Monitoring the activity of employees isn’t something employers have the ability to do 24/7 without dedicating people to the tasks and managing the entire team. And everyone knows that micromanaging is harmful to efficiency, productivity, and staff morale. However, ensuring employees aren’t putting your business at risk isn’t something to be neglected or overlooked. Even one minor mishap or an employee mistake can spell disaster, and it’s your job to ensure that everyone is on the same page and mistakes are limited for improved standards across the board. Let’s take a look at how you can do that.
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Website Control
Allowing employees to access all kinds of websites can be disastrous if they access unsecured websites or click unverified links while on company networks. This puts your entire company and your data at risk, and it can be the beginning of a cybersecurity issue that can be difficult to rectify, not to mention bounce back from.
A website blocker is a control you can put in place to limit access to specific websites and issue warnings and advice over accessing potentially harmful content. You can personalize the settings to protect your account from unmanaged devices, websites that can be risky, or other practices regarding internet access and activities that go against company policy to add extra defenses.
Training to Reduce Employee Mistakes
Your team needs to undergo extensive training in company policies and cybersecurity to avoid the common traps that employees can find themselves in that risk the business. These can include providing excellent customer service, not clicking on unverified links, protecting data, etc. The more thorough employees are in what you do and the more knowledgeable they are about company guidelines, the easier it will be for them to limit mistakes.
Training needs to be ongoing as soon as things change or develop or you integrate new systems, for example. This can address any knowledge gaps and ensure everyone is at the level they need to be.
Standardized Protocols
Running alongside training, you need a set of stringent company protocols that everyone needs to adhere to. These standardized protocols create a unified work environment and ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. The more they know about what is expected of them, the more actively they can work toward the protocols in place, which can help to limit mistakes. Provide guidebooks, either physically or digitally, so employees can access them when required and refer back to them.
Error Prevention Tools
Error prevention tools are invaluable in reducing human error, automating repetitive tasks, assessing quality standards, and providing real-time feedback. The more technology you use to help remove the risk of mistakes from the human element, the easier it will be to not only reduce employees’ workloads, meaning mistakes are less likely to happen, but also to catch them before they become critical so you can rectify them immediately. This instills confidence in your team’s ability to handle tasks effectively.
Automated Workflows
Automated workflows help reduce manual steps, and the fewer manual steps you have to complete, the fewer mistakes you can make. You want to streamline how your team works and automate where possible to help. You create a workflow that is methodical and accurate and works to support your team and not detract from what they do.
Feedback
Asking for and delivering constructive feedback is paramount to help you reduce mistakes. Because if people aren’t told that something isn’t right, they won’t know and won’t change how they work. You need to be clear, concise, and direct when delivering feedback and use it as a training experience to help the employee. Similarly, you need to be open to accepting feedback on what is and isn’t working so you can make beneficial changes that support employees and help them work to their best ability and not under pressure, thus increasing the risk of mistakes.
Improve Communication
Crossed wires and incorrect information are surefire ways to produce employee mistakes with ease. And companies need to be looking at how they communicate to reduce the risk of miscommunication within the company. Using collaborative channels instead of emailing people individually or relying on one person to deliver information can work well, as can reducing the limits on who you communicate with and who needs to be included in certain communications for effective results. The more transparent people are about communicating needs and requirements, the easier it will be for employees to work as they need to and not make mistakes.
