Users Archives - NuTech Services LLC

Oct, 2022

Who’s Sitting at the Other Keyboard While You’re Being Attacked?

It can be too easy to think about hackers and cybercriminals in an almost abstract way, diminishing them to little more than a faceless entity at a keyboard. Naturally, this is far from the truth. Let’s examine the reality of the cybercrime industry, which actually does as much harm to the perpetrators as it does to the people they scam…if not more.

How is this possible? Well, all one has to do is look at an ad that was up on the White Shark Channel of the Telegram messaging service:

“Selling a Chinese man in Sihanoukville just smuggled from China. 22 years old with an ID card, typing very slow.”

That ad, listing the sale of a human being, offered a price of about $10,000.

Many of the People Actively Operating These Scams Have Been Defrauded and Enslaved

Imagine that you were offered an employment opportunity that had a good enough offer that you agreed to travel to their location, only to be held there against your will and forced to work, under threat of physical beatings, torture, and starvation.

This is the reality for tens of thousands of people from China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Promising employment opportunities, victims are lured in and forced to work defrauding people online, all around the world. These victims are held captive, forced to engage in fraud until their negligible wages allow them to pay the fee to leave.

The thing is, these victims are regularly moved or sold to other organizations, with the price of freedom rising by a few thousand dollars each time.

These people are then forced to engage in “pig butchering” scams, where the scammer metaphorically fattens up their target before going in for the kill. Essentially, the scammer—pretending to form a friendship or even a romantic relationship—draws as much money from their target into an investment platform, but once the target is out of cash, the scammer cuts them off and makes off with the funds. Naturally, this kind of fraud isn’t reported very often, largely because of the shame associated with being bamboozled and betrayed in such a fashion.

These operations have this process down, to the point where documentation is provided to their enslaved workforce. They are encouraged to create social media accounts for their fraudulent personas, with photos available from specialized websites for this specific use. These profiles are then populated with photos and interests that communicate affluence, like those of luxury cars or posts about investing. They are even encouraged in one example of the scammer’s documentation to focus on family values, as this sort of belief helps encourage trust from others.

Once these profiles are created, these trafficking victims are then expected to reach out to their prospective victims. One forced scammer reported working on a team of eight such scammers, organized under a leader, and provided with 10 phones each to use as they reached out to a list of names in an attempt to draw them into these scams. From there, the scammers take note of any promising information that those who respond reveal, to see if there are any “pain points” to take advantage of. This “customer mapping” gives the attackers the opportunity to gauge how promising of a mark an individual may be.

Meanwhile, all of this is done behind bars, with barbed wire fences. Calling the police isn’t really an option for victims, either, as they will be harshly punished for doing so and likely sold to another operation…ultimately increasing the price for their freedom further. In addition, they are also coerced into making statements that absolve the company of any misdeeds.

Is What Forced Scammers Do Bad? Absolutely…But For Many, It Isn’t Their Choice

Don’t get us wrong: we are in no way apologizing for what hackers and scammers do. We just want to point out that, in many cases, the person actually taking advantage of you is just as much a victim as you are (and arguably, more so).

It’s also worth understanding that criminals treat cybersecurity like a business, albeit they are doing a wide range of horrifying and abhorrent things to accomplish their goals, it’s organized and optimized like a business that’s designed to cause harm.

Regardless, it is important that you and your team are able to identify and mitigate as many of any scammers’ attempts as possible. We’re here to help you do that, amongst our other services. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to find out more about how we can help protect you.

Sep, 2022

Hybrid Work Practices Can Stifle Inclusivity, If You Aren’t Careful

With plenty of benefits to be had from both in-house and remote operations, many companies have been working to take advantage of a hybrid approach to business. While this approach has proven greatly beneficial to businesses in assorted ways, there are a few drawbacks that need to be addressed. One major one: a lack of inclusivity.

Let’s dig into how this happens, and why it matters.

While Hybrid Work Has Proved Helpful, It Has Also Created Rifts

Don’t get us wrong—there are plenty of ways that hybrid work can and has proven helpful to businesses. Not only can it allow more flexibility in productive work processes, but it should also be able to create more equity in the work environment removing the in-person element that many (unfortunately common) microaggressions rely on.

However, the situation is far from perfect, due to a nasty little phenomenon known as proximity bias. What is proximity bias, you ask? Simply put, it’s the tendency for an employer or manager to show preference or favoritism to those employees who are closer to them physically.

Let’s consider it in a hypothetical situation. Let’s say that a company, we’ll call it “Horror Services, Inc.,” adopted remote operations in order to protect its employees at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of late, some people have come back into the office to work, while some have continued to work remotely.

Now, when CEO Count von Dracula starts to consider whom to promote, give raises to, or otherwise professionally reward, who is he most likely to consider? Is he going to first think of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, or Jekyll/Hyde, who are all present in the office during the workday, or is his mind going to turn to the Invisible Man, doubly unseen as he works from his apartment? Since proximity bias exists, chances are that the Invisible Man will be passed over, even if his quality of work far outpaces the rest of his coworkers’.

There’s also the lack of trust in remote workers that many managers just can’t seem to shake. So, even though the Invisible Man’s results speak for themselves, old Dracula might still feel some doubts that he’s working as diligently as expected.

Now, even though our example has been filled with creepy-crawlies from classic horror, the realities of these rifts are much more sinister in reality.

Certain Groups are Hit Harder by Hybrid Work’s Proximity Bias

When it comes to who is working in-house (and who therefore benefits from proximity bias) and who is working remotely, there are some very telling tendencies that need to be acknowledged.

Generally speaking, recent research has shown that those returning to the office are more likely to be executives or knowledge workers who are white, male, and non-parents, while those who work remotely tend to be more diverse in terms of:

Sex
Race
Gender
Disability

On top of these factors, those who choose to work remotely often do so in order to simplify the balance between their work responsibilities and the demands of child care.

This all leads to a highly imbalanced workplace dynamic…but with the right level of awareness and technology in place, these kinds of issues can be more effectively avoided. This is particularly true of collaborative technologies, ones that your more remote team members can use to maintain a presence in the office without sacrificing the benefits that motivate them to work remotely.

NuTech Services is here to help you acquire and maintain the information technologies that enable productive work to be done, including those to help make your hybrid workplace more successful and equitable through open communication and collaboration. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

Sep, 2022

Burnout Needs to Be Addressed Seriously…4 Essential Steps

There are struggles that the workplace inherently presents to most people (whether that workplace is in the traditional office space or in the home) that can lead to the too-familiar-to-some feelings of burnout. As these struggles aren’t likely going to go away at any point (never mind anytime soon), it is important that you have strategies to help minimize their impacts.

Let’s go over a few things you can encourage your team members to do so they can accomplish this for themselves.

How to Help Minimize Burnout

There are a few ways that you can reduce the amount of burnout that you and your team experience. For instance:

Take a Moment and Refocus Yourself

Mounting pressure can easily take you off your game, which should be seen as a signal that it is time for a break. However, not all breaks are as beneficial as others. Rather than pulling up your social media feeds and mindlessly scrolling, try taking some slow, deep breaths and clearing your mind for a few minutes until you’re ready to return to full productivity. Properly recovering from these moments will help.

