During the current pandemic surrounding the Coronavirus or Covid-19, employers have been rushing to figure out how to continue doing business. Many US companies are allowing most, if not all, of their workers to telecommute from home to lessen the chance of infection and to keep operating as well as they can under the circumstances.
In a recent article by Morgan Eichensehr, which appeared on the Biz Journals website, one Baltimore accounting firm is trying to figure out how to get all of its staff online and working during the peak of tax season.
Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates decided to beef up policies and give their workers the ability to access the necessary tools to do their jobs from home. Linda Pietras, director of human resources at the firm, says that even while the Covid-19 confirmed infection rate is relatively low in Maryland, they have been taking added precautions. Currently, it has limited travel for workers and has been advising anyone who believes they were exposed to the virus to self-quarantine. Also, widespread fear about the seriousness of the illness has prompted them to allow workers to stay at home while still doing their jobs.
Currently, Gross Mendelsohn has about 100 employees who work in their Baltimore office and an additional 25 that work in their office located in Northern Virginia.
“It’s obviously a very busy time of year for us, and we’d hate to lose the production time. But our employees’ safety and well-being [are] most important,” Pietras explained to the Biz Journals reporter, “So, if we have to, we want to make sure everybody can work from home, and we’ll just do our best with that.”
This current crisis has helped companies like Attila Security, Inc. to thrive as more companies look to telecommuting options for their staff. According to Attila founder, Gregg Smith, working from home presents a different set of security challenges for workers than signing in at their usual workplace.
” Teleworking could open your company up to a lot of threat exposure,” Smith said. “Being cyber safe in this time of crisis is going to be important.”
For some companies with allowing remote access by workers, added security on mobile devices will be crucial. An unsecured device can leave companies open to hacking, phishing, and theft of proprietary or other sensitive information. According to Smith, now, during a time of a worldwide crisis, businesses need to look at their current IT security and strengthen them.