Tip of the Week: Three Steps to Policing Your IT Policies

Small businesses are presented with the challenging prospect of monitoring and policing various IT-related policies that you might have for your network infrastructure and workplace technology use. The difficulty of this notion does little to lessen its importance, however. You need to take action to protect your assets, data, and reputation from the countless threats out there, and ensuring that your employees are properly using technology is paramount to this endeavor.

Today, we want to cover three helpful tips for policing your IT policies and ensuring technology is used appropriately.

Ensure Clarity and Transparency of IT Policies

However you want to approach IT policies on your network, it needs to come from a place of transparency and clarity. Be firm with your policies and informative whenever someone asks you about them. Information on your policies regarding acceptable technology use and security measures should all be clearly outlined to employees, management, your technicians, and other stakeholders within your organization.

Monitor and Audit Devices

Technology plays a serious role in policing your IT infrastructure, especially when it comes to preventing employees from accessing certain types of content that could expose your network to unsavory threats and wasteful practices. A Unified Threat Management tool, or UTM, can protect your organization’s network by blocking certain types of content, like pornographic material, free download websites, and so on, that could potentially open a gateway on your network for further threats to strike. It should be able to whitelist and blacklist various websites and apps, as well, so that problem employees can be addressed while appropriate behavior can be rewarded.

Educate Employees on Why These Measures are Important

Policies and procedures are all well and good, but only when the people they govern understand why they are in place. Otherwise, any infractions that are met with resistance will just create more friction than necessary. Take some time to work with your employees and identify where their knowledge of various policies is lacking. Then, you can design and deliver training materials in an ongoing process to help them learn more about why you implement policies the way you do and how they benefit the organization at large.

IT Governance is Important for All Businesses, Yours Included

We know that you may not have the time, energy, and resources to handle IT policing to the degree you might want to. That’s why Directive offers a comprehensive suite of technology solutions that can aid your organization in securing its IT infrastructure. Learn more today by calling us at 607.433.2200.