Did you know there’s more bacteria on your kitchen cutting board than your toilet?

While it may be hard to believe, germs can be anywhere and since they’re micro-organisms, they can’t be seen by our own eyes. They can spread quickly and easily, meaning we can get sick and suffer from illness.

Of course, we all know germs aren’t good for our health. But, it can be especially dangerous when there’s bacteria around areas we cook and serve food.

If you run a business that involves food production or service, you have a responsibility to ensure the best food safety practices and hygiene in the workplace. After all, nobody wants to poison their customers!

Food safety can involve anything from handling food and preparing it to how substances should be stored and surfaces cleaned afterwards.

In fact, food safety and hygiene are so important, there’s legal guidelines in place to ensure a minimum standard of protection for consumers.

When you don’t run a clean kitchen, your business risks ruining its good reputation and livelihood.

Nobody wants their business shut down, so that’s why it’s important to follow the rules and teach your employees about the best food safety practices and how they can keep good hygiene.

This Food Safety and Hygiene course is ideal for teaching employees the right ways to work in an environment cooking and serving food.

The goal of this course is to alert employees to the hazards presented by germs in the kitchen and how they can keep everyone safe from them. It explains the best hygiene practices and looks at food safety information that everyone needs to know.

This e-learning course is broken down into different sections so that the information is engaging and easy to understand.

This section highlights that employees have a responsibility to follow proper food safety procedures. After all, it’s the law.

The aim of having these legal rules is to prevent people getting sick and as long as employees know the basics, they can make sure everyone stays safe.

The course gives users a list for practicing good personal hygiene and workplace cleanliness.

This content points out that food safety hazards aren’t always in the workplace, but can be present in farms or factories beforehand.

It’s all about hygienic conditions and other employees following food safety too. Employees are able to click on images at this point to find out more about the hazards, such as chemicals and microbiological dangers.

Bad practices and poor hygiene lead to foodborne diseases – this section explains the four common types of bacteria can make us sick. This includes detailing where they can be found and how it can cause harmful foodborne diseases.

In addition, the course describes the symptoms you can expect from illness and how they can begin between 12-72 hours after eating contaminated food.

Employees can learn about how microbes and allergens can be transferred by hands, equipment and surfaces and contaminate our food.

This is usually by raw food touching cooked food through bad practices and bad personal hygiene. This section provides advice on how to avoid cross contamination through steps, such as disinfecting surfaces and washing your hands.

Having dirty hands can spread germs. This section highlights the importance of washing your hands to stop the spreading of bacteria and viruses in a food environment, as well as giving you tips on how your hands can be squeaky clean.

It also provides a to-do list for the best personal hygiene, which includes tying hair back and using gloves, as well as covering up cuts and bruises. Things to avoid doing in the workplace are given too.

Knowing how to store food properly can help to prevent bacteria growth. This section sets out the rules for food storage and how to keep food in fridges and freezers and how to dispose of spoilt or outdated food.

This section acts as a reminder of how important it is to tell someone if you’re sick, especially your supervisor.

You should even advise when someone you live with has an illness, as well as tell your doctor you work around food. This way you can avoid spreading germs and sickness.

The course clarifies how good cleaning practices can stop foodborne diseases. This includes wearing gloves, using disposable cloths and how you can wash surfaces and equipment.

This section details how you should carry out a general clean of the area with a suitable detergent and rinse, following by disinfection. It’s important to also pay attention to manufacturer instructions on cleaning products to use them properly.

Pests, such as rats and cockroaches, are attracted to places where there’s food. This section explains how pests can spread harmful diseases by contaminating food and workplaces.

This can lead to legal penalties, losing your job and even closure. The signs that you may have a problem with pests are displayed on-screen and five simple rules are shared that can promote proper food safety that keeps pests away.

Employees are kept involved with the content of this e-learning course through an engaging voiceover and amusing, colorful animation.

The main points are communicated through easy to read video slides and a self-study workbook is provided that covers the key information for employees to take away from the course. This includes a short quiz at the end so you can test your learning.

