Doesn’t it feel like some of the policies that come as the result of working for an organization that focuses heavily on compliance are a little outrageous?

I mean, what is really the point of implementing a clean desk policy? Can’t you trust your employees enough to not make a complete mess of their workstations?

Everyone knows of a coworker who’s a little bit on the messier side, who could probably benefit from a literal clean desk policy.

Yet, a true clean desk policy goes well beyond its literal definition and could save you and your organization from facing massive fines from the government, especially if you deal with sensitive information.

LINKS:
____________________________________________

[ Ссылка ]
____________________________________________

The first instant benefit from having a clean desk policy is that it makes compliance easier.

Organizations that have to constantly worry about following regulations and government audits are likely all too familiar with ISO 27001.
In a nutshell, these standards provide a baseline for information security management. They aren’t industry-specific, yet abiding by them may make it easier to adhere to more specific laws.

Control 11 point 2 point 9 specifically calls out implementing a “clear desk policy”. Thus, officially penning it into your organization’s employee manual makes you that much closer to being an ISO 27000 certified entity.

Second, clean desk policies stop prying eyes.

Humans are curious creatures, it’s in our nature and there’s nothing we can do to stop all of us from doing it. This is especially true in the professional world considering many managers believe that curious people make better employees. You can’t blame your employees for their inquisitive nature, even it comes with a few quirks.

What I mean by “quirks” is having prying eyes.

We’ve all done this. You’re walking around your office, either heading to a meeting or out for lunch, and look around at what people are working on.

That form of prying eyes isn’t malicious, but imagine if someone were to do it to find out information that they shouldn’t.

It’s practically an untraceable crime, that could take months before your IT department gets to the bottom of what happened.
That is much less likely to happen with a clean desk policy.

Third, it’s a much greener alternative.

By not allowing your employees to have a bunch of information and papers laying on and around their desks, you’re also operating as a greener business.

Think about it, since your team doesn’t have any place to store printed-out materials they’ll lose their motivation for printing. Thus, as time goes on, even the most stubborn members of your team will get more comfortable with accessing everything virtually from their computer.

Your marketing team will be able to put a spin on your newly defined policy to shed light on the fact that you’ve reduced carbon emissions.

Fourth, it inadvertently promotes data back up routines.
If you’ve implemented a clean desk policy, that means that the amount of paper that your organization uses is likely much lower. Thus, all documents, data and other materials that used to require a printer exist on your cloud.

As a result, you’ll need to ensure that you have data backup routines in place, on an automatic basis. This is not only a good practice, it also brings peace of mind to all of your employees. They’ll feel safe working without having to worry about what happens to their daily progress in the case of a power outage or hardware failure.

The fifth benefit I have for you is that a clean working environment naturally reduces our stress.

A 2011 neuroscience study found that clearing clutter from the home and/or work environment resulted in increased productivity, a better ability to focus and process incoming information.

In other words, there’s actual science behind the feeling you get when you realize how tidy everything is after you’ve finished cleaning. I don’t know about you, but I always feel much more relaxed afterward.
if less clutter leads to a more productive workforce, all the more reason to implement a clean desk policy.

I’ll end this section with one more statistic. A different study concluded that clutter negatively influences our satisfaction with life.

► Reach out to Etactics @ [ Ссылка ]
►Subscribe: [ Ссылка ] to learn more tips and tricks in healthcare, health IT, and cybersecurity.
►Find us on LinkedIn: [ Ссылка ]
►Find us on Facebook: [ Ссылка ]

#Compliance #CleanDeskPolicy

свернуть