Build Communications Between Teams

You know the old saying, “no man is an island,” that refers to the fact that each and every person relies on the network of people around them? While it’s a pretty safe bet that John Donne wasn’t thinking of the modern workplace when he wrote those words back in the 17th century, the same concept holds true. It is important that your different employees and even departments have the confidence that they can rely on one another as needed, so establishing the precedent of communication is crucial.

Basically, you want to take it upon yourself to encourage your employees to work with one another at every available opportunity. Not only will this help to lighten the workload on the team as a whole, but it will help form bonds between your team members that will help to reduce the likelihood of burnout.

Pick Up a Low-Pressure Hobby

A major contributor to feelings of burnout is the tendency many have to take the pressures associated with work into personal time—after all, if you never get any relief from stress, that stress is going to wear down on you faster.

To resolve that, recommend that your team members pick up personal hobbies or pursue interests—anything that gets their mind off of work, really—as these kinds of hobbies can help you recharge your batteries.

Establish Procedures to Reduce Stress

One of the nice things about workplace processes is that they tend to largely be the same each time you carry them out. This means that these processes can be streamlined and ideally automated, taking pressure off of your team members and simplifying their workflows. Both of these effects can benefit workplace engagement and slow down the “burn” of burnout.

Fighting Burnout is a Prescient Business Need

If you aren’t actively working to keep your team engaged, burnout will almost certainly start to creep in and negatively impact your operations. In addition to the above efforts, the right IT can help to keep your team engaged and effective—and we’ll help you put them in place. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more about the business solutions we have to offer.

Aug, 2022

How You Can Help Keep Your Employees Healthy in the Workplace?

Looking back at the past few years, it’s little wonder that many people have become more concerned about their health—particularly when it comes to the workplace and spending extended amounts of time in the vicinity of other people. This makes it important that you do everything you can to make your workplace a healthier and safer-feeling place to work… but how?

Fortunately, the technology available today gives you a few different options. Let’s touch on them to see what would work effectively for your needs.

What Can I Do to Help Ensure My Employees Remain Healthy?

Depending on the processes you’ve established for your workplace procedures, the right technology can facilitate more health-conscious practices. For instance, the fewer the number of people actually in the office, the less likely it is that a pathogen will be carried in and spread.

Remote/Hybrid Work Offers Health Advantages

Like we said, the fewer people that are in the office at any one time, the less likely it is that a germ is being carried inside. Remote and hybrid work allows your team to remain productive while spending at least some of their work time outside the office—so, while you’re keeping a germ from spreading through your workforce, you aren’t necessarily losing valuable time. Honestly, it’s a win-win.

Taking advantage of this win-win situation, however, will require some preparation. Namely, you need to ensure that your team members and business have access to the technology that remote work relies on, and that you have policies that address these options specifically.

Refurnish Your Office (and Reconsider How You Use It)

Changing workplace conditions is nothing new—it’s why computer mice are increasingly molded to better fit in one’s hand, and more and more focus has gone into break rooms and other amenities. Lately, people have been questioning how healthy it is to spend so much time seated at a desk, or seated in general. Studies have shown that remaining seated for such long periods can increase the chance of a heart attack… yikes.

Nowadays, standing and convertible desks are available to help encourage employees to stand every now and again. Likewise, you can also change the way that you carry out certain business functions. Maybe that regular meeting you have with one or two people can transition into a walking meeting.

Mental Health is Health, Too

It isn’t uncommon for people to focus on physical health—the size of their gut or the pain in their backs—over the needs of their mental health, despite the latter being a major aspect of their health overall. Having safeguards in place to ensure that your employees’ mental health is well taken care of is therefore a wise investment. Develop a positively-charged workplace and give them the support they need (seeking out feedback so you can do so effectively) to see some real benefits in their work and work lives.

Health and Safety Leads to Productivity

If you were able to improve your business’ success through simply making it a safer and healthier place to work, why wouldn’t you? NuTech Services can help you ensure your team remains healthy in any form by providing the technology that enables their operations either in the office or remotely. Find out more about our managed services by calling 810.230.9455.

Jan, 2022

Is it Time to Move Past Passwords?

Passwords have been a staple in data security and user authentication for many, many years… to the point where the idea of using a password has become nearly synonymous with the concept of security. However, data has increasingly shown that alternative options are in fact more secure. Let’s examine some of these passwordless authentication methods, and their pros and cons.

What is Passwordless Authentication?

True to its name, passwordless authentication is identity authentication that operates without relying on a password. You can think of it like two-factor authentication (2FA), with the password factor skipped over.

Instead of using a password, passwordless authentication omits it and focuses on what would be the second factor—a hardware token, biometric, or code generated on-demand through an owned device or sent to an email, among other options.

But Why Eliminate Passwords?

Let’s consider a few options that businesses have in terms of their cybersecurity:

Use a password
Use a password and supplement it with 2FA
Use a passwordless authentication system

Here’s the thing… Passwords, when considered objectively, aren’t really a great option. First of all, how likely is it that the average user is going to be able to remember about 75 unique and sufficiently complex passwords? They aren’t. As a result, your IT team is either going to be inundated with password reset requests, or your users are going to take shortcuts that undermine your security. So, while a password may be a convenient option on a macro scale, it comes at the cost of your security. Not good.

Next, we might consider adding 2FA to our authentication requirements. This certainly boosts security, but it can also frustrate users and disrupt their experience. Also not good.

Passwordless authentication measures eliminate both pain points—not only are they secure, they make it far easier for your users to access what they need to do their jobs.

Today, There are Plenty of Options for Passwordless Authentication

Having said that, there are a few drawbacks to passwordless authentication that may take some time to resolve (if it doesn’t require a change in user behavior). For instance, if you go the security key route, they can be easy to lose and potentially expensive to replace. Cost is a factor for most forms of passwordless authentication, as you might imagine.

On top of this, some malware attacks are particularly effective against these measures. Time will only tell if businesses ultimately see the benefits of passwordless authentication to be worth the risks.

In the meantime, NuTech Services is here to assist you with every aspect of your organization’s IT, including its security. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

Nov, 2021

What are the Pros and Cons of a “Workation?”

Remote work has become more legitimate than ever before to the point that people can now work effectively anywhere and not just their homes. This brings up an interesting question, however, as this trend means that one could effectively work while they’re on a vacation.

Let’s examine this trend of the “workation.”

What is a Workation?

While a working vacation is by no means a new concept, the surge in remote work’s popularity has resulted in a similar surge in the concept of simply working remotely from a vacation destination. For instance, someone who works remotely could do so while at a beachside resort rather than in their home. As its name suggests, it’s a hybrid of the concepts of working and vacationing: a person can still accomplish their work-related tasks while also gaining many of the benefits that a vacation brings.

To be frank, a workation is a break from your typical workspace, not from work itself. It’s also not a replacement for actual time off, but it can be pretty nice to change the scenery every so often.