As a business, your customers and their safety are your priority. This is especially true when you work in an environment serving food. There’s lot of rules to follow and this means that the responsibility to adhere to them falls on your employees.

Foodborne diseases are easily preventable and by following proper food safety and practicing good hygiene, you can make sure your customers don’t get sick and continue to enjoy your business.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

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Food safety and hygiene in workplaces is an important aspect of keeping employees healthy, safe, and productive. Find out more here!

Food safety and hygiene in the workplace

Are you aware of how dangerous it can be to work in a confined space?

When we don’t have a fear of something, it’s often easy to dismiss the danger and risks of the environment we work in. Plus, it can be easier to trust other people too much and not be aware of things we should be doing ourselves to keep everyone safe.

The truth is, there’s a number of people every year that are killed or seriously injured when they haven’t paid attention to the dangers of working in confined and enclosed spaces.

That’s why it’s important now more than ever to know the facts and how you can stay safe in your job. Your life’s on the line.

That’s where a confined space course can help. This is going to provide your employees with everything they need to know before they enter an enclosed space to carry out their job. After all, the health and safety of your employees is paramount.

This section reminds employees how many people are injured and killed every year from working in confined spaces, over a range of industries.

It raises awareness that 60 per cent of the deaths are those that are sent on rescue missions to save people that’ve become trapped. This opens your eyes to the real dangers of confined spaces.

Of course, this section also defines a confined space – being a place enclosed or where there’s hazardous substances or conditions nearby. The cartoon visuals show easy ways to identify confined spaces, as well as pointing out the less obvious danger lurking.

The voice-over reiterates that atmospheric hazards are the ones to watch out for the most. This includes toxic gases and flammable materials being lift threatening. It raises awareness of dangerous conditions already being present, but some are caused by working.

This section gives real-life examples of accident stories that have occurred in confined spaces.

This includes a story about two Scottish sea farm workers and one of them collapsed due to low oxygen levels. Two colleagues trying to help tragically died. This demonstrates the real dangers of working in hazardous conditions and how this include could’ve been avoided.

This is the important part of the course. It points out that entering confined spaces should be avoided if possible. Otherwise, training should be provided so employees know what they are doing before entering a dangerous place, as well as having the right equipment.

There must be plans in place beforehand and emergency arrangements in case something goes wrong. You should consider, how you’ll communicate with a person in a confined space to confirm they are okay and how they can be rescued if they are in danger.

You’ve got to be aware of the risks you are exposed to when you’re in a confined space. In addition, the person doing the work should be trained and competent enough to do the job, as well as have all the equipment they need.

This section also outlines what you shouldn’t do – this includes avoiding confined spaces where you can and don’t ignore the risks or the potential for hazards to occur for you and your colleagues.

This section summarizes how confined spaces can be dangerous places for employees and that you shouldn’t take risks for any reason.

The last section leaves employees with the thought-provoking question of what they can do differently to stay safe at work.

Why is a confined space course important?

Providing e-learning courses on confined spaces shouldn’t be underestimated. Health and safety is a top priority for employers and a simple course can go a long way to saving lives.

If your employees know how to tackle the risks and dangers, as well as being prepared for working in confined spaces, this will minimize the risk of injury or death.

Dangers are always worse when you’re in a space you can’t easily get out off. The quicker you provide access to courses on confined spaces, the safer everyone’s going to be.

The annual initiative is a great reminder, and opportunity, for employers and managers to take stock of workplace safety across their organisation.

Are you providing sufficient WHS training for your staff? Are you doing enough to prevent work-related accidents? How committed are you to creating a safe work environment for all employees?

These are the kinds of questions you need to be asking yourself, to ensure you’re being compliant with Australian workplace regulations, while doing the right thing by your employees.

Why Businesses Need Workplace Health and Safety Training

Since Safe Work Australia formed in 2008, there has been a steady decline in the rate of work fatalities and compensation claims across the country.

