Complyatwork december

Comply at Work

safety snippets&

business bytes

December 2014

Tel 01204 772977 or 07792 400 503

Upcoming Courses P3

Unwanted Christmas Present P4-5

Cyber Crime P6-7

Why’s That Good P8-9

In the Spotlight P10-11

P2 | Safety Snippets Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503

Safety

Snippets

Safety Snippets | P3 e-mail [email protected] www.complyatwork.co.uk

Comply at Work

UPCOMING COURSES PLANNED FOR THE NEW YEAR

CIEH Level 2 Award In Health and Safety – one day course

One Day Emergency First Aid training

Asbestos Awareness

Manual Handling Awareness

DSE assessor Training

We are yet to schedule the dates for the above courses in January/February.

Please let us know if you would like to register your interest

for any of the above as soon as possible to reserve your place!

DON’T MISS OUT.

Tel 01204 772977


Safety

Snippets

Source: Indicator

If you would like any further advice on any aspect of fire safety, or

would like our FREE Arson checklist with no obligation, please get in

touch.

e-mail [email protected] www.complyatwork.co.uk

Comply at Work

Safety Snippets | P5

Unwanted Christmas present

You’re closing your business for a Christmas break but have heard from the fire brigade that it’s a prime time for an arson attack. What are some simple steps to make sure that on your return, everything is just as you left it?

As you left itPremises that are going to be empty for a period of time can be a problem. We all want to return from our break to find things just as we left them. Our source at the fire brigade has informed us that holiday periods such as Christmas are unfortunately prime times for arson and vandalism to take place. 45% of all serious fires result from arson and 80% of businesses never recover.

Arson is the largest single cause of major fires in the United Kingdom, currently costing an estimated £2.2 billion a year, which equates to £44 million every week. Thanks to annual shutdowns, quiet business parks and long hours of darkness, there are ample opportunities for attacks to take place. However, there are some basic precautions to ensure that you’re not affected.

Action planThis should include all the measures you can take to reduce arson to a minimum. For example, decide how you’ll deal with packaging and waste paper if it’s normally kept outside. Start by looking for sources of combustible material and consider how easy it would be for an intruder to ignite them.

Tip. Waste materials such as pallets and packaging materials should be kept locked away or disposed of. If you use a skip, try to get it emptied before the break or ask your skip provider to deliver one with a lockable lid. Pallets and other wood should not be stored outside, so ensure your plan deals with this. Combustible material should be kept away from perimeter areas where a cigarette end or match could be thrown into it. It’s not just deliberate attacks you should consider; a discarded cigarette or New Year’s Eve firework may not be noticed during a shutdown. Make sure there aren’t any chemical containers left out; even empty ones may still have fumes which could explode in a fire.

VehiclesDon’t leave vehicles on public view. Cars and vans can be broken into and thieves may set fire to them to avoid detection. Such a fire could lead to more than just the loss of a vehicle!

Tip. If possible, park vans and vehicles away from any buildings. If the worst case happens and they’re set alight, this will reduce the risk of a fire spreading to your buildings.

LightingThe use of good external security lighting can help to deter intruders. When you review your external lighting make sure that there are no dark spots close to your premises.

Tip. If you feel that your lighting leaves some dark areas of your site, hire some temporary lighting to cover the holiday period. By using it, you can save on the expense of permanent lighting and move it to the areas you feel it’ll have the best effects. Don’t put the lights too close to your perimeter as you may upset your neighbours (especially if you illuminate their bedrooms at night) and they may become a target for children throwing stones etc.

To summarise: Deal with any dark corners of the site and make sure there’s nothing which will support a fire if left unguarded. Make sure any skips are emptied before the site is closed, or if not, that there’s a lockable lid to prevent access.


Tip 1 Know what really matters to your organisation

Determine the information assets held by your business, including tangible assets such as laptops and servers, and also data, IP and your reputation. Then assess the impact to your business of loss, damage or disruption to them. Could you carry on? Would your customers be affected? Would you be able to fully recover and how long would it take?

Working out which of your assets matter most, and the implications of an incident involving them, means you can prioritise what needs protecting.

Tip 2 Work out who might want to attack

Understanding who might want to obtain your information, damage your reputation or steal your assets can help you think about what type of attack you might face. Typically, threats come from one of four groups:

• Organised crime

• Hacktivists

• Cyber espionage – nation state

• Insider

Consider which risks are most relevant to you, including the implications of the locations you do business in - some countries may monitor internet traffic or have less stringent privacy legislation for example.

On the insider threat, ensure that the access your employees have to your systems is appropriate and necessary.

Tip 3 Understand the risks – what could go wrong?

It’s important to identify the types of incident you could be subject to. Some of the most common ones are:

• Denial of service (DoS) – attackers send thousands of requests to your website to effectively bring it to a standstill

• Defacement – attackers gain access to your website or social media accounts and post offensive messages

• Phishing – an email which appears to be legitimate is sent to a user and their username, passwords or bank details are captured so that money can be stolen.

To what extent are you at risk from these? You also need to gain assurance that your suppliers are operating effective controls as they too could be targeted as a way of reaching you.

Tip 4 Get the basics right

Simple measures can make a big difference. The government’s Cyber Essentials scheme offers very useful advice on basic controls. Review these controls against the controls in your organisation and re-mediate any gaps. In addition, allocate responsibility for cyber security to a specific individual in your organisation and create an information security policy (ISP), however basic.