The benefits of a workation are pretty straightforward:

By allowing the employee to engage in recreational activities when they aren’t working, they are able to be more relaxed when they are. Even the change in environment can have a positive impact on overall productivity.
Offering the capability to partake in a workation can be a significant draw for new employees.
A workation can also expand on the perspective that an employee has, not only refreshing them and their productivity but giving them new ideas to implement.

Having said that, there are a few drawbacks to the concept. For instance, there can often be delays in communication when people are working remotely—especially when they are on a vacation. Plus, the workation itself can create more challenges in terms of lining up schedules and effectively collaborating.

While the choice of whether or not to enact workations into your policies is your decision, we wanted to give you a few tips to help make these workations (or any remote work, for that matter) as effective as possible.

How to Ensure That Your Workation is Secure

Regardless of where this workation is taking place, your business’ security needs to be held in the utmost importance. That’s why we recommend a few basics you should implement for your benefit:

Use a VPN – You want to ensure that your business’ communications remain secure, regardless of where your team members are working from. A virtual private network can help you accomplish as much.
Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication – Multi-Factor Authentication (or MFA) is a great way to double-down on the protections that are afforded to you by your typical username-password authentication.
Educate Your Team – Your team members will be your biggest vulnerability against cyberthreats, unless you train them to be an asset. Making sure they know how to spot threats, and how they should react when they do, will be crucial to preventing issues from arising… particularly while working remotely.

So, what’s your take on the workation? As a business owner, have you ever tried switching up the scenery while still getting work done? We can help you do so. To learn more, give us a call at 810.230.9455 today.

Apr, 2021

Don’t Let Burnout Overcome Your Business

It can be said that most of 2020 and the first couple of months of 2021 have been difficult for most people. Not billionaires, of course, but most other people have found the past year difficult on some level. That’s why it isn’t surprising to hear people talk about workplace burnout. Today, we’ll define burnout and what is being said about it.

What Exactly is Burnout?

You probably already know or at least have seen cases of burnout. If someone starts laughing maniacally, screaming uncontrollably for no apparent reason, or crying silently while they sit at their desk, you are probably looking at a case of burnout. Burnout is the feeling of helplessness, frustration, and exhaustion you get when you have had enough.

Some cases of burnout go away quickly, while others fester and stay around for months. Burnout makes a person cynical or even apathetic and is not a good thing to have around your business. With the burden of burnout, you can unwittingly create a toxic work environment. Keeping this from happening should be a priority.

Spotting Burnout Amongst Your Team

If you want to catch burnout before it creates workplace toxicity, you will need to pay attention. The best way is to have regular conversations with your staff and honest conversations with yourself. By dedicating a few minutes to self-evaluation, you can help identify the triggers that can make all the difference between getting the burnt-out party the help they need before it can negatively affect your workplace culture.

Today, with so many people surely feeling like they are losing control over things in their lives, the risk of burnout is greater than ever and needs to be mitigated so that negativity doesn’t seep into your office and cause more problems. One way to accomplish this is to establish some consistent and predictable routines to be followed in the office, emphasizing control, and decreasing the potency of employee burnout.

Resolving Burnout

If you plan to prevent this type of thing from happening in your office, you have to respect that anyone that is feeling stressed or tired or angry could have a negative impact on your business. The human mind is complex and extraordinarily capable, but it won’t always be able to deal with everything that is thrown at it.

If you or a member of your staff is on the verge of burning out, you will want to take some time to sort through the issues that are making you feel this way. On an organizational level, incentivized collaboration and other support incorporated into the workday can help prevent burnout even further.

Have you had problems with feelings of exhaustion from just being too stressed, being stretched too thin, or having too many demands on your time? Leave your stories in the comments section below and return to our blog soon for more great content.

Dec, 2020

Some Consumers are Aware of Data Privacy, But It’s Not Enough

With the holidays approaching, and with the global pandemic still underway, online shopping is going to be under even more demand than usual in 2020. With all of these transactions online, it would stand to reason that people would be more keen to follow best security practices than ever before. This week, we take a look at how people are staying secure online and whether or not the need for speed outweighs their security and privacy efforts.

The User Experience and How Security Fits

Let’s face it, the majority of Internet consumers have no idea about data security until something terrible happens. Until they get malware, or get their identity stolen, or their accounts hacked, they assume that there is enough built-in security to facilitate any behavior online. This is not ideal, obviously, but there are a small number of people, around 29 percent, that have enough security awareness to avoid certain websites.

This actually represents an increase in security awareness, and retailers that are now seeing their sales drop due to security concerns are feeling pressure to improve their security, especially considering that this year online retail sales are expected to climb by nearly 30 percent over 2019.

It is a balancing act. While on one hand, consumers demand a certain level of security while shopping online, they also demand superior usability. A streamlined user experience typically gets in the way of comprehensive security. Think about it this way: a third of users will just delete an application if they experience challenges in usability, including login problems. Therefore, businesses need to weigh what type of authentication measures they use.

Major Privacy Concerns are Troublesome for Consumers

Another issue that is plaguing online retailers, is how their data is used, stored, and managed. Most consumers are at least cognizant of how important it is to keep their personal and financial information protected and are quick to move past retailers that they deem don’t at least consider their privacy. In fact, 70 percent of consumers view their ability to deny developers of certain apps and websites the right to resell their information as a key consideration of whether or not to use that particular site/app. This goes against user practices, however, as nearly three-quarters of consumers will give over some information for a discount. Some consumers will provide a whole profile for as little as five percent off their purchase.

With this in mind, it is left to the business to figure out how to get the information they seek, while also paying attention to consumer’s growing distrust of online data collection. It’s a tough situation for both parties. Many businesses will try to provide discounts on a user’s birthday, but that is only possible if they actively work to collect that information. Some retailers routinely do business this way, but many are starting to find new ways to get more engagement from their customers.

Every Business Needs to Be Secure

Every single business can use data to their advantage, but with more people concerned about their online privacy than ever before, it is important to have the security protocols in place to allow them trust enough to do business with you. If you are looking for some help with your business’ security, or would like to learn more about the options available to help you find the happy medium between helping your customers protect their privacy, call the IT security professionals at NuTech Services today at 810.230.9455.

Nov, 2020

Don’t Forget to Add These Handy Home-Office Gadgets to Your Shopping List!

There is no denying that gifts are a major part of the typical festivities around this time of year, so it only seems that having some ideas as to what you’d like to receive to share with others is a helpful contribution. As our way of helping, we’ve decided to share a few tech-based suggestions that would find a welcome home in any home office or remote workspace.

Power

To start, let’s go to perhaps the most basic need of any technology user: the energy required to keep their devices on in the first place. Let’s not split hairs—the average home office setup might not have sufficient outlets available for all the devices that need to be powered.

If this applies to you, you may appreciate someone giving you a nice surge protector to help expand the number of available outlets you have while simultaneously protecting the devices you plug in.

