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collaboration tool intrusion focus

Collaborative tools need your control to prevent employee overload

  • min read
    • In centuries past, scholars at England's older universities had a foolproof system to make sure they could work in peace. Offices had two sets of doors. If only the inner door was closed, visitors were welcome to knock, but shutting the outer oak door (known as sporting the oak) meant do not disturb – and everyone, no matter how senior, was expected to observe. In 2021 many remote workers would welcome the digital equivalent of that sturdy oak door. Conferencing and workflow platforms like Slack, Zoom and Teams have revolutionized remote working – without these, the COVID-19 pandemic may have seen knowledge-based businesses struggle. But now, some employees find themselves on a carousel of virtual meetings, instant messages and urgent emails with little time for unbroken concentration. It's called 'collaborative overload,' 'tyranny of the inbox' or 'the collaboration curse.' Among its most influential commentators is bestselling business author and Georgetown University Professor Cal Newport. He popularized the term 'deep work:' Giving a single task undivided attention for an extended time. The power of deep attention In Professor Newport's words, "Deep work makes you better at what you do and provides the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craft, yet most spend their days in a frantic blur of email and social media." Emma Birchall is co-managing director of HSM, a future of work research consultancy. She told us, "We all thought the move to remote working would give us time to reflect, and that not sitting next to colleagues would give us space for deep work. But we've found most diaries are back-to-back with online meetings and notifications go off all day." It's an issue unlikely to go away as the pandemic recedes. Research commissioned by Kaspersky suggests some remote working will be a permanent fact of life for many, and "hybrid working" will become the new normal. Most (74 percent) don't want to return to some pre-COVID work practices, with 37 percent hoping for a flexible mix of working at home and in the office. What collaboration is meant to be like To get a handle on the problem, it's useful to identify what collaboration is meant to achieve. Alison Coward founded Bracket, an agency that helps teams work together more effectively. She champions 'purposeful collaboration:' Bringing diverse minds and skillsets together to solve complex challenges, but with each person's contribution developed through deep work. The most productive teams have periods of individual work alternating with collaborative sessions. Just being on Slack or Zoom doesn't equal collaboration but can give the illusion of it. It's a misconception that the tools can solve communication problems. One task at a time Sophie Leroy, Associate Professor of Management at University of Washington studies how technology can foster unhelpful work habits. Central to her work is 'attention residue:' When you break off a task to see to something else, your thought process can't disengage immediately from the old task. It means employees constantly hijacked by online interactions will always work at reduced effectiveness. She told Secure Futures, "I study different types of interruptions. There are intrusions, like people requesting my attention and making me switch tasks even though I may not want to. Then there are distractions – things more in the background. An email may pop up, for example, and you wonder what's in it. It starts bothering you. "Since the pandemic changed how we work, I've seen a huge increase in intrusions and distractions, and – perhaps worst of all – in multitasking. You may be in a meeting with many other windows open on your screen and be tempted to check emails and search chats. These things would've been rude in face-to-face meetings, but now no one knows you're doing it. "Because communication is so much more informal using online platforms, you get into the habit of doing this all the time. It's a problem because multitasking harms productivity." It's not just a matter of workers being interrupted, but also interrupting others. Leroy says, "Let's assume you're working on something and you have a question. Your chat window is open, so it's easy to pipe up with, 'do you have any information on this?' The technology tempts you to do that. "In an office, you might've written down the question for later when you see your colleague, but you don't get that chance for informal contact when working remotely. And these little interruptions help you feel connected to colleagues, which may motivate more interruptions." Taking control of collaboration tech One way to overcome intrusion from collaboration tools and give employees more chance to work deeply is to set ground rules across the organization, says Harriet Molyneaux, co-managing director at HSM. "Have a communications charter that sets expectations about when people will be online and whether they're supposed to be checking various channels." A company communications charter may limit the number of channels, say which digital platforms are appropriate for which kinds of collaboration or recommend 'asynchronous' methods (that can be answered later, like email) be used in place of synchronous ones, like an instant message. It should also include policies for urgent communications. Molyneaux says, "In our organization, outside normal working hours, we're not expected to be on instant messaging channels or answer email. Any messages there are picked up the next day. If you need someone urgently, you must use WhatsApp or call them. "We can all be smart in our use of tools. Most platforms let you set your status. If you're out for an hour or taking some time for deep thinking, make it 'please only contact me if urgent and do so by phone.' It's about getting team members to take control of tech rather than just thinking, 'we can contact everyone all day, every day.'" Sticking to the rules For a communications protocol to work, everyone must follow it. If some managers start arranging interactions outside the agreed framework, a digital presenteeism culture – employees feeling pressure to be always available online – can creep back. Sophie Leroy says, "You may say we're going to limit online meetings to 10 to 11 am and 1 to 2 pm each day, and the rest of the time is for focused work. But people may still think, am I going to be monitored and punished if I'm not visible? Will I be considered non-productive? Will I miss out on information if others are online? The organization must be clear about all this." It can be difficult to wean people off the habit of always checking messages on different channels. Leroy suggests a gradual approach. "You have to retrain your focus. Start with not checking for 10 minutes, then 15, up to an hour. It's hard, but people realize it's good for them and want to do it." Technology can help. Time-management methods like the Pomodoro Technique rely on breaking the working day into short, indivisible intervals, each for a single task. There are apps and browser plug-ins to help with this. "They're useful, but it must be individual choice," says Alison Coward. "Managers shouldn't mandate them. Everyone is different. It's about giving people time and space to find their own productivity techniques." Employees need the chance to give their work deep focus, free from interruptions and distractions that unbridled digital collaboration tools can bring. As these tools are suddenly everywhere thanks to the COVID-19 work-from-home shift, leaders must ensure their organization has policies to support deep work and prevent unnecessary intrusion. Most importantly, everyone must follow the protocols, from the newest intern to the C-suite. When we face high-tech problems, we should step back and remember we'll always need low-tech human values, like establishing and sticking to boundaries based on mutual respect and understanding.
Cybersecurity for home working in a hurry

