5 Safety Tips that Impact Business

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Safety Tips|5 Safety Tips that Impact BusinessImplementing subpar safety regulations in a workplace does not mean saving a lot of money in the business. Rather, it reflects a future problem that may affect the entire people involved in it. Failure to regularly enforce safety standards could lead to some consequences such as reduced productivity, fines, and worker compensation claims.

As a business owner, you do not have to worry about making major changes in the safety measures within the company. There are a few simple safety tips that can make an impact to you, your employees, and even your business partners.

1.Safety Protocols

The first thing to do at work is to implement workplace safety protocols. This means that you should introduce safety regulations from day one. Hire professionals who have expertise in this matter. Seek advice from experienced business owners. Some employers even communicate with a physical therapist to understand all the physical demands of job roles within the company.

2. Cleanliness and Orderliness

An untidy working environment can cause unnecessary accidents. Make sure that everything is placed where they are supposed to be. Check if all boxes are well-stacked, watch out for spills and clean them immediately.

From office supplies to cleaning tools, they should be in proper places and kept in an organized manner. Regular inspections are a must since they help spot potential dangers like messy floors, disorganized tools, and tangled cords.

3. Communication Regarding Safety

This is one of the most important safety tips that many startup business owners miss in the process of implementing safety regulations at work. You should encourage your employees to communicate about safety without hesitation.

There are many ways to do so – a suggestion box, pre-shift huddles, or end-of-the-week summary. Think over what works effectively for the team. You can reinforce safety cultures by conducting awareness and proper training for equipment handling, near-injury misses, identified hazards, and other specific incidences.

4. Providing The Right Tools

As an employer, you should know what tools and equipment your team needs. Providing proper tools and equipment helps achieve a safer working space and better production. However, it does not end there. Make sure that these things are serviced, inspected and clean regularly. You would not want to deal with machine malfunctions and workplace hazards.

5. Regular Meetings

Conduct regular meetings that tackle safety in your workplace. When it comes to safety, you should not worry about awareness and readiness. During your meetings, perform a brief review of safety rules. Do not forget to discuss how to keep the entire work environment safe and work-friendly.

For David Rowland, Head of Marketing at Engage EHS, any business person worth their salt will have an in-depth knowledge of health and safety policy and practice. This is because health and safety is not only an end in itself, it is a means to an end towards a more efficient business that has an improved bottom line and greater brand loyalty amongst consumers.

These are only a five of safety tips you can consider to help your business grow. At the same time, you also guarantee that every person who is working for your company will be safe and sound. If you maintain this important aspect of business, it is likely to prosper and last long in the industry you are in.

For more business tips, you can visit Hivelife.com. This site is perfect for both startups and experienced employers in various industries.

How To Prevent Cybercrime Hurting Your Business

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Cybercrime|How To Prevent Cybercrime Hurting Your BusinessA relatively short time ago, cybercrime wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t even a word. Yet as technology has increased and we have become ever more reliant on the internet to run our daily lives and, of course, our businesses, cybercrime, cyberattacks, and hackers, are now something we have to protect ourselves and others from on a daily basis.

If a cybercriminal were able to infiltrate your business, they could do untold damage financially and to the company’s structure itself. Whether they hack your network for monetary gain or just to cause havoc, the result would be the same; your business would be hurt; possibly mortally so. This is why it is absolutely crucial to do everything you can to prevent this from happening. Here are some ways it can be done.

Use The Cloud

The cloud is a virtual storage space for important documents and sensitive information. It is exceptionally secure, much more so than a laptop or mobile device could ever be, and this means it is the ideal place to keep your most valuable data such as your customers’ payment details, their names and addresses, and your business banking information.

If you can store everything on the cloud, your business will be as secure as possible. Only those with passwords should be able to access your cloud account. Since the data is encrypted, even if someone did manage to get in, they wouldn’t be able to retrieve the information, rendering it entirely useless.

Strong Passwords

Regarding passwords, you will need to have a different password for every log in you have. This might be an irritation because you’ll have to remember several different passwords, but it’s much better than having just one password which, if it were to be compromised, would mean that absolutely everything you log into online would be at risk too. This would include your business information and even your personal financial information.

When you are creating passwords, they must be strong so that no one can guess them or hack them. To create a strong password, you will need a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, and you should use upper and lower case. Make it a rule to change your passwords every six months or after ten logins to ensure they stay safe and secure.

Encryption

Data encryption is another way to prevent any cyberattacks from being successful. When data is encrypted, it becomes impossible to read and is useless to anyone unless they have the encryption key. Since a cybercriminal wouldn’t have this, even if your laptop or mobile device were stolen, or if you lost a USB stick with all this data on it, no one else would be able to see it.

Encryption is one of the most critical elements of online security, but it can often be overlooked. Implementing it within your business gives you and your clients an additional layer of protection that really can make all the difference.