In addition to this, there are assorted other power-related solutions available that you might consider adding to your wish list. For instance, you may be using two-factor authentication more often as you work remotely, making your mobile device something that needs to be kept on. A charging station or even a power bank may be a welcomed addition to your tools.

Comfort

Of course, productive work is impossible if you aren’t at least somewhat comfortable. You might want to consider adding a few amenities to your list that help support this goal. This can range from requesting a supportive new desk chair, to a comfy seat cushion or footrest, or even a pair of blue-light filtering glasses.

Honestly, there’s a lot of things that could be added to this list. There are tons of computer peripherals available that are specifically designed to make the user’s experience more suited to their preferences. Really, it’s about identifying what makes you the most uncomfortable throughout the workday and identifying the solution.

If you’re a fan of sipping warm beverages throughout the workday, consider asking for a desktop cup warmer.

Personality

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy, so it may not be the best idea to have a totally austere workplace. One or two small tchotchkes shouldn’t hurt your productivity unduly and can make for a great conversation starter if used in the office. Whether it’s a classic Newton’s cradle or some other perpetual motion device, something to fiddle with to help break up the workday can be valuable to have.

If you happen to have a stressful job, you could even ask for a miniature punching bag to attach to your desk. Fans of golf might ask for the pen set that doubles as a desktop putting green. Really, the possibilities here are endless.

Whatever you do choose to ask for, make sure you share your wish list in the comments to help inspire others.

Remember, while this may have been a sillier blog than we usually share, NuTech Services is always here to help you with your IT management and maintenance needs. Regardless of whether your team is working in-house or remotely, our managed services can give your business the benefits you want it to have. Learn more by giving us a call at 810.230.9455.

Nov, 2020

The User Experience Using Windows Apps on Chrome OS

After a long period, punctuated by no shortness of user demand, Chromebooks can now finally support Windows applications. Well, in a manner of speaking. Let’s examine the process that now allows a user access to the applications once denied to ChromeOS users, to consider if it is worth using after all.

A Few Brief Disclaimers

Before we get into how this is possible, we should mention a few of the prerequisites of this process.

As of right now, the Windows/ChromeOS compatibility is clearly intended for enterprise use, as it is configured for company-wide setups and rings up an annual per-user cost of $70. Furthermore, the method we are covering here is only compatible on higher-end Chromebooks, with at least an i5 or i7 Intel Core processor, 16GB of RAM, and 128GB of onboard storage.

How Does Windows Run on a Chromebook?

By collaborating with a company called Parallels, Google has successfully brought Windows to the Chromebook via the capabilities of a locally installed virtual machine. As a result, any Windows program can be utilized with or without an active Internet connection.

This approach makes the user experience somewhat unique, as the Windows install effectively runs in its own window, almost as if it were simply an application installed in Chrome OS. From within this window, the user can access and utilize the Windows software they need. As a result, it almost feels as though you’re utilizing a remote desktop software, despite the OS being present on your hardware. Starting up the Windows software will take you through the entire boot process you’d typically see in a Windows device, and applying updates will sometimes prompt you to restart the OS environment, rather than your entire device.

How Well Does This All Work?

Besides the unconventional user experience and a few minor oddities, however, hosting Windows on a Chromebook works just the same as using a Windows device. Some of these oddities can even be beneficial—for example, the same system clipboard applies to both environments, allowing you to copy from one OS and paste into the other. The file storage system also works across both platforms, allowing a user to open their Windows files in Chrome, even if the Windows environment is inactive.

According to reports on Parallels’ process, the only thing that doesn’t work as intended is the recording capability within the Windows environment (although there are currently efforts to resolve this issue in the works). You can even include custom business applications along with more common solutions… you just need to make sure that your Windows environment is configured correctly.

Why Would Google Do This?

It would appear that Google has seen the value of providing support for legacy applications—this entire initiative has been framed with that concept at the forefront—so that companies who rely on these applications can continue to operate effectively. So, despite the slight difference in how native these Windows applications seem as compared to those that are web-based or work within the Chrome or Linux operating systems, these changes only foreshadow further improvements to come, and a new perspective into how computing will need to be shaped in the future.

Don’t assume that you can simply take your existing budget Chromebook and install Windows on it off the bat, but it will be nice seeing more options for low-cost hardware that plays nicely with the network environments that most businesses already have.

What do you think? Do you see any utility in the Chrome operating system playing nice with Windows applications? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Nov, 2020

How Listening to Your Team Can Improve Your Use of Technology

Business leadership is an important trait for more than just a business’ leader by title. It is something that should be present at every level, encouraged by the individual at the top. To do so, it helps to ask your team the right questions to put them in a mindset of responsibility for the business’ well-being. Here, we’ve shared some of these questions to get you started.

“What does—and doesn’t—work?”

To motivate your team to take ownership over their responsibilities and invest in your successful operations, you need to communicate that what they say has credence. Your team can be a goldmine of insights if you hear what they have to say. Think about it, they’re the ones that have hands-on experience using the tools that you’ve put in place.

Asking this question also gives you the opportunity to hear any criticisms of the processes and procedures that your team is currently working through. Again, as the people actively following these processes, your staff will likely have the best impression of the most effective way to complete the task at hand. Listening to their feedback will tell you if a solution is proving ineffective or if the team needs more training and support to properly make use of it.

Regardless, your team members are likely to have information that you would find invaluable, so it pays to listen to what they have to say. Who knows, one of them may have a solution to a longstanding problem that just needs to be brought up.

“What can I do to help you succeed?”

This is an important question to ask, again and again, as time goes on. After all, as situations change, the answer to it will change as well. By asking this question, you can use the feedback you collect to improve your employees’ engagement levels that much better. Opening yourself to this kind of input enables your team to enjoy a greater level of access to you.

This question can also help you reinforce the data that you generate by asking the first question we discussed, furthering your efforts to improve your processes.

“What has your team done to further the organization’s goals?”

By asking this question of your team, you can help encourage them to collaborate more with each other and use the communication tools you’ve provided. Asking them what their coworkers have accomplished in tandem to them, helps you make sure that they remain aware of the company’s greater processes and how their efforts contribute to the organization’s success.

In asking it this way, you’re also encouraging this team-based focus to integrate into your company culture. As a result, your team members will begin to think more as a team and work together to accomplish everything on their shared agenda.

“How would you make what we offer our clientele better?”

This is a practical example of what we’ve already discussed—asking those with first-hand knowledge to draw upon their experience to help improve what it is you’re discussing with them. Seeking insights from those who are working directly with your clientele will help you to identify and resolve the biggest impacts influencing your company and services.

“If you were me, what would you do differently?”

This question can provide you with a variety of useful information, from the biggest pain points that your team is experiencing to all the small inconsistencies you may have missed. It also helps you encourage your team to see things from a perspective of leadership.

This is what you want, as it isn’t enough anymore to simply have drones pecking away at assigned tasks. You want to have people who are ready to embrace innovation and are engaged enough to work their way upwards in your organization. Handing the power over to your team, even in the hypothetical, helps to show the employee that their input is appreciated and valued.

