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Working From Home This article by Mike Hurst CPP, was published in TPSO Magazine and in Professional Security Magazine in May 2020. The WFH Survey is here
There has been much written about the current increase in home working as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic and whilst for many companies this is not an option, for others the available technology and technically literate staff has meant that whilst it may not be ‘business as usual’, business is at least continuing. Another change has been the increase in respect and recognition our healthcare professionals have received and the degree to which this has been extended to the blue light services, frontline security personnel and the public sector who are providing invaluable services. Whilst the cynic in me fears that once we return eventually to normal lives some of these attitudes and practices will also return to pre-pandemic ways, the optimist part hopes that we may be establishing some new heuristics.
hopefully any potential welfare and psychological issues that working remotely may have caused or be causing. Many companies, I know, when also be looking at their physical estate to ascertain whether it is all needed or whether having people working remotely, means that the enterprise can reduce costs by maintaining smaller offices, utilising more hot desking and having staff working the office less frequently. This could save money, for example people will be paying less to commute (rail fares continue to rise above inflation), but costs may increase as people need to have more office As someone who speaks on a regular basis to other equipment at home in order to work effectively, security, risk and business continuity professionals, I am different insurance policies, better physical security. both interested and pleased to hear that their internal This could also mean less congested public transport, conversations have moved from the “is our BC plan up to fewer emissions, a better work life balance and the job and let’s implement it?” to the “how do we potentially, more efficient and profitable organizations. I transition out of this?” phase. Alongside these vital am not here going to address the issues regarding operational concerns, organizations are looking at hello information security, home networks, VPNs, use of how they need to adapt their strategies to consider what private emails addresses and computers, sharing files, has happened and look ahead as to how they will take encryption, physical security of employees who decide to on the challenges presented to survive and thrive. work perhaps in a local coffee shop or business centre but these and many other points do need to be Clearly, companies which usually normally have staff considered. working from offices will be reviewing their practices to see how working from home has affected business and This is not to say that there are no pitfalls in home what new practices they need to keep and what old ones working. Management will need to adapt to this new they need to return to. These reviews will no doubt climate in the way they interact with, monitor and encompass effects on productivity and effectiveness, motivate teams of people who are more used to working interaction between teams and team members and © HJA Consult Ltd—Working From Home Survey, May 2020
as a team in the same location. Will they miss the water cooler moments, chatting about the game last night, what they did at the weekend and who did what, with whom in Love Island? This will mean, more than ever, that getting the best people to work for you is vital. Historically, when recruiting for a new member of staff, many companies would have prioritised someone with directly relevant experience, which is not an unreasonable approach to take and is still important. However, changes in the workplace and workforce mean that aptitude and transferable skills are becoming the key to ensuring your teams’ effectiveness. Companies and through them, recruiters, are being asked to consider Attitude Ambition Diversity of personnel Diversity of thought Core values that match the company’s own Flexibility and Adaptability Employers willingly or unwillingly are spending more time looking at
WFM Survey - 08— 10 May 2020 This was a poll aimed at security professionals and the fact that the subject was Working From Home may go some way to explaining that 90% of the respondents said they were WFH. The poll was anonymous.
People Management and Development Mentoring Growing and developing skills to Prevent employees stagnating Maintain performance Retain Colleagues Developing Intrapreneurs Partly this will be because looking after your people is clearly the right thing to do and partly because the company succeeds if its people succeed.
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation, reports in its recent blog that “Over a third of recruitment business leaders who've taken part in our COVID-19 webinars consistently said they are very confident that the economy and their business will bounce back postCOVID-19 - a steady confidence level we've been observing for the past five weeks.” Recruitment professionals are working with companies now, to meet the challenges of the both changing workplace and recruiting the post COVID-19 landscape and we are having these discussions with clients old and new, so please get to discuss future recruiting strategies. Mike Hurst CPP® FREC MSyI mike@hja.co.uk
20% replied that welfare issues had not been consider when looking at WFH, with a similar number feelings unable to raise any wellbeing issues with you employer.
