Look after your company data!

We read recently that a company employee was found guilty of breaching a court order protecting their employer’s confidential information. The particular employee sent confidential documents relating to his workplace business to his personal email account and was jailed for 6 weeks.

Did you know that around 60% of employees steal company information when they leave a workplace, with 67% of them taking it to a new job! So to make sure you are looking after your company data there’s a series of protective measures you should follow.

1. Set expectations from the start and make it clear in your employment contracts. You need to create a culture of confidentiality amongst your staff and stipulate the rules you want them to follow. Make your staff sign an agreement to show that they understand the do’s and don’ts.

2. Create a level of trust amongst your staff. Get to know your employees and have a relationship built on mutual respect. Try to create a happy work environment – happy employees tend to be more loyal. Also be suspect of new employees who bring in customer data from their previous employer – they might do the same to you!

3. Protect your sensitive and highly confidential data with passwords or limited access. This could be HR or accounts related documents that you might only want to give a couple of people access to. Be mindful about what you have lying around the office or what comes off the shared printer – it could easily get into the hands of the wrong person!

4. Look after your company equipment with security checks and passwords – whether its mobile phones or laptops. You wouldn’t want a member of staff leaving them on a train and a member of the public accessing all your data. It’s also crucial to ensure that their mobile technology, often connected wirelessly, is as secure as possible if your staff are working in a public network area.

5. Monitor employees before they depart. Many businesses opt to put staff onto “garden leave” once a notice is handed in to protect company data and client information. Once your employee has left the business, make sure you change passwords and cut of access to the company network and files so they can’t access them anymore.

So follow these simple guideless to ensure your data stays put when your employees move on! You not only owe it to yourself, and your business, but to your client’s too! You must ensure your data is secure at all times – it’s an absolute must, and will result in a hefty fine if you don’t.