Tip 5 Your people are your biggest strength, and your weakest link

Cyber security is not just about technology – it’s also about people. Employees who don’t understand cyber threats – such as clicking on a link in a spam email – present a significant risk. That’s why it’s vital to develop cyber security training for staff which should be delivered at least annually. If you actively engage employees, they are more likely to take security seriously rather than regarding it as an inconvenience.

Business

Bytes

Business Bytes | P7 e-mail [email protected] www.complyatwork.co.uk

Comply at Work

Cyber CrimeCyber security is a growing issue for all businesses. It’s easy to think that cyber attacks are a problem which only affect governments and multinational companies – but in fact according to the Federation of Small Businesses (May 2013) , 41% of SMEs were impacted at some level by cyber crime last year.

Please find below five top tips on what SMEs can do to protect themselves against this threat.

All businesses, regardless of size, need to take steps to protect themselves from cyber attacks – yet, worryingly, recent research from KPMG found that more than two thirds of companies disregard this threat.

Fortunately, simple measures can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to attack.

Business

Bytes


Business Bytes | P9 e-mail [email protected] www.complyatwork.co.uk

Comply at Work

Why’s that good?For better Presentations, play the ‘Why’s that good game…’

Have you ever been bored during someone else’s presentation? Has someone else ever been bored during yours?

It’s notoriously hard to align your agenda to other people. And, failing to do so causes big problems – strategies don’t land, stakeholders don’t engage, teams don’t buy-in, communications take too long ... and don’t work.

To help both you and them value your communications more, when preparing, play the “Why’s That Good Game”. Imagine your audience saying “Why’s that good?” to your agenda, and you replying with “Well, that’s a good thing for you because.” So, for a leader outlining her new strategy...

Leader: Here’s the new strategy

Audience: Why’s that good?

Leader: Well, that’s a good thing for you because you will know the direction we’re going


Leader: Well, that’s a good thing for you because you’ll know the changes to your role going forwards


Leader: Well, that’s a good thing for you because you’ll learn simple changes to make, to be more successful and to enjoy your job more

To secure instant buy-in, since the last iteration is their agenda, start there and work backwards:

“I want to show you simple changes to make, to help you be more successful and enjoy your job more. To help you do this, I’m going to show you the changes to your role going forwards, by outlining the direction we’re going. I’ll do this by sharing our new strategy with you.”

Frame communications from their agenda, and they’re more likely to buy into yours.

Action point

So, to secure instant buy-in with your next communication, play the “Why’s That Good Game”. Start with the last iteration, since that’s the phrase most likely to get them listening.

Source: Andy Bounds

Comply at Work

spotlightHere’s a summary of the latest news from Comply at Work…

Our recent Fire Safety and Fire Marshall training was very well-received. Here are some comments from our evaluation sheets:

‘Fantastic Training course, well presented and very informative’

‘Enjoyed the course, feel a lot better about my role now’…

All delegates on our recent CIEH Level 2 Award in Health and Safety have pas-sed the exam and have been awarded their Certificates – well done all. We will be running a further course in eh New Year. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more of book on.

Haigh Plumbing and Heating Ltd have now completed three days of training with us, including Emergency First Aid, Work at Height, Asbestos Awareness and Manual Handling for several of their staff.

Crosshill School, Blackburn have undertaken moving and handling training and associated risk assessments.

St Gobain, Rochdale has now completed DSE assessments for all their offices staff, some of which are to be trained as DSE assessors by Comply at Work in due course.

The Business Growth Hub hired our fantastic training facility for two days for a Digital Growth Workshop and gave us excellent feedback on the Comply at Work venue , facilities and service, including our superfast broadband and con-nectivity. We even had a film crew joining us for the first day, reporting back on the hub’s ongoing success with their clients.

The Growth Hub plans to use our facilities even more in 2015 and we very much look forward to working with them. For more information on our trai-ning room and venue hire, please contact us.

Visitors are also welcome to look round and businesses can use our meeting rooms for an hour or so, FREE of charge for client/staff meetings if the space is free – just call us to book in.

Finally we are pleased to welcome our new clients this month:

Highbank Building Services, Bolton

Andrew Lee Ceramics, Hindley

Heiss Weiss Children’s Centre, Salford

Halbro Sportswear, Horwich

Amplify, London EC2

Lancashire Laminators, Darwen

Lancashire Steel Buildings, Ltd, Burnley

Prestige Law Solicitors, Bolton

Sue, Shaneal and the Comply at Work Team would like to wish all our Clients, colleagues, suppliers and contacts a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Sue with on of the film crew at the Business Growth Hub Meeting

The Authority in Access

Ensure you meet current Working at Height (WAHR 2005)

regulations with our adhesive stickers, tags, holders and business

packs

• Site Surveys for Bespoke Access• Ladder & PASMA Training• Special Application design• On Site Ladder Inspections

Ladder Log Safety Inspection System

Services We Offer

Visit Ladderstore.comor call our team on 01204 590 232

The Authority in Access

Ensure you meet current Working at Height (WAHR 2005)

regulations with our adhesive stickers, tags, holders and business

packs

• Site Surveys for Bespoke Access• Ladder & PASMA Training• Special Application design• On Site Ladder Inspections

Ladder Log Safety Inspection System

Services We Offer

Visit Ladderstore.comor call our team on 01204 590 232

We thought that I would give you the heads up about the Ladder Exchange which starts on the 1st September and lasts until 31st December this year.

See the general details at http://www.ladderexchange.org.uk/

Ladderstore have been part of this great initiative for over 6 years and we give customers 10% off any orders that are to replace damaged ladders. If customers are unsure about the state of the ladder they can always contact us on 01204 590232 and we can advise them or if it is a large number of ladders go out to check them.

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0777 337 1020

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Complyatwork december