Six Ways To Help Improve Your Online Security As A Business Owner

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Online Security|Six Ways To Help Improve Your Online Security As A Business OwnerYour business is always something that you can improve, and when it comes to your online security, there should certainly be some active attention towards this area of the company. The online world is a wonderful place, and it can bring with it a lot of opportunities. However, it’s important to recognize that you acknowledge the dangers of the internet and what it can bring. Here are six ways to help improve your online security as a business owner.

Be Vigilant With Your Data Storage

Firstly, it’s important to be vigilant when it comes to your data storage. If you’re not being active enough with the security of your data, then it’s at risk of being stolen or leaked. That’s not something that you want for your company or for the sake of any clients or customers that you hold data for. At this point, you’re then putting other people at risk, and that will never go down well when it comes to your reputation. A good way to handle data storage is to put it all in one place. There’s the cloud, which is an online storage place to keep all your data secure in or you can consider other online and offline options. There are plenty of companies and software out there that are committed to fending off cyber attacks and improving cybersecurity, so it’s important you work hard to ensure your data is safe from anything that you come across in the future. Just because you might be a small business doesn’t mean you won’t be targeted.

Outsource Your IT Security & Support

Outsourcing your IT security and support is definitely something that’s valuable to have when it comes to business. Seeing as a lot of businesses operate with some form of technology or IT device it’s essential everything is working as it should be. If it’s not, then it’s going to cause problems to your daily work life and perhaps restrict your ability and opportunities to make more money.

Consider outsourcing your IT security and support to save yourself the time and effort of having to hire it in-house yourself because this might not be possible with smaller businesses. A managed network security is also worth throwing into the deal when it comes to IT support because they can help ensure your network is secure from hackers at all times, whilst also looking at ways to improve it.

Create Stronger Passwords

Stronger passwords are a great way to help keep your accounts secure. It’s good to change your passwords every so often so that you’re further protecting and securing your logins. Whether that be for your staff members or for yourself, it’s good to use a password software and to take advantage of any two-step authentication that helps to add an extra layer of security. When it comes to passwords, many will attempt to use words and numbers that are relatable either to them personally or via the company. However, it’s important to avoid both of these and to pick something obscure. That’s where password creators on Google Chrome, for example, can provide very useful. If you’re struggling to think of them, just make sure to try and have a number, a special character, and one capital letter within each password. That should be enough to keep it secure.

Avoid Any Dodgy-Looking Websites

The internet is a vast space, and there are millions of websites across the world, so you’re likely to come across a few that don’t seem right. Try to avoid any dodgy-looking websites and trust your gut when it comes to these sites. You’ll likely recognize distinguishing features of these websites such as poor grammar and perhaps a poorly made web design. When making payments or sending files, make sure the site displays a green lock in the left-hand corner of the URL box. This lets you know that the website is secure for making payments and sending confidential information.

If something doesn’t look right, then avoid it at all costs because it’s likely to be something that could cause your business harm in some way.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Online Security|Six Ways To Help Improve Your Online Security As A Business OwnerDelete Any Old Employee Accounts

Employees are responsible for how they navigate the internet, and so care should be taken to look after them in this regard. However, one way to help the company’s online security is to ensure you disable and delete any old employee accounts. Whether these be online ones or offline with computer logins. You must make sure that all of these are disabled or deleted so that in the case of a disgruntled employee leaving, they don’t do anything that might compromise the safety of the company. It’s worth trying to do this with the employee themselves if they’re leaving on good terms, but if not, it’s good to track every account the staff member has that represents the company or has contained any form of company payment methods. The quicker you do this, the better, and that way you’ve got a limited trial when it comes to your company’s details being on the internet.

Train Your Staff

Training your staff is essential because as much as they’re not able to stop a cyberattack from happening if it were to happen, they do bear some responsibility. It is up to you as a company to provide your staff with the proper training on how to use the internet safely. You can never assume that everyone has the same knowledge of the internet and how to spot hackers and cyber-attacks because that’s not always going to be the case. You may find that people who you thought were confident could still fall into the trap. Make sure you’re regularly training your staff and being made aware of occasions where new methods and protocols have come out in order to protect people’s details online.

Improving your online security is essential, so use these tips to make sure your company stays safe online. Whether it’s outsourcing your security support to training your staff, it’s all-important to do.

Top Considerations For Businesses’ To Staying Safe Online

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Cybersecurity, from a business’s technological point of view, is essential more than ever simply because it is more prevalent to have parts of the company that would need the use of the world wide web. From emailing different departments to accessing documents over the network or cloud services, to businesses that use the web for communication and engagement with clients and customers. In today’s standards, modern-day business ranging from all small, medium, or large scaled enterprises, will need to be even more vigilant and incorporate web technologies, along with safety and cybersecurity, as part of the business framework and will need to adapt protocols or procedures to make sure of workplace safety and that the company and its assets are protected.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Top Considerations For Businesses' To Staying Safe Online

Network administrators are usually the go-to department for medium and large enterprises and corporate entities, that will be in charge of keeping the workings of the internet of things functional and performing to the best standard for the company. Ranging from the creation of user accounts, privileges, and to monitor software and traffic coming into the business network, to port monitoring and implementing software installation and updates were needed on the different devices, around the business. But for a small business, cyber security may be more doable with being confident and its capability to deploy its own procedures that can help protect the presence of the company when being online.

