to strike the right tone so that they know you are still available to provide the right service. They also deserve to know that their information is safe. Communicating with customers during a crisis is important, as these customers are the ones providing you with continued business. If you would communicate with staff effectively, you need to do the same with your customers, too!

Take the time to put a business disaster plan in place, and you will be able to take on anything with regard to your business and careful recovery.

How to build a carefully considered health and safety strategy for your business

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Health and Safety|How to build a carefully considered health and safety strategy for your businessIt is estimated that you will spend more of your time in your place of work than in your own home. Considering this, it is likely that you and your colleagues will experience accidents and mishaps at some point. Health and safety issues can become costly for your business, in terms of both awarding monetary compensation and also potentially being damaging to your reputation; therefore, it is important that you craft a thorough health and safety strategy for your employees to follow. Here is a short guide to how to build a carefully considered health and safety strategy for your business.

1. Identify specific issues and try to rectify them

First and foremost, identify any health and safety issues that could potentially affect your business and employees. These might be easy to spot; if your business manufactures goods, for instance, obvious health and safety issues would be raised around using heavy machinery safely. Once identified, try to come up with solutions that could be put into place immediately. For example, safety eyewear and ear protection should be required when using machinery in a manufacturing environment. Other health and safety issues might not be so obvious, however, especially if your business is office based with no clear hazards. Nevertheless, your employees might be susceptible to such issues as eye strain from using screens for prolonged periods without a break. Furthermore, people working in all industries could potentially develop work related stress if an effective work-life balance is not implemented.

2. Ensure that you have a well-stocked and comprehensive first aid kit

From painful papercuts to trapped fingers, minor accidents are a part of life and are likely to be experienced in your place of work. Therefore, it is important that you have a first aid kit on hand that is easily accessible and well-stocked – no one wants to have the nasty discovery that there are no bandaids to cover a painful cut. As well as standard first aid items like bandaids, Tylenol, and antiseptic wipes, you should also make sure that you are prepared for any medical emergency that your business may experience. This might include first aid items particularly relevant to your business, such as treatment for chemical burns. Visit rapid-rescue.com.au for more information about first aid and medical equipment for your business.

3. Provide training for all employees

It is no use having a well-stocked first aid kit if none of your employees know how to respond to a crisis; it is therefore imperative that you provide health and safety training to all of your employees, and ensure that these skills are regularly updated. CPR and first aid training will provide your employees with the skills and confidence needed to immediately respond to a crisis. Develop an evacuation procedure for your place of work and make sure that you practice this at least every six months to ensure that your employees are evacuated safely in the event of a crisis.

How To Protect Your Business

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When you own a business, you need to know how to protect it. There are threats that could damage it – and you – from all directions, including cybercrime, lawsuits, and contract issues among many more. By putting some of these ideas into practice, you can give yourself an added layer of protection that could save you a lot of worry and money in the long run. Read on to find out more.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | How To Protect Your Business

Be Wary Of Social Media

Social media can be great for business; it’s the ideal way to connect with more of your target audience, and you can advertise very cheaply – if you post the right kind of post that captures people’s imagination, you might even go viral and essentially advertise for free.

But just as social media can be wonderful for your business, boosting it much further and giving it greater reach than any other method could, it can also be dangerous. Anything you say online will be archived for all time, and sometimes it can even be taken completely out of context and used against you, and this is especially true if it’s a business account posting.

When using social media, always think twice about what you’re about to say, and if it could be taken the wrong way, think again. In the worst cases when your reputation has been attached through social media, you can hire reputation management services to help you regain your good name.

Train Your Employees

No matter how much you know not to open email attachments from strangers or to click on links that look suspicious, your employees might not, and it’s vital that they are trained to understand more about online safety because it’s all part of protecting your business. Don’t just assume that they know what to do and what the best practices are; ask them outright.

To be completely sure, even if most people are aware of what to do, it’s still a good idea to implement regular training on the issue. The more they know, the more they’ll notice, and the more protected your business will be.

Destroy Your Data Properly

All businesses are going to have some form of confidential data or sensitive information in their files somewhere. Whether it’s customers’ address details or credit card numbers, or the company’s own bank accounts, if any of this information were to get into the wrong hands, it could spell disaster for you, either because your finances could be compromised, or because the information could be used to steal your customers’ identities.

If you have this information on paper, make sure you destroy it properly when you need to – shred it, rather than simply throw it in the trash. If it’s digitally stored, make sure you destroy the information completely rather than just deleting it because a cybercriminal will be able to restore it and use it for their own illegal needs.

Using the cloud is going to help in most cases with this issue. The information will be securely stored, so you’ll be able to access it whenever you need to, and no one else will be able to find it.

Keeping Your IT Systems Safe

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |IT Systems|Keeping Your IT Systems SafeBoth small businesses and large corporations are vulnerable to data breaches and cyber-attacks. Small businesses are more vulnerable because they don’t have enough resources to set up high-tech security systems to keep their data and IT systems safe.

But there are ways around this. If you are on a shoestring budget and cannot afford to get a security system for your business, here some practical ways you can protect your data and keep your IT systems safe and secure.

Keep your remote collaborations secure

Team messaging apps have become an integral part of our day-to-day business operations. They have simplified the way people transact businesses by providing intuitive collaboration tools that make communication and information sharing easy. Messaging apps like Slack and Mattermost are at the forefront of remote collaboration. These apps enable companies to manage projects and internal teams easily and effectively.

