Upskilling and reskilling staff is nothing new in today’s evolving world. As companies continue to embrace new tools, designed to boost employee productivity, enhance collaboration, and transform workplace efficiency, training is crucial.

Business leaders need to provide teams with the step-by-step guidance they need to not only use new toolsets, but also leverage solutions in a way that doesn’t contradict crucial compliance and security policies. After all, while a UC solution can significantly improve team productivity, and enhance day-to-day operations, these digital tools also use, store, and transfer significant amounts of data.

Keeping that information secure is essential to preserving a company’s reputation, maintaining relationships with clients, and reducing the risk of regulatory fines. The question is, how do business leaders ensure they’re delivering the training teams need to use UC systems safely?

Step 1: Identify Common Risks

Perhaps the first, and most important step in providing adequate data protection training to staff members using UC tools, is determining what kind of risks they’re likely to be exposed to. There are various potential issues which can arise when using Unified Communication tools.

Common cybersecurity issues might emerge from team members using the wrong apps or add-ons in UC platforms, vulnerabilities could arise from distributed network connections. Even different channels for communication, such as video, messaging, and telephony lines can all come with their own risk vectors to consider. Business leaders should start by evaluating both their workplace structure, and the unified communication tools they use. Think about:

  • Encryption for data in transit and at rest, across multiple communication channels.
  • Network connectivity, and how employees access resources when working in a remote or hybrid landscape. Does the business need SBCs and firewall protection?
  • Data sovereignty and storage – how is information in the UC landscape stored, and where is it held for security and compliance purposes?
  • Access controls, and which people should be able to leverage specific resources within a unified communications platform, including saved data.
  • Recording tools, and how information is captured for training and compliance purposes across the UC landscape.

Some compliance and security vendors can even work with businesses on the initial discovery process, helping with everything from penetration testing to vulnerability scanning, and supplier vetting, to help mitigate risks throughout the UC landscape.

Step 2: Learn about Compliance Regulations

Next, to provide staff with the right training on data protection in the UC landscape, business leaders need to ensure they understand which regulations and guidelines are relevant to their organisation. The location of a business, and the industry it operates in can both have a huge impact on the rules teams need to follow when managing UC data.

Companies should carefully evaluate the legal and regulatory compliance guidelines relevant to their business, from the CCPA guidelines in California, to the HIPAA regulations for healthcare vendors. One common regulation many businesses will need to consider is GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation. This cornerstone data protection law applies not just to companies in the UK and Europe, but all businesses working with other customers and brands from this region. Understanding the core components of GDPR, such as how to implement transparency in data collection, and preserve integrity and confidentiality will be crucial for countless companies.

Once business leaders have defined which regulations are applicable to their team, they can provide them with step-by-step documentation, guidelines, and best practices for security.

Step 3: Consider Training Options

After identifying potential risks and relevant compliance frameworks, business leaders then need to develop a strategy for delivering training to team members. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here. Some team members will benefit most from one-on-one training delivered by a compliance expert. Others, such as remote and hybrid team members, may benefit from being able to access training resources on-demand, through the UC platform.

“Employees will never champion something that they don’t understand. Besides meeting compliance requirements by providing training, everyone in the organisation benefits from education on potential risks and threats. One of the most common causes for security incidents is human error. We’ve tried various approaches and found training videos to be quite useful when developing the foundations for a. customer’s security culture.” – Jodie Oliver, Head of HR at Allendevaux & Company.

Companies should carefully assess the employees in their workforce, and their specific needs when it comes to compliance and data protection training. The guidance a front-of-house team member needs to protect data when interacting with customers directly may differ to the support required for an employee dealing with product and service development.

Business leaders can leverage everything from visual guides to interactive classes, and case study simulations to help boost awareness and encourage engagement. No matter which strategy a company uses, it’s always worth ensuring metrics are in place to monitor the success of the training strategy. Keeping a close eye on security incidents caused by human error, phishing scam problems, and other data can help business leaders to track the effectiveness of learning solutions.

Step 4: Provide Teams with Policies to Follow

Alongside dedicated training, employees working with UC tools should also have access to documents, guidelines, and standard operating procedures they can use to guide their day-to-day activities. For instance, every employee should know how to set passwords and leverage two-factor-authentication methods when using UC tools. They should also understand how to protect themselves against risks caused by using unsecure networks.

Staff members should also have complete access to incident management documentation and guidelines, so employees know how to capture information and report it during an incident. Every member of staff should know what they need to do on a day-to-day basis to preserve crucial data, protect against data breaches, and remain compliant with local and industry standards.

Compliance and security leaders in the UC market can even offer assistance with developing documentation, providing guidance for ISO/IEC 27001 implementation, cloud security guidelines, and risk mitigation.

Step 5: Constantly Update and Evolve

Finally, it’s important to recognise that ensuring and maintaining data protection in the UC world is an ongoing process. Training isn’t something that should be offered to team members once when they begin using a UC platform and never again.

As regulations and guidelines continue to evolve, new modes of work infiltrate the business landscape, and threats transform, training strategies need to update. Companies should focus on consistently monitoring the threat vectors in their landscape, and providing team members with access to new and updated guidelines when regulatory restrictions evolve.

Implementing a comprehensive information security management strategy, which business leaders can evaluate, audit, and update on a regular basis will be crucial for long-term success. Companies can even consider working with a compliance training provider to provide regular access to routine training, on a yearly, or bi-annual basis.

Deliver the Most Effective Training

While the exact nature of data protection training for companies using UC tools will vary from one industry to the next, it’s something no organisation can afford to overlook. Fortunately, today’s business leaders don’t necessarily have to have access to endless training resources in-house to empower their workers. Leading compliance and security companies can deliver modular training programs, designed to suit the specific needs of each business.

Working with a training provider could be the best way to accelerate any educational initiative, improve onboarding strategies, and keep staff up-to-date on the compliance landscape.



from UC Today https://ift.tt/CgsBzPe