Should this feedback ever reference any difficulties due to insufficient technology solutions and resources to complete a task, NuTech Services is here to help. Our services are designed to improve the efficacy and security of your workplace, boosting your productivity.

To learn more, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

Sep, 2020

Tip of the Week: Minding Your Manners in the Office Again

In the office, there are certain courtesies that most people follow, simply to make sure that the environment remains a peaceful and effective place to work. Working at home (as many have) makes many of these courtesies redundant. As many return to the office, resuming these manners will be important. Let’s go over some of the biggest shifts that your employees should remember as they head back to the office.

Mobile Device Use

When working from home, the reasonable threshold for mobile device use is significantly different. Theoretically, you could talk to someone on speakerphone with the phone across the room (although you shouldn’t). However, there are other people with you in the office that you could potentially distract.

Take a moment and remind your team of this. Instead of holding long conversations at their desk, make sure they try to keep their calls brief and that they do whatever they can to avoid disturbing others—including leaving the area, if necessary.

Instant Messaging Use

Again, we have the kind of situation where the standards in the office are much different than those for a remote worker. When working remotely, your team needs to be able to communicate and should do so in both a professional and social manner. This is not so much the case in the office.

Allow me to clarify. When a team is working remotely, some socialization via instant messaging can be considered appropriate, so long as it is not interfering with the workday’s processes. This is simply because they are working remotely and can’t socialize with one another face-to-face. In the office, your team can—and almost certainly will—socialize throughout the day amongst themselves. Again, if done in moderation this encourages cooperation, but it can become a hindrance to your productivity if it goes too far. There is also the risk that if your messaging solution is used too much as a stand-up special your team will be less likely to read the important messages that are shared.

Moderation is key, so make sure your team is aware of that as they come back in.

Proper Communications

With so many working from home, remote conferencing solutions have seen a lot of use in recent months. While it may have been out of necessity at first, many users have begun to see the value of the integrated webcam on their laptop when it comes to holding a virtual meeting.

Of course, if these technologies are so helpful to us now, why should that change once people are back in the office? Communications with prospects and clients alike can be improved through a good conferencing solution. Continuing to embrace their options will only help to make the business and its processes more agile.

Whenever it is that people finally get back to the office for the long term, there’s a good chance that some bad habits may have developed by that time. Make sure that you address your expectations in a comprehensive written company policy. Reviewing these policies with your team, along with your privacy and security standards, will help smooth out the transition process and make your expectations clear.

If you’ve already transitioned back, tell us, how has it gone? Are there any challenges that you didn’t expect? Share them in the comments and reach out to NuTech Services for any technical assistance needed. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn how we can help your team remain productive, wherever they’re working.

Sep, 2020

Are Developers Going to Eliminate the Password?

A lot is made about data breaches and hackers, but I think you’d be surprised to find out that over 80 percent of cyberattacks are the result of stolen authentication credentials. This has led many security-minded IT administrators to try and find a better way than the old username & password strategy that we’ve all been using for as long as there have been user accounts. One organization that is actively making waves trying to replace the username/password combo is Microsoft. They are at the forefront of the move to passwordless authentication.

What Exactly is Passwordless Authentication?

Instead of using passwords, you would effectively verify your identity through alternative means such as a verification app, a predefined security token, or even biometric information. These forms of authentication aren’t exactly new–most smartphones have a biometric authentication system onboard–but now they are beginning to become the predominant way that IT administrators set up their authentication systems.

Why Is This Shift Happening?

Reduced Cost

You may be surprised, but passwords actually can cost a business a lot of money. A study by Forrester Research found that each password reset can cost a company $70. By using passwordless authentication, there are no passwords to reset, so these costs are completely eliminated.

User Experience and Convenience

Every account you have has its own password. With more and more accounts being added each day, managing all the passwords that you need to remember can get difficult. Using methods that don’t require the need to remember passwords removes these challenges.

Security

The main reason passwords are used is for security, but with so many hackers and scammers trying to get people to mistakenly give over their passwords through phishing attacks and other social engineering attempts, removing that possible vector can immediately make a computing network more secure.

Microsoft’s Approach to Security

For the past few years, Microsoft has been transitioning to a passwordless authentication system. In May, over 150 million users were utilizing some type of passwordless authentication, including 90 percent of the software giant’s 150,000 employees. Microsoft has gone on the record stating that it is saving 80 percent of the support costs that they had seen with password-fueled systems.

At this point passwordless authentication seems to be a no-brainer. It is more secure, more affordable, better for the user, and far more manageable.

At NuTech Services, our IT experts can assist you in implementing passwordless authentication for your company. Give us a call to learn more at 810.230.9455. Of course, if you do continue to use passwords, be sure you use strong passwords!

Aug, 2020

How to Set the Tone for Workplace Collaboration

Collaboration—one of the more popular workplace buzzwords you hear nowadays, it serves a very important function for any successful business. Therefore, establishing healthy collaborative processes should be considered a priority in any establishment’s operations.

Let’s review what true collaboration is, and how you can lead your company towards more collaborative behaviors in your day-to-day undertakings.

Teamwork and Collaboration Aren’t the Same Thing

First, it is important that we define the difference between these two seemingly synonymous terms. While it is possible to work as a team without collaborating, collaboration requires some element of teamwork to be present.

Consider it this way: by definition, teamwork is the combined action of a group of people. While this could mean that each member of the team is contributing to each step along with their teammates, signifying collaboration, it might instead signify that the task and its requisite responsibilities have been divided up amongst the group.

Teamwork, yes. Collaboration? No.

Other differences between these apparent synonyms:

There is a tendency for a team to have a set leader to set the course of whatever project is being worked on, while collaboration thrives in an egalitarian group setting.
Teamwork can be effective in completing a business’ short-term goals, while long-term goals are better served by collaborative behaviors.
As we hinted at, teamwork requires someone to be in control of the group. Collaboration requires the group’s members to trust one another.

Collaboration Can Benefit Your Business and Your Team

Embracing the cooperative elements of a collaborative work environment can have universal benefits to those involved. For instance:

Your Operations

As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. However, if you have a whole team’s worth of heads, why not make the most of them to help advance your business? With collaboration instilled in your workplace culture, you will find it easier to come up with solutions to your operational challenges. Furthermore, your employees will be more engaged in their work, which itself brings considerable benefits, including increased revenue growth, diminished turnover, fewer accidents, and heightened productivity.

Your Employees

When it comes to the people you’ve hired to work for your business, collaboration can improve their experience as well. In addition to the shared knowledge that can benefit everyone’s quality of work, collaboration can improve the relationships between your employees. This is particularly important, as a study has shown that office friendships are the most important facet of work satisfaction for 70 percent of employees. Fittingly, collaboration leads to increased morale, which positively influences productivity and employee retention alike.

Encouraging Collaboration

So, with so much riding on your office collaboration, it is important that you endorse it in any way you can and actively encourage it amongst your workforce. But how does one do that?

There are a few strategies that you should adopt to accomplish improved collaborative habits.