When asked “How advanced are you / your employer in your planning for business after lock-down, albeit the situation is very fluid?” over half answered that plans An interesting, but perhaps not surprising, point is that had been made, whilst 40% were at the planning stage. This tallies with conversations we have been having only 20% felt that they were working less effectively, with clients and business contacts. On the subject of with over a quarter feeling they were working better or “conducting a full business impact assessment to learn much better. how to react if similar situations arise” around 40% When asked if they would like to carry on WFH only 13% replied yes and just under 40% said it was already said they would not. Of those that expressed a underway. The fact that one in five companies were not preference, over a quarter wanted to WFH two days per going to undertake a review could be seen as troubling. week, whilst almost 40% took a pragmatic approach, So whilst this may not be a definitive survey, we feel it saying that it would depend on the demands of their offers an interesting insight into the thinking around role. Working From Home in the Security Profession, Reassuringly, from a security viewpoint 70% answered something that is likely to become more common in that they / their employer had assessed the Physical future and perhaps permanently for some roles and Information Security issues of WFH of working remotely. © HJA Consult Ltd—Working From Home Survey, May 2020
Some Comments from Respondents Those completing the survey were invited to comment on 1) 2)
What they did well and What they could have done better.
Could do better: Financially put aside a larger amount of emergency fund (6 months income) to allow for investment in tech or projects to grow during lockdown.
face teaching to remote learning when the Governor shut things down. Pivoted to meaningful distance learning in 3 days.
More decisive actions sooner
Those companies we work for did react very slowly to the treath. The mainreason was the monetary issue.
All responses were anonymous. We have adapted our key offering to support pandemic monitoring and business recovery and have communicated this to potential clients. We have streamlined our operations to protect cash flow.
Done well: Continuous reach outs to employees working from home. Room for Improvement: Additional cyber awareness notifications
Be prepared based on previous practices.
Co-chair of response. We acted immediately at the University and went remote and put up extensive virtual Implemented pre-existing pandemic plan social and mental health resources. in early Feb. Company already equipped Personally, I would have mapped out for home/remote working from existing priorities earlier on so as to have had (tested) business continuity plan. Only better life/work balance and identified Went well: We went into WFH/ change planned is to boost recruitment items that could have been delegated so Lockdown before the USG announced as to not work 14 hours each day. such, we tested our IT systems to ensure of part time staff to cover potential sick leave issues. it could handle the remote workload We had a BIA, could have practiced it with very, very little issues. We hold The infrastructure which we have spent a more weekly company all-hands updates, number of years putting in place has we're relying on science and data for any return to work schedules. Could've done enabled our Control Room operations to Sensitised our staff to follow government be carried out remotely from our better: procure temporary physical guidelines and company policy on security resources for emergencies prior Operators home. This has ensured social covid_19 distancing, reduced travel, whilst to an emergency, have adequate nocontact infrared thermometers on hand, maintaining effective remote monitoring, Got communication going early with management and escalation across all of employer , but getting people to would've been good to have had the our UK sites. thermal CCTV installed prior to understand the complex job workings emergency. and why we need certain things was very Prepare better hard I promptly followed the advice of the experts for the sake of my own wellbeing Started WFH early on, where positions Worked from home for 1 week in March, and the one of all others around me. allowed. Commenced targeted Covid 19 been back onsite thereafter. Well, I may have taken foreign information page on corporate intranet. information sources into consideration at Daily then weekly communication from Already set up at home, for occasional an earlier stage. senior leadership on the company's plans WFH; many clients didn't react to the and CDC directions. Ensured that all start of the outbreak, and were often still employees working from home were We set-up a hotline that employees expecting international travel days provided the equipment needed to be could call to report if they were sick or before most countries closed their successful. Maintained weekly contact/ exposed to someone that was sick and borders. For me that was planned flight meetings with working group and then stay home. Our company would to Nigeria 24 hrs before boarders then pay the employee