However, work-related injury and disease still cost the Australian community $61.8 billion in a year – while also obviously resulting in considerable trauma, grief and financial ramifications, for workers and their families.

As Senator Michaelia Cash launched National Safe Work Month 2017 today, she took the opportunity to remind Australians that safe workplaces happen when everyone shares their knowledge and experience about what makes work safe.

Minister Cash launches National Safe Work Month 2017

“The number of Australians killed at work each year has been steadily declining for a decade,” the Minister for Employment said. “But we cannot afford to be complacent. In fact, safety is an integral part of doing business.”

Let's look at the steps you can take to start creating a safe and healthy workplace for staff, as recommended by Safe Work Australia.

Five Steps to a Safe and Healthy Workplace

First up, think about who is doing the work and if they have the tools, skills and resources they need to do it safely. Well-designed work is inherently safer and healthier because hazards and risks are eliminated before they enter the workplace.

In this step, consider where the work is actually being done, the working environment, and what machines, equipment, materials, substances, vehicles and structures will be used.

Next, make sure the tools and equipment you’ll be using on the job are fit for the purpose.

Are you buying equipment that’s designed for the task, fit for purpose, and suited to your unique workplace? Are you sourcing from overseas and inadvertently importing risks

This step is about making sure that workplace health and safety is a part of your daily conversations. Look out for your workmates and don’t hesitate to stop work if you feel it’s not safe. Has everyone been trained appropriately? Does there need to be a risk assessment? Is personal protective equipment (PPE gear) required and does everyone know how to wear it?

Keep your eyes open for any damaged or poorly maintained equipment, like broken ladders, split electrical cables and frayed ropes. Similarly, inefficient and outdated systems and equipment can become a hazard to both physical and mental health.

This last step is critical – making sure your workplace is safe is a continuous cycle of improvement. As Work Safe Australia says, your safety journey should never end.

And as Minister Cash said at the Safe Work Month launch, we must “continue sharing safety knowledge not only during this important month, but throughout the year, because safety should be an everyday conversation in your workplace.”

With the help of some training to educate your team, you can dramatically reduce the risk of workplace incidents across your organisation. By committing to employee health and safety you’ll also be lowering the chance of financial implications for your business.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Did you know that October is National Safe Work Month? Throughout the month, Safe Work Australia will be campaigning to raise awareness of the importance of health and safety in the workplace.

National Safe Work Month – the importance of workplace health and safety training

In recent months, there’s been a lot of media focus and discussion around the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in the tech industry.

You’re no doubt already familiar with some of these stories – such as the female entrepreneur propositioned by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist; the chief executive who faced numerous sexist comments from a male investor; and the former Uber engineer who went public about the pattern of sexual harassment she experienced at the company.

Since then, many women have come forward with their own accounts of sexual harassment in the workplace, as the chain of events has encouraged more female employees to talk publicly about their experiences working within the technology startup industry. And as we're seeing, this is not just an issue for Silicon Valley – the Australian start-up scene is facing similar problems to the United States in this area.

These stories have revealed a lot about the extent of sexism within these male-dominated environments, where there has long been an imbalance of gender. Unfortunately, in 2017, women are still significantly outnumbered when it comes to working in STEM-related studies and careers, making up only one in four IT graduates and fewer than one in 10 engineering graduates.

So what can we do to make sure that we continue open and honest dialogue around this topic? How can we work together to prevent the sexual harassment of women in the workplace?

Addressing gender equality in the workplace

While many tech companies and startups are doing their best to address this issue, more work is needed to dismantle the unconscious bias that often exists towards women in these industries.

A tech company employee (who is currently in the process of a sexual harassment claim against one of her former employers) believes "there's an unconscious bias in the industry that creates discrimination due to the ratio of men to women, it's nothing new – I guess it's more prevalent due to how tech industry has evolved."

"It's important to remember that we are not born with this bias, it's not an [inherent] gender trait, but something we are taught as we grow up,” she says.