Here are a few things to consider for any business whether small, medium or large, that would be generally good working practise to adapt within the online procedures, to protect the company from threats from online.

Firewalls

Firewalls are a security system that will monitor all the network traffic and the software that will run through the ports on the network. Generally, Firewalls are the first port of call when protecting the network from numerous types of attacks, but there are other things that can help reduce this risk even further.

VPN’s

Meaning Virtual Private Networks can be implemented to further the security of data transference across the network, especially if the business network needs to communicate to the wider web, which is untrustworthy, to complete tasks. Firewalls and VPS’s can come in software but also can be found in the router settings for some brands.

Virus Scanning Software

When a company has its work that is primarily sorted out on a device such as a PC, or even have the use of services such as emails and Voice Over Internet Protocol communications, it is usually a good idea to make sure that there is a Virus Protection element implemented, to minimise the chance for viruses or malware that can compromise your data and business logic, even data breaches.

PC Procedures and Conventions

The idea for password conventions and procedures is to educate and train company users and employees to have a decent basic understanding of what is to be expected by them, in order to contribute to the security of the company. Such as passwords not to be shared, and created with an uppercase, inclusive of numbers and a special character. That they should not be allowed to plug personal devices or even log into private email accounts while working on the companies PCs.

Being secure and safe online is an important focal point for many businesses, these points mentioned here are a few generic ones to be considered. What do you include as part of your way of keeping the company safe online? Let us know in the comments below.

Strategies for Overcoming Crisis in The Hospitality Industry

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Strategies for Overcoming Crisis in The Hospitality IndustryEvery organisation is likely to face a crisis now and again. Significant problems may arise once or twice a year, with smaller issues appearing sporadically in the time in between. Predicting what a crisis will entail is impossible in many situations – but it’s how a team prepares and responds that can dictate whether and to what degree a business recovers.

The Covid-19 pandemic is one obvious example of an uncontrollable crisis affecting almost every industry in one way or another. While many wise businesses will have a crisis management strategy in place, it’s a situation few could have directly planned for.

The hospitality sector has been among the hardest hit. Unfortunately, it’s also likely to feel the situation’s impacts the longest due to ongoing social distancing rules and a consequential reduction in demand and revenue.

Sales slumped by 87% in the second quarter of 2020, and despite tentative signs of recovery, over half of small business owners in the sector fear the pandemic will force them to permanently close. The situation has forced many to pivot their approach in order to survive – but effective crisis management could allow some to emerge stronger.

Below we discuss other uncontrollable factors the hospitality industry faces, as well as the strategies businesses can implement to overcome them.

What uncontrollable factors affect the hospitality industry?

The aforementioned Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted what is perhaps the primary uncontrollable variant for the hospitality industry – flow of tourism.

Accommodation providers, food and drink establishments and other leisure facilities all rely on visitor numbers, but tourism can be fragile even in the best of times. Weather, political events, area decline and the arrival of competitors can all lead to unpredictable cashflow and a variety of other challenges from one season to the next.

Another variant looming large over the sector is Brexit. The hospitality industry is a large employer of migrant workers, but new regulations are likely to lead to problems with labour availability. It remains to be seen whether abolishing freedom of movement will also turn international tourists away.

Strategies for overcoming uncontrollable crises

Periodically reviewing plans is one important strategy for managing crisis. By building in trigger points to assess factors such as operational and market performance as well as basic financial metrics, a company can assess whether a long-term plan is still fit for purpose. In light of some of the events discussed above, this process can be vital in adjusting to new parameters to keep a company on track.

There are other practical steps that can be taken to prepare for the eventuality of a crisis. Taking out hospitality insurance with Gallagher for example can protect against damages to a commercial property or other unforeseen disruptions.

When such a situation does arise, establishing an effective solutions team allows a business to focus the right people on the task in hand. Members should have a clear understanding of their roles and ideally some of their typical responsibilities will be delegated. Electing forward-thinking individuals will help generate the most positive and proactive response.

With a crisis management team in place, wider communication is essential in keeping everyone working towards the same goal. Creating a clear ‘change story’ that all workers can understand and get behind – from front of house staff to board members – can be an important step in establishing a collective sense of urgency.

The hospitality industry is undoubtably facing a crisis right now – but with the right team and strategies in place, many will already be on the road to recovery. If you have any additional insights, please feel free to share best practices in the comments section below.