Boost cybersecurity for remote working teams with system hardening

  • min read
    • COVID-19 has forced people around the world to work from home. For IT managers, in all industries and sizes of organization, there's more security risks to deal with. Why? Outside of the workplace, with on-premises tech teams on-hand when things go wrong, there's a whole host of threats that extenuate for employees working from home. Remote working heightens cyber-risks With no boss or co-workers looming over colleagues, there's more temptation to do personal things on a work device. Like shopping, letting your kids use your corporate laptop for homework, or succumbing to clickbait from untrusted websites. Right now, we're seeing a rise in phishing attacks related to COVID-19, falsely promising 'urgent health advice.' Outside the office, there's a higher risk your employees may unwittingly unleash a cyberattack. It could happen by doing something as simple as updating a free application like a PDF reader; many free downloads are riddled with vulnerabilities – opportunities for hackers to force access to your machine. If corporate devices aren't patched properly, it increases the chances those hackers will cause havoc. But now the majority of endpoint devices are remote and not on high speed corporate networks, patching is increasingly difficult. As the COVID-19 lockdown continues, updates will fall behind the release of new versions, making devices more vulnerable so it crucial to use endpoint solution layers to your advantage. If you haven't already, invest in training your homeworking employees to become more aware of cyber-risks. Aside from education, system hardening can help you minimize remote working attacks. What is system hardening? Imagine this: Your employee has a child who's been given a USB stick from their school with homework. The school doesn't have the best cybersecurity, and there's malware on it. Once that's on your colleague's work device, it can be compromised. But by disabling particular devices from accessing your USB ports, you eliminate that risk. This is an example of system hardening by tightening up access to your devices. So what else can you do? Like this story, it's simple: start with the basics. Layers are critical to your cybersecurity defenses First and foremost, if you don't have endpoint security protection – security solutions, like anti-malware that helps protect computers from cyberattacks – get it on all devices across your IT network. Many businesses buy endpoint protection just for blocking malware, but there are other layers within the software to protect your devices. Use all the security features, or layers, to your advantage. Firstly, use features which lets you limit or block specific applications you don't trust. Next, add a web control layer that blocks particular websites or their categories, which could include social media (unless that's part of your job), ecommerce or adult websites. The anti-malware layer should be your last defense against cyberattacks: Build the layers from the bottom up so hackers have more hurdles to jump before they get here. Harden first, invest in new tech next I work with IT managers in enterprises. About three in four of the people I speak to aren't using the full features of their endpoint product. The issues they're concerned about, like ransomware attacks, could be prevented with system hardening, yet there's a huge push to move onto next-gen technologies which defend by predicting, detecting and actively respond to cyber-threats. While these solutions are critical for the future of cybersecurity, before investing in more advanced tech, get the basics right first. If you don't, when you launch new solutions, you'll spend most of your IT team's time fixing smaller issues, like cleaning up malware, that could've been sorted through system hardening. Need next-level protection? If you have skilled IT security experts in your team, or you're handing sensitive customer data, you'll need more than just endpoint security. Consider upgrading to solutions like Kaspersky's EDR which offers response and forensic capabilities in the event of a cyberattack. It's simple: with system hardening, you're making each device as resilient to a cyberattack as it can be. With multiple layers of security in place, your IT team will have more time to focus on critical issues and keep the systems running smooth.

Just how did remote working come to be a global phenomenon?

  • min read
    • You probably know the story by now – remote working is growing more popular by the day. Giving employees the chance to work more flexibly from a café, beach or front room of their choice is heralded as a clear way to improve staff productivity and morale. And working on the move also benefits employees who are often on the road. It's a logical move for employers looking to adapt and succeed in today's responsive world. But like most 'explosive' trends, remote working has been on the rise for quite some time already. The remote working phenomenon From humble farmhands to modern-day digital nomads, here's how remote working has evolved: Tech inventions have helped, too As you can see, remote working only really became possible after cloud computing was widely adopted. But there have been numerous technological advancements that have helped facilitate this trend. Here are the key ones: Mobile phones We love them, don't we? They've come a long way from the bricks of yesteryear, mind. Now, our trusty tablets and smartphones keep us connected wherever we go. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture You, the airport, and the ability to access work emails from your own phone. BYOD culture means workers can stay on top of their work, wherever they are, right at their fingertips. Collaboration apps Platforms like Slack and Sharepoint allow remote workers to stay connected globally, and with the trusted help of cloud SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions like Google Docs, you can work on documents and projects in sweet harmony from opposite sides of the world. Co-working spaces You know the ones. A home away from home for many modern-day remote workers. More often than not, these buildings are beautifully decorated with enough 'breakout spaces' to host everyone in a small business at once. Probably why they're so expensive. Virtual reality Whaaaaaat?! You heard right. Soon cometh the emergence of virtual-reality meetings. Just strap on a VR headset, dress your avatar for the occasion (no, not in the pajamas you're wearing!) and connect with colleagues from the comfort of your sofa. No more muffled conference calls (and no barking-dog-in-the-background avatar. Maybe). This is the future. Work anywhere, secure everywhere This is all well and good. But with the proliferation of remote working and flexible-working arrangements, what's the impact on cybersecurity? From malware and ransomware to decentralizing control of your IT networks, there are a few critical things you'll need to do to protect your business. Kaspersky's whitepaper on remote working has all the key data and recommendations on the future of remote working and how to keep your business and your employees safe… even when they're out sipping lattes in the café while collaborating on shared docs.
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About Secure Futures

Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

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