Unite the Team with a Mission and Establish Expectations

It is important that your team understands how crucial they each are to your company’s success, as this can give meaning to their responsibilities in the context of your company’s shared overarching goal.

This goal is essentially your company’s mission. Once your mission is clarified, it becomes easier to set benchmarks that need to be met and what each team member’s individual role will be in accomplishing it.

Reward Collaboration and Innovation

Naturally, a positive response to collaborative efforts is going to provide no small motivation for your team to adopt them. A similar attitude toward new approaches in the office should also be in place. Risks can often lead to rewards, which means that an employee who is willing to try something new might discover a better method to fuel productivity. At the very least, they’ll confirm that you’re on the right path if your current methodology proves more effective.

Foster your team’s creativity and embrace input.

Support Your Team with Collaborative Tools

Here’s the hard truth: your employees are bound to have varying skill sets. Brian may be a brilliant writer, while Beth may have an affinity for customer service. Allowing your employees to work at those tasks they excel at will only benefit your outcomes. These outcomes can be augmented further using collaboration tools. With more people than ever before working remotely, these tools are more crucial than they have ever been. Make sure that your team is equipped with the technology solutions to collaborate even while distant from one another.

NuTech Services is here to help your business collaborate as effectively as possible, with the tools and resources your team will need at the ready. Learn more about how we can help sustain your effective operations through our managed services by giving us a call at 810.230.9455.

Feb, 2020

Social Engineering Isn’t Going Away

When someone starts talking about social engineering, people often get confused. They think we’re talking about cloning. While having two of something you love may not be terrible, the social engineering we routinely cite is much, much worse. Social engineering is the act of using social interactions to get people to make cybersecurity mistakes. Today, we’ll take a look at social engineering and how it can have a negative effect on your business.

What is Social Engineering?

Think of it like this: online, you have some type of social currency. Your personal information, your data, your interactions, your profiles, they all add up to your online life. If someone were to use that information to trick you into providing them access to your secure online accounts, you would be the victim of a social engineering attack.

Basically, a hacker uses what amounts to the fundamentals of human psychology to gain unauthorized access to an account. Rather than exploiting a vulnerability within a system’s technology, a social engineer will take advantage of the human resources to gain access through relatively simple psychology.

Successful social engineering can be the result of many different actions. Some include: carelessness by an individual, perceived kindness, reaction to fear, and business as usual. Let’s take a look at these actions and how social engineering schemes work as a result.

Individual Carelessness

When there is a lack of diligence carried out by an individual, there are openings for a social engineering attack. This includes trash thrown out with information on it, keeping login credentials out in the open, and other careless actions. It’s important that you and your staff understand that the best practices of password protection, such as using a password manager, are crucial to maintaining the integrity of your company’s network and infrastructure.

Perceived Kindness

Many people won’t think twice about helping someone that asks for help. Social engineering attackers take advantage of the better angels of our nature, by using people’s helpfulness to gain access to secure computing resources. Any person can fall for this type of attack. This is why we stress that in order to keep your digital and physical resources secure, a critical eye for potential intrusion works. That doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk, but if a situation is presented to you that’s out of the ordinary, take anyone’s helplessness with a grain of salt.

Business as Usual

When we picture a hacker, we all tend to think about them the same way. They are brooding people sitting in a dark room typing away at a computer. In social engineering attacks, this couldn’t be further from the truth. A popular social engineering tactic is to gain physical access to a large business–where there are often a lot of moving parts–and then spend time at the business looking for ways into secure digital environments. This could also include straight hatchet jobs, where your employees would help people outside of your business sabotage your access control systems.

Reaction to Fear

Finally, fear is one of the best motivators. By striking fast and threatening all types of negative consequences if a worker doesn’t help them get into a secure computing system, this kind of cyberattack can be a major problem.

NuTech Services Can Help Protect Your Business

If you are looking to secure your network from cyberattacks, including social engineering, the IT professionals at NuTech Services can help. Call us today at 810.230.9455 to learn more about how we can help you with the training you need to keep social engineering from causing problems for you.

Jan, 2020

Options for Effective Business Communications

Today’s business is much more collaborative than it was in the past. This means that there are a lot more communications to manage. Small businesses may use technology to try and bridge the gaps and large businesses use it to manage huge and complicated workflows. Today, we take a look at the average business’ internal communications, and which tools are best for increased productivity.

Let’s start by examining the reasons for communications that businesses use to manage their internal processes.

Information sharing – There is plenty of news that needs to make its way around any business. There are many different forms of communication that can accomplish this.
Collaboration – Today’s business needs to use collaborative strategies more than businesses of the past, and communication is a big part of any collaborative endeavor.

Now, let’s consider a few solutions that can help you to accomplish solid information sharing and collaboration.

Information Sharing

When you think of internal communications at work, the lion’s share of it will fill this need. Employees need to know certain things to maintain continuity of a business. This includes the publication of policies, procedures, plans, or potential changes to each. To accommodate the sharing of all this knowledge, businesses use the following tools:

Email – Email is the most tried-and-true solution for internal business communications because it works on every level. It is available, familiar, and with today’s email platforms, features dynamic tools that can help anyone get their point across.
Newsletters – Some companies choose to roll out a company newsletter for their staff. In these newsletters there are spotlights on points of emphasis. If you choose the newsletter as the tool you want to broadcast your internal communications, however, it has to be understood.

Collaboration

Nowadays, collaboration is important for every business’ success. Business moves faster and if you don’t have some semblance of coordination between your employees in separate departments, it can cost more than time. It can be the difference between generating revenue and not. Here are some tools used to boost collaboration:

Productivity Suites – Today, there are a lot of collaboration-based applications out there. They are designed for specific business needs, but the most effective are the productivity suites like Google’s G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 because they give you the collaborative tools and shared storage that any team needs to be successful.
Chat Applications and Forums – Instant messaging apps have improved collaborations tenfold. Forums have been useful since the early days of the Internet. Today, developers have created apps that combine the two and offer hundreds of outside software integrations to help promote collaboration.

The IT professionals at NuTech Services have the expertise and access to solutions to help you solve any of your business’ operational problems. Call us today at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

Oct, 2019

Tip of the Week: Your Cybersecurity To-Do List

It is a well-established and widely-known fact that your employees are some of the biggest threats to your business via the technology that they use each and every day. If your employees aren’t aware of the practices and policies that they need to follow to prevent these threats, you could find yourself in an unpleasant position. Here, we’ll review four categories of cybersecurity basics that everyone in an organization should abide by, and some tips to support each.