As for security, when you compare Slack vs Mattermost, the latter offers an array of features to help protect your business from data breaches. Mattermost is an open-source app that you can install on an on-premise server giving control over who can access information. Since it gives your complete control over your information and data, this can help minimize the risk of data breaches.

Use strong and unique passwords

Make sure all your employees use strong and unique passwords. Don’t use your name or date of birth as a password as they are easy to guess. Create a password that has a combination of letters, symbols, and digits, and make sure it has more than eight characters long.

If you are going to find it difficult to remember the password, write it down in a notebook or use a password manager.

Secure your Wi-Fi

Many small businesses don’t have the necessary resources to secure their network. This makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

To minimizes the risk of external entities hacking into your network, make sure that every device you use at work for connecting to the internet is secure. This includes routers, smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

Install an antivirus

Antivirus software can help prevent data breaches and protect your computer systems from getting hacked. Many antivirus programs come with free plans, which offer some level of security for your data. It would be advisable to pay for a premium plan, as it includes advanced security features that keep your data and systems safe.

Control access to systems

You need to control who has access to your data and information. If you are a large company, you need to limit access by department. You cannot have employees from different departments accessing all the company data, as this can lead to data breaches.

If you are a small company, you can limit access to specific individuals. It is also important to make sure that if someone no longer works for you that you disable their access to all your electronic systems.

Takeaway Point

Securing your IT systems ensures that all your company data is safe. If you cannot afford a high-tech security system, take other steps to ensure that your systems are protected from outside attacks.

What Is A Data Protection Policy? Can It Be Beneficial?

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Data Protection Policy|What Is A Data Protection Policy? Can It Be Beneficial?Navigating in the digital world is a journey full of learning. Thanks to the numerous digital tools and solutions available today, businesses can achieve their goals faster and more efficiently. However, as a business owner, you must be cautious when using information systems. Along with the advantages of these online solutions are their disadvantages—some of which are data loss and theft. When using these online services and software, your data might be at risk.

Because of potential online and offline security threats to your business, it’s essential to set up your information technology (IT) team dedicated to data privacy and security. By arranging a data protection network inside your company, you can lower your company’s vulnerability to security crises today and in the future.

What makes data privacy and security significant? What could happen if a company isn’t able to protect its data? In this article, you’ll explore how you can level up your business security by establishing a data protection policy. You’ll discover how this policy can benefit your business or organization.

Importance of Data Privacy and Security

A simple click on the internet can leave significant digital footprints about your organization. Since it’s in the business’s nature to negotiate with consumers and investors, companies can obtain personal information from people they transact with. Still, they should keep these pieces of information confidential.

After meeting a stranger for the first time, bet you wouldn’t entrust them with your accurate personal information. You’ll only disclose more information about yourself as you develop more profound connections with people. The same goes for organizations. It’s the company’s responsibility to ensure data privacy by managing how data is collected, used, and stored. Likewise, it needs to establish data security to protect business data from internal and external attackers or any loss that could lead to the company’s downfall.

What Is A Data Protection Policy?

Essentially, a data protection policy defines how your company will protect the confidential, personal data of every individual involved in the organization. Personal data may include any information related to an identifiable person such as:

  • Name, address, and contact information
  • Online identifiers
  • Health information, records, and documents
  • Bank and credit card details
  • Employment information

Data protection policy shouldn’t be interchanged with ‘Privacy Policy’ and ‘Privacy Notice.’ While a privacy policy or notice explains how users’ data will be used, the data protection policy involves guidelines, rules, and principles that notify individuals on their protection coverage according to data protection laws.

Benefits of Implementing A Data Protection Policy

While smaller companies tend to overlook their data protection, it’s them that will be most vulnerable if they don’t recognize its importance immediately. Protecting your organization’s data with the data protection policy should be your top priority, especially during the first few years of your business, as it’ll help you reap these primary benefits:

1. Safeguard Your Company From Online Hackers

Digital threats can come from both inside or outside of your company. As most cyberattacks are unexpected, your organization can stay vigilant 24/7 from potential attackers with the help of a data protection policy. Aside from protecting your company’s data, implementing cybersecurity policies protects your businesses from costly data breaches and cyberattacks.

Employees are most vulnerable to online attacks as they travel from websites to attachments, share passwords, bypass encryption, and other small actions that may put them and the company’s safety at risk. Spreading security awareness among your employees is a crucial aspect of the data protection policy.

2. Offer Peace of Mind To Employees and Customers

As a loyal customer, what would you feel if you’ve recently discovered that one of your trusted brands hasn’t established a strong data protection policy yet? Of course, you’ll feel worried that anyone can easily access your confidential information, and worse, take advantage of it to cause you or other people harm.

Establishing a data protection policy on your company gives your customers and employees peace of mind that their information is always kept secure and private. While there’s an uncertainty that their data can’t be compromised in the future, having a data protection policy prevents or lessens the damage inflicted by any potential data breach.

3. Increase Customer Engagement and Trust

Companies that have had security issues now look less appealing to customers and investors. Sixty-five percent of 4,500 consumers indicated that they wouldn’t transact with businesses with a data breach history. These consumers also feel that only 50% of companies they negotiate with take data privacy and security seriously.

Therefore, if you’re a company with well-established data protection policies and haven’t had any data security issues before, customers are more likely to be involved in your brand offers. This gives you an edge against brand competitors.

Takeaway

In this technological age, businesses and organizations should always prioritize managing their data. While these data are mere combinations of letters, numbers, and figures, they hold an unparalleled value to your company. Entrepreneurs should understand that data integrity isn’t a burden to their plate and acknowledge it as an important element to drive business growth and success.