Unfortunately, in group environments such as the workplace, sexual harassment can have a knock-on effect on other staff who see it happening around them. When people see others tolerating, or even encouraging, this kind of behaviour, it serves to reinforce and normalise negative male/female stereotypes.

Many male-dominated environments, including the workplace, display that kind of ‘locker room’ culture, where unacceptable actions or comments are passed off as ‘harmless jokes.’ And if you don’t go along with the jokes, you’re no longer 'one of the boys.'

For women working in these environments, there’s often a fear of the backlash that could result from speaking out about sexual harassment – a backlash that could seriously damage their career, reputation and everyday work life. They become caught in between the two fears.

This is why it’s so important to speak up when you see or hear something unacceptable, even if you’re not in a management position. Calling out sexual harassment in the workplace is everyone’s responsibility, so if you see someone being harassed, please have the courage to report it.

Regardless of the industry you work in, or the job you do, all employees have a legal right to work free from sexual harassment. This means both during working hours and at any form of work-related training activities or functions. And extends to social media and text messaging.

For employers and managers, it’s your responsibility to create and implement a clear and effective policy on sexual harassment, and communicate it to all staff within your organisation. Be sure that your policy is compliant with all local, state and federal laws. Define clear consequences for unacceptable behaviour and monitor staff to make sure employees are complying with this policy.

What constitutes sexual harassment at work?

One of the biggest problems with addressing sexual harassment in the workplace is that it can be hard for people to define. It can take the form of many different behaviours and actions, with some of them less obvious or aggressive than others.

Whilst many people may think of sexual harassment purely in terms of unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate touching, it can also encompass far more subtle forms of behaviour. This often makes people unsure of just where the line falls, and whether someone has crossed that line or not. And unfortunately, women often choose not to report incidents of harassment for fear of ‘overreacting’ – or being told they are overreacting.

The Australian Human Rights Commission defines sexual harassment as “any unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour, which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.” There are many ways that an individual can be made to feel uncomfortable or intimidated, without physical contact occurring. And they are all potentially damaging.

So regardless of whether someone is staring inappropriately, making sexually suggestive comments, telling or emailing inappropriate “jokes” or subjecting you to unwelcome physical contact – all of these examples are considered sexual harassment and are behaviours that are completely unacceptable in the workplace.

Make all staff aware of sexual harassment policies

Employers in the tech industry (and all industries) must provide regular compulsory training on the topic of sexual harassment in the workplace, to help staff properly recognise and address this issue.

Managers, supervisors and team leaders should participate in training specifically relevant for their positions, as they can play a significant role in preventing workplace harassment. Your leaders must be up-to-date with all sexual harassment laws in your state and know how to deal with any incidences in the proper way.

Training can help make it clear to staff that sexual harassment is neither welcome nor tolerated in your organisation. It can also help to make sure that individuals are aware of their rights and are empowered with a clear idea of what constitutes sexual harassment, so they can feel confident in addressing and reporting it.

Empowering women to speak out against harassment

The word ‘empower’ is important here. Because none of this information is really new. And sadly, the stories that have been told by the women mentioned earlier are not new stories. It’s part of a narrative that has existed for centuries.

But with the recent media attention around this issue, we have an opportunity and reminder to make sure we continue talking about the sexual harassment that occurs in male-dominated industries. And an opportunity to feel empowered to effect change in this area.

By speaking out against sexual harassment, and calling out inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, you can challenge and change the dynamics in your own sphere of influence. You’ll also be encouraging other women, and men, to do the same.

As Amber Tamblyn said in a recent article in the New York Times:

"We are learning that the more we open our mouths, the more we become a choir. And the more we are a choir, the more the tune is forced to change."

If you'd like to learn more about how you can educate your workplace about the prevention and addressing of sexual harassment, check out Go1's range of courses available including this one.

Many women have come forward with their own accounts of sexual harassment in the workplace, as the chain of events has encouraged more female employees to talk publicly about their experiences working within the technology startup industry.

