The idea of encrypting all of your business’s sensitive data and protecting your information from hackers or others who might want to harm your company sounds perfect. However, from a corporate standpoint, implementing a new encryption strategy can present you with a lot of problems. Aside from the initial setup portion where you decide who to work with on encryption and how to logistically get started, you’ve also got to get those you’re working with on board with the idea, which can take some coaxing. So to help make the actual implementation of your new encryption policy get started, here are three tips for launching this new practice with your employees.
Know The Possible Challenges
Although having your data be more secure is great in theory, the actual implementation of this process could present some challenges. Some of the work your employees conduct could change a little and may even make their processes take more time, which could frustrate or annoy them. To keep everyone on the same page, it’s a good idea to inform everyone of what some of the possible challenges could be. Carey Wodehouse, a contributor to Upwork.com, writes that your computers will have to work harder to decode the encryption, which could slow things down. Encryption can also be expensive and take time to get used to. Allow your employees to express their concerns and try to take them into consideration when you can.
How To Deal With Employee Backlash
If upon presenting the idea of encryption to your employees you get a lot of backlash, you might have reservations about starting this process. But for the safety of your data, you should likely press forward. To deal with this backlash, Melodi Mosley Gates, a contributor to Howard Anderson of BankInfoSecurity.com, recommends starting a small-scale pilot group first to work out any bugs and hopefully find some employees to help champion the new encryption processes. Seek to have a few people in each department test-run their daily work with your new encryption program. Ask for their feedback for improvement and have them share their good experience with their co-workers. Hopefully this will remove some of the bad attitudes about this change.
Start Small
For many small businesses, you don’t have to have a whole new encryption process to make your data more secure. You can start much smaller and ease your employees into the idea of encryption. Quincy Larson, a contributor to BusinessInsider.com, suggests that one easy way to do this is to have your employees use two-factor authentication with their work emails. This will show them how some parts of encryption work and will help ensure that any information shared via email will be a little safer.
If you’re worried about encrypting your business data and how it will affect your employees, use the tips mentioned above to help you along this journey.
Originally posted on July 28, 2017 @ 10:17 pm
