Cybersecurity

Combining Wellness and Cybersecurity: Creating Healthy Habits for the Digital Age

Cybersecurity has typically been the purview of arcane tools that few people are familiar with. And instead of viewing cybersecurity education as a compliance duty, one of the most significant ways to guarantee that everyone in the organization knows the significance and function of security is to treat it as an employee wellness initiative. Employee conduct and habits that safeguard corporate data also ensure the safety of their families at home. Organizations may maximize training retention and engagement while fostering long-lasting behavioral change and a safer environment by putting the needs of the employees first.

Implementing inclusive security strategies is the most effective strategy to guarantee the least risk. Organizations must go above and beyond to demonstrate to employees how adopting secure habits and behaviors benefits the individual employee and the company. Employing inclusive security methods is crucial because employees need to feel represented in the training curriculum, particularly regarding employee security education.

Overall, the happier your team is, the better they will work, so businesses should proactively promote employee health.

How to Measure Wellness?

Nowadays, “well-being” is used frequently, but few understand its meaning. Oxford Dictionary defines well-being as “being comfortable, healthy, or happy.” However, happiness cannot be consistently quantified and can mean many things to various people.

Positive well-being is influenced by several things, such as maintaining positive relationships and a sense of belonging through social contact, making healthy food choices and staying active for physical health, being financially secured, and engaging the mind intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically. 

How Can You Support Your Employees’ Wellness?

While an individual’s behavior can affect all of the aforementioned “measures” of well-being, it has long been the employer’s duty to intervene and offer further well-being support. It is due to various self-serving factors, which we’ll discuss further in this post.

Employers have many alternatives for enhancing employee well-being; outsourcing their entire program to a third-party supplier is the simplest. They will analyze your business’s organizational structure, personnel makeup, and levels of well-being, then implement a plan to guarantee that every employee has access to the resources they require to feel content, healthy, and fulfilled. Some providers specialize in serving small businesses and startups, yet large corporations frequently use them.

A gym membership and home fitness equipment are among the employee benefits that many businesses offer, along with an additional holiday or “duvet day,” counseling, and coaching. Of course, that level of well-being knowledge comes at a cost, so many businesses decide to take on well-being themselves.

Why Is It Important?

Here is why you should look after your employees’ well-being

Productivity gains. Your team will perform well if they have the resources to take care of themselves since this will result in higher levels of focus and endurance. Additionally, fewer sick days will be taken.

A positive workplace culture. A content team will remain together and should be more motivated to push themselves and their coworkers.

Fewer personnel changes. The risk of resignations will be lower if your employees feel content and cared for at work, saving you thousands in recruitment and onboarding costs.

Cost savings on healthcare. Long-term health issues brought on by disregarding one’s well-being may require you, the employer, to pay for them.

Lower probability of human error. Errors might be produced as a result of lowered attention span and concentration due to fatigue and ill health. Data breaches can and do occur as a result of errors in cybersecurity.

Decreased likelihood of burnout.

How Is Wellness Connected to Cybersecurity?

As mentioned above, all of those are crucial in any field, but we advise paying particular attention to cybersecurity. Not only are there significant dangers associated with poor well-being—88 percent of all data breaches result from employee error—but an IT or cybersecurity team is also less likely than other departments to undertake company-wide well-being initiatives. It is due to two factors:

  • They might not feel valued by their coworkers and not want to participate in business “events” if there have been conflicts in the past with other departments over IT problems or security breaches.
  • They feel they cannot take a break, even for their well-being, because of the strain at work.

If the latter is the case, a solution is required. Prioritizing vulnerabilities is one of a cybersecurity team’s most time-consuming jobs. In fact, 53% of businesses believe that managing manual procedures takes more time than actively addressing problems. By automating and performing an information security risk assessment for your business, you may empower your team to work more productively on remediation while giving them breaks and other opportunities to prioritize their well-being. The outcome will be worthwhile.

Bottom Line:

It’s stressful to work in cybersecurity. Extended hours are required, as is an unrelenting dedication to exceeding standards. It can also be quite stressful to be trusted with other companies’ sensitive information. Putting your employees’ well-being first is efficient, even though there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to determining the “correct” level of security coverage. Additionally, it’s crucial to develop an internal wellness program for employees to promote healthy behaviors and introduce stress-coping techniques to address their most significant security threats.

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