IT Security and the Flexible Worker

Organisations are facing a steady increase in the number of employees who are adopting flexible, remote and mobile working practices. This is being encouraged by legislation relating to family friendly work patterns and attempts to curb global warming through reduced fuel consumption. In addition, the UK’s flexible working scheme has been extended to parents of children up to the age of 16. This means that over 10 million employees have the right to request to work part-time, from home or make a range of other variations to their working hours, including job sharing, compressed hours or school term-time hours. Employers who decline requests for home working for invalid reasons may be taken to an employment tribunal where they can be legally required to pay the employee up to 8 weeks pay in compensation. 

In this new working environment, employers are also responsible for the security of data that is handled by employees who work full time or part time between offices and home environments.

Are you aware of the implications of these new working practices on your Data Protection and legal requirements? If you’re in any doubt, our training video is the excellent place to start.

It will help you to:

• establish a set of policies to ensure that your staff are fully aware of their personal and legal responsibilities over the security of your data;
• identify the types of jobs that may be suitable for home working;
• assess the risks that are presented by home-workers
• identify the technical security measures that will need to be implemented to reduce the risk of data loss, theft or damage;
• offer your staff a step-by-step guide on how to set up a communications network between their home and your office so that data is encrypted and that your systems are offered maximum protection against the risk of viruses and other forms of malware.

Duration 21 minutes

Suitable for all staff

(Additional recommended material: Hand-book on Data Protection and the Home worker)