Preventing Phishing

Phishing has been becoming more and more of a favorite tactic by hackers, meaning that you and your employees need to look at any messages that come in via your email (or other solutions) with a critical eye. Here are some practices to help you minimize the influence of phishing on your business:

Watch for “Urgent” messages (or, for that matter, “URGENT!!!!!!” ones). Many phishers will try to manufacture urgency to make sure you click without taking a moment to consider it may be an attack. Resist this knee-jerk response.
Review in detail. Many phishing messages show distinct warning signs, such as blatant spelling or grammar errors (but this may just be the person you’re talking to as well). You can find other, more reliable signs by giving any links or the email address of the sender the “hover” test. Without clicking on anything, hover your cursor over the links and a small pop-up box will appear. This box will show you the address that really sent the email, or the link that you would actually be redirected to. Check to make sure all the details are kosher. For these reasons, it’s recommended that you don’t click on any links in emails. Instead, retype the URL into your web browser.
Double-check with the sender. If you have access to another means of communication with the supposed sender of an email, reach out to them using that other means to confirm that they sent it. If they didn’t, it’s a pretty safe bet that the email is fraudulent.
When in doubt, assume the worst. If you just aren’t sure how legitimate a given email is, don’t click around in it. Assume that it is a phishing attempt, and report it to your IT provider.

Establishing Safe Browsing Habits

Unfortunately, there are plenty of threats that reside online, and it is only too easy for a user to unwittingly allow them in. Make sure your users abide by the following policies to minimize the threats you’ll potentially need to deal with.

Think before you click. Similarly to links found in emails, there are plenty of opportunities online to let in a threat. Consider what you’re clicking on before you do so. (The “hover” trick works well here too… check out the bottom of the window.)
Reserve business computers for business purposes. Non-work-related browsing can bring users to websites that can host threats without the user realizing. Discourage your users from surfing the web, downloading content, and doing other things online unless they are work-related.
Moderate access. Use firewalls and content filtering to keep unwanted content off of your network, and users from accessing unwanted content, respectively.
Trust your IT resource. If you are even the slightest bit unsure about something, whether it’s a program you’ve been prompted to install or making sure your settings are focused on maintaining security, reach out to IT for assistance.

Enforcing Strong Passwords

It seems that everything requires a password these days, which makes it all the more important that you and your users are aware of how to keep them safe – especially in the workplace.

Don’t recycle passwords. Once a password has been used and replaced, it is best to not use it again – this is why you’ll often find a “you have used this password too recently” message if you attempt to use it again within a certain timeframe. This is the same reason that passwords should not be used for more than one account – if that password is compromised, you’ve just lost control of multiple accounts.
Avoid easily-guessed passwords. As a way to try and come up with a password that is easy to remember, many people will resort to using common elements in their password – pet names, maiden names, birthdays or anniversaries – or use a simple phrase or a string of numbers. The entire point of a password is to make it so that others are unable to access one of your accounts, so making it something that can be guessed is counter-productive.
Consider leveraging passphrases instead. Passphrases are not only typically more secure than a password, they also have a tendency to be more memorable. Let me ask you this… which of these two would you find more memorable, “F4njUJ29S5” or “pearquiethigh?” You can also use basic substitution to make you passphrase more secure, turning our example into “pe@rqu!e+h!gh” instead.
Use a password manager. One of the main reasons that people reuse passwords so often and neglect to change them is the fact that they are scared of forgetting them. A password manager can help reduce this by securely saving all of your different passwords behind one master password.

Protecting Your Business’ Data

Finally, there are many threats out there to your business’ data – including any you have on your clients or your employees. You have a responsibility to yourself, as well as these clients and employees, to make sure that this data is as secure as possible.

Make sure your business’ data is backed up. There are so, so, so many ways that your business could lose its data. While it may be attacked, it could just as (if not more) easily be lost due to equipment failure, user error, weather conditions… the list goes on and on. If your on-site data is lost, you will want to make sure you have an up-to-date copy squirreled away in the cloud to reference.
Protect your assets with access control. You need to be concerned about both the security of your digital files, and of your actual business location. If you’re using multi/two-factor authentication to secure your online resources, or requiring identity confirmation in order to enter certain areas of the business… you need to be doing both.
Maintain your security solutions. The thing about security software is that it isn’t something that you can just set up and count on indefinitely. Attackers are always examining these solutions to find vulnerabilities, so it is important that you regularly update and patch the ones you use to keep them safe. Every solution you have should actually be set up with security in mind. A glaring example is your company’s wireless. Not only should that be secured with a password, it should be hidden away from outside users.
Keep your payment options compliant. For your sake, and the sake of your clients, you should make sure your business is compliant to whatever regulatory standards that apply to it… including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Following these guidelines is a great start to ensuring your company’s security. NuTech Services can help get you this far, and beyond. Reach out to us at 810.230.9455 to learn more about what we can do.

Jul, 2019

Tip of the Week: How to Use Instant Messaging Professionally

Communication is paramount in any business environment, which makes it crucial that your business is equipped with the tools that allow this communication to take place. In light of this, many businesses have embraced instant messaging applications in the workplace. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over how to most productively and professionally utilize instant messaging.

Why Effective Communications are So Critical

There are a few reasons that you want your business’ internal communications to be clear and effective.

Fewer Errors

Miscommunication is rarely a good thing, but in the business setting, it has the potential to be crippling to your operations. If the correct information isn’t shared at the right time, with the right people, productivity will suffer. On the other hand, proper communications can help minimize, or even avoid, many potential workplace errors.

Increased Accountability

When an organization keeps its communications open across the board, it is prone to see an associated increase in companywide accountability. From owner to intern, being responsible for (and being held responsible for) certain milestones in a process keeps each member of a team on-task and motivated.

Improved Teamwork

Naturally, when members of a team communicate properly, they are better able to work cooperatively. As a result, problems often become easier to solve, as ideas may more easily flow and develop. Additionally, potential issues between departments are more easily resolved, preventing interpersonal concerns from affecting the work.

Efficient Problem-Solving

The ability to communicate clearly enables a team to better pool their talents to much more efficiently overcome any issues that may arise. Whether a problem is strategic or technical, having the capability to swiftly solve it will only benefit a business’ operations.

Instant Messaging in the Workplace

Naturally, all of the above outcomes can (and often do) result from the use of an instant messaging application… as long as it’s the right one.

You need to make sure that your chosen solution is intended for business purposes, which means you need to use an enterprise-grade instant messaging application. In addition, you also need to be sure that you and your staff are properly leveraging your solution. Try to encourage the following practices and behaviors in your staff to ensure that your instant messaging solution doesn’t turn into an instant messaging problem:

Keep it in check. You don’t want a solution that is meant to be a productivity booster to actually harm it. There’s a very real difference between your staff properly leveraging instant messaging capabilities, and aimlessly chatting all day. Encourage your staff to keep their conversations pertinent to the workplace and the task at hand (at least as much as possible).
Remain professional. Again, conversations on your instant message solution should be far and away focused on workplace matters. It is important that your staff knows this, and resists using the solution to share jokes, GIFs, or memes excessively. Moderation is key.
Don’t rely too much on it. Not all conversations are appropriate for an instant messaging platform, especially those that contain sensitive or overly complicated details. Some conversations are better shared in person, or in an email, where lengthier messages can be sent.

Have you ever utilized instant messaging in the workplace? Share your experience with us in the comments!

Jun, 2019

Tip of the Week: Are Workplace Wellness Programs Effective? It Depends

Workplace wellness programs, despite being an $8 billion industry, are a bit of a quandary for employers – as the jury is still out over whether or not these kinds of programs are effective. For this week’s tip, we’ll examine if a wellness program might be a good fit for you.

