Blue Ridge Technology

Are your employees reporting security issues fast enough… or even at all? In the ongoing fight for digital security and safety, your team members are your first line of defense. But what does that mean for them exactly? Hopefully they know not to open that sketchy email attachment or click that suspicious link — but what should they do when they stumble across it? Their important role as your company’s frontline defenders shouldn’t stop when they hit the “delete” button on the email in question. You need more from them — and they might not know it yet. Here’s what your team members need to know about what to do once they spot a potential threat. Overreliance on Security Tools Can Be Dangerous You might be thinking that your business is protected because you have some security tools in place already. First of all, good for you: you’ve taken the time and effort to get some level of security set up, and that’s a massively important first step. Having tools in place is way, way better tha...

Are your productivity tools actually slowing you down? Depending on who you ask, we’re either living in a golden age of remote work powered by the best productivity tools the world has ever seen — or we’re drowning in “productivity” tools and remote work isolation. As usual, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. We really do have access to better, more powerful productivity tools than any previous working generation, and they really do enable remote and hybrid work in powerful ways. At the same time, there really are too many of them. If you suspect your productivity tools aren’t delivering on the promise of higher productivity and better collaboration, you’re probably right. Good news: you can take steps to fix this and truly benefit from the right set of productivity tools. Here’s what you need to know. Too Many Choices, Too Many Tools The first problem many businesses encounter is this: they’re just using too many tools. And who can blame them? There are hundreds of softw...

Time for a Work from Home Review? As we finally get to a place where the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be winding down (or at least toward endemic status), many businesses are reassessing their emergency work-from-home plans. If you opened up to remote and/or hybrid work for the first time due to the pandemic, your teams might be wondering what’s next. Maybe you’re wondering that yourself! Do your teams hate working from home, or do they love it? Are they eager to come back to the office, or will they quit if you require it? We’ll provide some key answers here, plus top strategies for supporting your at-home or hybrid workers long-term. Desire for Remote and Hybrid Work Has Never Been Stronger So, what do your employees want? Polling your employees can offer insights, of course. But some might be reticent to tell you how they really feel. And there’s already some good research out there that can give you a hint about what they’re thinking. According to a wide-ranging FlexJobs survey co...

Business Titans Connect Microsoft recently announced yet another big update coming soon to Microsoft Teams, its popular collaboration app that’s part of every Microsoft 365 and Office 365 package. This one seems a little less obvious at first — you might even wonder what the point behind it is. The new, groundbreaking integration? LinkedIn . Yes, believe it or not, Microsoft has owned the business-oriented social network since 2016. Up until now, LinkedIn has stayed pretty much independent from other Microsoft products (at least as far as end users can see). But starting soon, Microsoft is bringing some deeper integrations between the social network and at least one of its popular office apps. Here’s everything you need to know about the coming update. The Big Change: See Colleagues’ LinkedIn Profiles in Some Teams Chats So what’s the gist of the new update? Starting soon, Teams will gain the ability to pull in content from team members’ LinkedIn profiles. You’ll be able to surface tha...

Adapting to the new “Work from Home” environment Millions of us across the world have responded amazingly to the challenges of working from home and many people who have taken this challenge to change the workplace will never return to their old jobs. So for people who can not take home their laptops or desktops with them at all times, it is crucial to know how best to train their team on software when they work from home. For these people, software training in the workplace is essential. And training on the software at home is even more essential. A study conducted by O*NET over three years identified that more than 50% of the people asked about software training said that this was essential. Training staff remotely In a world where in person training is no longer always an option, we must look at how we can support our people digitally. If we can’t train them, we have even less chance of retaining them. Using video, webinars and workshops are all great ways to encourage your colleagu...