We’re back again with another key aspect of your business, in this year when we’ve focused all of our articles on recovery. So far this year, we’ve touched on Marketing, Financial Support Systems, Business Relationships, and many other vital topics for operating a functional business. Our journey with this pandemic is still winding its way through our lives, and with businesses making tough decisions about remote versus in-person work, it seems like the perfect time to talk about your technology.
If you’re familiar with our story, you’ll know that Admin Slayer has always been a remote company, unlike a lot of businesses that were thrust into a somewhat unfamiliar paradigm of remote work when the pandemic hit. As such, our technology and systems were always structured to work in this “new normal”. Still, we recognize that businesses are never static, and to stay ahead of the curve, we have needed to make some very specific changes.
Enhanced Remote Collaboration
We consider ourselves experts when it comes to remote collaboration because we’ve been doing that since Day 1. Our Slayers live and work all across Canada, creating an inclusive and collaborative work experience - making technology a key component to our Slayer Culture.
While we usually do get together physically once a year for our ‘Slayer Retreat,’ things were a little different through the pandemic. We very much wanted to have everyone together, particularly our new Slayers who had never been to one of our in-person retreats. We were looking for a way to create that social connection and team building that our retreat offered.
As a team, we were already very familiar with Slack, for both work communication and water cooler chit chat, and Zoom, for video calls, but we wanted something… more. We turned to Kumospace - a free, web-based social space that was exactly what we needed. With it, our team could get together in a setting that mimicked hanging out in various lounge spaces, gardens, bars, and sitting areas. People could move from room to room, participate in conversations, play games, or simply roam around.
Of course, technology isn’t all fun and games. As businesses start to return to whatever they think “normal” is, we’re certain that remote collaboration will continue to be an important aspect of success. Those businesses that leverage collaboration and communication tools, beyond the basics, will greatly enhance remote productivity.
Meetings are a great example of this enhancement in action. A lot has been written about meetings for the sake of meetings, but structuring meetings and conference calls with intent goes a long way to addressing that. For example, some of my most productive days are spent with my partners on our weekly video call. Rather than bouncing back and forth via email, we stay focussed and engaged while utilizing Google Docs to hammer out a project (or several!) in real time. We all have the ability to edit at the same time, and it’s the next best thing to working in the same office. Questions and comments for other members of our team are done directly through the documents, bringing them into the discussion at their leisure.
Security
Remote collaboration is just one piece of the technology puzzle.
When the pandemic hit, businesses worldwide saw a drastic increase in Cybersecurity breaches because most employees were now working from home and learning to collaborate with their IT department in a way they never had before. The requirement to work from home, without much planning, meant traditional network security perimeters no longer existed.
Small and medium-sized businesses were the hardest hit because they simply didn’t have the same IT resources as large enterprises with dedicated staff. Many business owners that we know wear many hats; while managing technology needs is one of those hats, few had the technical know-how to brace for the surge of attacks and relied on the hope that nothing bad would happen to them.
Whether from increased phishing, ransomware or the myriad of other new styles of attack, many business owners hadn’t even begun to grasp the meaning of those words, let alone how to effectively defend against them. Unfortunately, in this era, keeping your fingers crossed just isn’t enough to protect your business.
Your Technology Recovery
“You are good at what you do - we will do the rest.” This is one of our mottos, and what we at Admin Slayer do really well is take care of the administrative necessities that keep your business running. Technology? Yes, we take it seriously, and cybersecurity has been a key focus in our company since the beginning. However, none of our founders have a technology background. For our technology expertise, just like you, we seek out professional help by finding a technology advisor for support.
What does this all mean? A good analogy would be our sister company Spring Plans - a team of advice-only financial planning professionals. They provide a comprehensive financial road map for their clients to help them live their best lives. Admin Slayer needed a technology road map, and this is exactly what a technology advisor does for us; it provides guidance and expertise that we wouldn’t otherwise have (or that would take a lot of trial by fire to learn, something that is simply not an option).
The first step was to have an environment assessment, which then gave us a plan - a road map - for what to do differently. What our roadmap showed was that Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) was a security “option” that needed to be a “requirement” given the rise in phishing and credential theft. Our data backup and protection was reviewed, and with the help of our technology advisors, we investigated new options that gave us peace of mind. We also evaluated an endpoint device management solution through a pilot program to better strengthen our device security, knowing that our Slayers use an array of different devices to access our company and client data.
We also learned that technology doesn’t solve “people” problems. Cybersecurity is just as much a people problem as it is a technology issue. While the IT team can create all sorts of protection for systems, at the end of the day, it’s all about balancing this with the people who are using those systems. A system must not be so secure that it creates obstacles for people to get work done, and it is not easy to find that balance.
We decided, with our technology partner, that “user education” would be a bigger part of Slayer training and onboarding. It is one thing to secure our own environment; it is entirely another to ensure our Slayers have the knowledge and behaviours that help protect our client environments as well. As such, we enhanced our existing Cybersecurity Onboarding process for every single one of our Slayers.
The Cybersecurity Onboarding process starts with a baseline survey to assess everyone’s existing knowledge. With the survey results, we then tailor our training delivery. Unlike a lot of training though, we don’t put our Slayers through a 20-page document and a static quiz at the end where they simply copy the answers out of the book. We get a real human being to speak to each of our Slayers, to assess their knowledge and provide additional information and feedback in real time. The result is a much more accurate assessment of our Slayers’ technology acumen, which allows us to provide targeted training or mentorship.
Why do we take this human approach? Because, as we said before, technology can’t solve people problems. It’s the same reason your business can’t rely on automation and software alone. Somewhere along the way, you need a human being - like our awesome Slayers - to take care of your business.
Technology and people are very much interconnected. It’s important during your technology recovery that you don’t forget to take care of the people who use the technology.