Study after study has been performed over the years about the impact of workplace wellness programs, producing various results. Some have indicated health improvements and cost savings, while others haven’t. However, the studies that were performed in the past had a high rate of issues. Whether there was no comparison group, or the chance of personal bias influencing signups, these studies simply didn’t provide reliable data.

Now, however, researchers from the University of Chicago and Harvard have conducted a large-scale study that meets the requirements that such a study is usually beholden to.

The BJ’s Wholesale Club Experiment

This experiment began by selecting 20 of the big-box retailer’s outlet centers to offer an employee wellness program. 140 additional BJ’s locations did not offer any such program. Across the 160 clubs involved, there were almost 33,000 workers employed.

Participants filled out a health risk questionnaire, took health classes, and had basic medical tests performed. After 18 months, their progress was evaluated…and that’s where things got interesting.

Despite the workers who were participating in this program reporting healthier behaviors than they once exhibited, almost all other factors were left unchanged. Blood sugar levels, job performance and attendance, and employer health care spending all were unaffected.

Why This Might Be

There’s a good chance that the results of this study were skewed by the incentives offered to participants. Participants were given gift cards for attending wellness courses, for a total incentive of about $250. According to founder and CEO of Bravo Wellness, Jim Pshock, this may just not have been enough. According to Pshock, any amount less than $400 is only going to be enough to incentivize people to do what they were already going to do anyways. As Pshock put it: “It’s simply too small to get them to do things they weren’t already excited about.”

Another study, published in 2018 by the University of Illinois, essentially debunked the idea of the workplace wellness program, concluding that it neither reduced costs or impacted behaviors – although this study also found that participants of wellness programs were those who were already healthy and motivated. This potentially suggests that the true benefit of these programs isn’t to make their existing workforce healthier, but to attract and retain healthier employees.

There are other potential contributing factors as well. A recent survey indicated that 84 percent of employees saw their wellness programs as “one-size-fits-all,” a concept that doesn’t really work will all of the various factors that contribute to health. Eighty percent of respondents to that same survey claimed that more personalization would contribute to their participation in wellness programs.

Why You Want to Adopt a Workplace Wellness Initiative

Admittedly, we’ve provided a mixed defense for these kinds of activities, but it cannot be denied that anything you can do to promote the health of your employees will only benefit your business – healthy employees tend not to call in sick, after all.

There are other benefits to these programs as well:

Reduced Stress – The stress management benefits of healthier behaviors have been well documented. By adopting these healthier behaviors, you and your staff can reduce the stress that comes from the office and approach the source issues more effectively.
Community Building – As the boss, you want your entire team to work as, well, a team. Unfortunately, if certain departments don’t work together much, this kind of relationship can be hard to develop. However, many activities that would fall under a workplace wellness initiative can help cross departmental lines, drawing your team closer together.
Better Moods – Wellness programs allow employees to try out new activities, which can not only add to their wellbeing, but can also keep them engaged and productive. Plus, studies have indicated that employees who participate in these programs were generally happier with their work situation.

What have you done to cultivate a more health-conscious workplace? Share your strategies in the comments!

Jun, 2019

Tip of the Week: Company Culture Can Be a Huge Business Strength

When considering a business’ strengths, there is a tendency to focus on its more quantifiable aspects – it generates x dollars in revenue, or leverages advanced solutions a, b, and c. While these kinds of competitive advantages are valuable to have, it is also important to recognize how critical one of your more qualifiable strengths can be: your company culture.

Your company’s culture is its identity – the impression that your company leaves when someone makes contact. As such, there are assorted reasons that it pays to create an engaging and inclusive company culture.

Draws in Talent

Let me ask you this: would you rather work someplace that had a reputation of nurturing incoming talent and ensuring that this talent had the resources and access that they needed to succeed in their position, or someplace notorious for leaving new employees to fend for themselves, providing minimal direction when direction is necessary to successfully complete a task? My money is on the first option.

One of the biggest benefits to creating a positive culture in the workplace is that more people will want to make it their place of work. This gives you a wider pool of talent from which to select the best candidates, creating a stronger business.

Of course, attracting this talent is one thing, having it stick around is quite another.

Retains Talent and Reduces Turnover

As long as your company culture matches its reputation, the individuals who accept your offer of employment are less likely to leave, barring any personal circumstances that force them to. This is important, as the sudden loss of an employee can have assorted impacts on your business. These impacts can include dropped processes, missed opportunities, and the costs associated with finding, hiring, and onboarding someone to replace the lost employee.

Of course, you don’t have to worry so much about these impacts if your employees aren’t motivated to leave. This is where having a positive company culture is so valuable – you can better avoid the significant costs of losing an employee, continuing to benefit from their skills in the workplace. Research conducted by Gallup indicated that only 37 percent of employees engaged with their work were actively seeking new employment opportunities, compared to a staggering (albeit understandable) 73 percent of those who had disengaged from their work.

Columbia University conducted research as well, and their results followed in the same vein. According to their results, organizations with strong company cultures saw turnover rates of 13.9 percent. 13.9 percent, compared to the 48.4 percent turnover rates at companies with poor company culture.

Boosts Productivity

A happy employee is a productive employee, which translates to direct benefits for your business if your employees remain satisfied. The right company culture can motivate your employees significantly. The same Gallup research referenced above demonstrated that engaged employees saw productivity boosts of 21 percent. Another study, by IBM-owned Kenexa, suggested that organizations with an engaged workforce were able to bring in twice the income as an organization without these levels of engagement.

Reduces Employee Burnout

There are many reasons that an employee can experience some level of burnout, whether their schedules are overpacked or their hours are simply too long to be sustainable. However, a negative company culture is often overlooked as the root cause of an employee becoming disengaged with their work.

While employee burnout may seem like more of the employee’s problem at first consideration, there are some very real consequences that a business will need to deal with. For instance, employee burnout has been linked to an estimated 49 percent increase in workplace accidents, and a 60 percent increase in errors.

Stressed out employees are a liability to your company, but helping them to reduce that stress with a better company culture can turn these liabilities into true assets.

Better Attendance

Speaking of assets, your employees aren’t going to be very good ones if they are never in the office. A Harvard Business Review study reported an increase in employee absenteeism of 37 percent among disengaged employees. Naturally, if your employees aren’t completing their responsibilities due to this absenteeism, it is going to have an impact on both your business’ success and internal morale.

However, a more positive company culture encourages your employees to report to work, and as discussed above, leads to improved productivity while they’re there.

Is Company Culture Really So Important?

Based on the outcomes discussed above, it is pretty clear that the better your company culture is, the more effectively your business will be able to operate. So, how can you improve yours?

One way is to give your team the tools they need to complete their tasks more easily than they could with outdated and insufficient IT solutions – and the efficiency boost that new IT solutions will bring can free up some time to develop your company culture even more. NuTech Services can help to make sure that you are using the tools that are best suited for your company’s (and by extension, your employees’) needs. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more.