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2021

We are finally at the end of 2020!

Although the end of the pandemic is close, we still all have to do our part in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by staying home as much as possible and limiting the time spent with other people.

If your company continues to work from home to start 2021, here are five quick tips to ensure your employees and your business stays healthy:

1. Save Your Work On A Centralized Storage Platform

With everybody on your team working from home, it can be hard to keep track of their work and the progress of your ongoing projects if they are only saved on their personal devices. Using a centralized storage solution, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, everybody has instant access to important files that they need. It also acts as a backup in case somebody’s computer crashes or corrupts a file.

2. Use A Secure Video Conference System

If you have been working from home for the majority of 2020, you are probably well experienced with video conferencing with your team. To keep your company’s ideas and data safe, as well as the identity of your employees, it’s important to only allow the people you trust to join the meeting. If you use Zoom, make sure you set up a password for each session so that random people can’t join the meeting. If you use Google Meet, make sure that nobody outside of your organization can join the meeting, unless an invite was sent to people that have permission to attend.

3. Keep Your Emails Safe

When working from home, your primary point of communication is most likely emails. It’s important to remind your team what should and shouldn’t be sent through an email. For example, rather than sending sensitive data or information through an email, tell the recipients that you have uploaded the file to your secure central storage platform for them to access. Do the same for personal information as well. If you have to send HR your address/SIN/bank information/etc., send them an email informing them that you are giving them a call at a certain time to provide the information over the phone. This prevents somebody from intercepting emails with vital information that needs to remain private.

4. Be Aware Of Phishing Or Ransomware Scams

There has been an increase in cyberattacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly through phishing and ransomware scams. These attacks can help hackers steal sensitive information or lock you out of important software until you pay them a fee to let you back in. At the beginning of the new year, set up a training session for your employees to go through the steps of identifying potential phishing or ransomware scams and emphasizing not to open unknown files, even if they come from an internal source.

5. Keep Your Team Motivated!

A lot of people were excited to work from home at the start of the pandemic; they didn’t have to deal with traffic, and they could just pour a cup of coffee after waking up and starting their day right away. However, as the months rolled by, they felt stagnant with the lack of diversity in their day and may have affected their motivation levels. Before the pandemic, you may have set up team outings or lunches to keep people motivated, but you can’t really do that these days. You may have to get creative, but you can set up team lunches through Zoom where you send each member of your team money to get something from a local restaurant. You can also set up online games like Pictionary or trivia and give out prizes to the winners. No matter what you choose to do, it’s important to keep your team motivated to ensure that your business can continue to succeed in 2021 and beyond!

BreezeMaxWeb continues to provide COVID-19 relief for businesses through free offers and heavily discounted products to keep companies afloat during these uncertain times. Feel free to browse our current offers here and reach out to see how we can help your business grow in the new year!