and they did not supervisor to ensure everyone knew the closed !! If that had happened I would priorities. I'm sure mistakes were made have to use their PTO. still be there today! along the way, but things have been smooth and productivity hasn't suffered. Early WFH (telecommuting) was We were prepared with updated implemented. out of 6000+ employees, business continuity plans; technology use only a handful got the virus. Sending staff Most of my role was remote working increased and improved business process prior to COVID. I was glad that we were WFH without equipment for them to overall; information overload - especially able to respond quickly to some of the carry on working was not well thought at the beginning was somewhat heightened information security threats overwhelming for some colleagues - so out. and that we are continuing to evaluate probably strike a better balance next Do well: Prepared remote working plans threats and vulnerabilities as new trends time round. emerge. prior to lockdown Moved to a cloud based (mostly paperless) system Set up home office separate to living space
Showed agility Followed semi-draconian We were planning to move from face-to- rules ... not really threat based
Š HJA Consult Ltd—Working From Home Survey, May 2020
Comments continued Business continuity plan in place More disciplined approach to monitoring business continuity plan Communication was key and was done well. More exercises in crisis management should be done Proactively leading and engaging with my teams, more effectively and efficiently on a daily basis. Good: early setting up of Gold and silver structure for management of process. Very good and positive engagement and communication with staff. Early decisions on use of govt furlough scheme Re opens discussion with businesses around security solutions and not buying just guarding services Better: earlier communication with customers and businesses we serve as a security contractor. Remained home, practised social distancing when it was necessary to leave the house, and wore mask when unable to maintain distancing. Could have done better - increased basic food stuffs on-hand.
clients and developing a pipeline of future work and opportunities Would have done better: taking more regular breaks . Did well: create a team culture with daily 30mn checkin to discuss previous day, plan current day, highlights and lowdown’s Focus on excellence. React Been proactive, rather than lip service to EPRR
Stayed home. Locked down earlier than most.
Still to be evaluated but I've emphasised to our senior leadership team that we need to keep detailed notes of the good, the bad & the ugly to better inform business continuity planning going forward.
Closing facilities Reaction to the data and being more fluid in approach to resumption assumptions prior to developing return to work plans.
Already prepared a good working space at home before lockdown. Make a good routine and stick to it.
Carry on with health organizations about locks down and avoiding staff contact since the first announced case
We were very nimble and were able to pivot many time to meet the Staff only use preprepared and secure varying demands at company pcs under the surveillance / a dizzying pace as assistance of our IT expert. Daily briefs at the landscape 09.00 call forwarding with double changed everyday. checks. Everything is "perfect" just need some paid work to come in. The office is All staff (consultants) already had ready and certified sanitised. No false laptops and remote working access and modesty but could not have done were used to remote working but many anything better clients were not Early on I suggested a review of the possible Impact of a pandemic. It was not well received by the CEO. I did do some planning with the operations team and we did realize some advantage to our plans. I think the next year or two Is going to be a challenge and one that we will be adapting to for years to come.
Shifted to an online delivery model where that was possible. May permanently discontinue some on-site services.
We have a large associate population currently WFH. We could have planned for this better, but this probably affected us much less than others due to our existing WFH infrastructure
+: kicked-off with the quarantine for all team members; -: foresaw negative To take all medical precautions, based currency rate change, to ensure on the instructions of the Ministry of Health and the competent authorities, to contracts are adjusted accordingly (big losses gained due to currency completely close and prevent gatherings devaluation, which was not marked and educate people about this virus properly in the service contracts) Timely and considered response without We should have ensured that employees panic. External communications with had the equipment and internet access suppliers / contractors and principle needed to function effectively and business partners. securely from home. We had ability to shut down immediately. All staff have the ability to WFH and so it was a simple move.
Reacted quicker Maintain contact and continuity with
Š HJA Consult Ltd—Working From Home Survey, May 2020
Survey Results
© HJA Consult Ltd—Working From Home Survey, May 2020