Speaking out against sexual harassment in the workplace

Whistleblowers often get a bad name, but without their actions, serious illegality would remain undiscovered.

Whistleblowers should be praised and commended for their bravery, as well as their invaluable service to their organization.

Whether it’s another employee abusing their sick leave or fraudulently stealing money from public clients, whistleblowing exposes the wrongdoing and brings the perpetrators to justice.

That’s why it’s important for organizations to educate their employees on how whistleblowing really works, why it can benefit the workplace and how the law will protect you in the process. This will dispel the negativity unfairly attached to whistleblowing.

This section explains the importance of whistleblowing for the safety and integrity of an organization, as well as how it can safeguard employees and the wider public from wrongdoing.

The content gives helpful examples of how misconduct can be a variety of dishonest, illegal and dangerous practices - ranging from minor to complex issues. In addition, wrongdoing can be internal or external, committed by any employee of an organization.

The course also addresses the stigma that’s attached to whistleblowing. For example, an employee can initially feel like a ‘snitch’ and speaking out can at first seem disloyal to their employer.

But, there are many good reasons for whistleblowing, such as saving lives, money and reputation. This section looks to cement the understanding that whistleblowing is important and the responsibility of all employees.

This next topic clarifies that any worker who speaks out against wrongdoing in their organization is protected by law from victimisation, putting to bed the rumours that you’ll expose yourself to trouble.

The content explains that the meaning of ‘worker’ has a wide interpretation, which also extends to self-employed, agency workers and trainees.

Revealing the misconduct is viewed as a qualifying disclosure, which becomes a protected disclosure if it’s communicated to the right person in an appropriate way.

It’s important to know the difference between making a complaint where you have been poorly treated personally and voicing a concern about an illegal or dangerous practice taking place in an organization.

This topic looks to illustrate this difference and allow employees to understand how a personal complaint can be upsetting for you, but won’t secure qualifying disclosure.

This section explains how employees can raise their issues about a wrongdoing that has happened in the past, is happening currently or could happen in the future, so it’s clear what to do.

The law will protect a whistleblower that’s reported criminal offences, failures to comply with legal obligations, health and safety threats, damage to the environment, and miscarriages of justice (or cover-up actions).

For whistleblowers to be protected by law, there’s a certain process that they must go through. This section details that you have to make sure to inform the right person in good faith about the situation.

There’s a variety of people you can tell depending on the situation, such as a health and safety representative or another prescribed body. You can always seek professional advice prior to raising a concern to ensure no mistakes are made.

What your employer or a prescribed person will do

This section explains how an employer or prescribed person will listen to an employee’s concern and take this matter further, based on the information they are given.

In particular, you should let the professional know straight away if you want to remain anonymous. While you can be kept informed about the action that’s taken, not all details will be communicated to you, due to confidentiality.

If an employee is unsatisfied with how their concern has been handled, you can express this discrepancy to an independent body, such as ACAS or a trade union who can provide you with support.

This finalizing section will tie loose ends together and provide a succinct summary of all the information covered about whistleblowing that the employee has learned.

It will recap how you must be a worker to blow the whistle and the concern you seek to voice is in the public interest. In addition, the law will protect you if you communicate your concern to the right person in the correct way.

Your employer or prescribed person must listen to your concern and if you are unsatisfied in how they deal with your information, you can seek support from an independent body.

This interactive e-learning course uses animated videos to explain content, with an engaging voice-over and easy to read slides. In addition, there’s a short quiz at the end for employees to test their whistleblowing knowledge.

Whistleblowing is the only real and effective way to combat illegal or dangerous wrongdoing in the workplace. After all, your employees are your eyes and ears in the day-to-day running of business.

When an employee brings any misconduct to light, it protects other employees, clients and potentially, the organization itself.

An open-door policy on whistleblowing can start the road to important corporate changes that will allow an organization to thrive, without any damaging illegality lurking undetected in the background. This will lead to the promotion of good business ethics.

Whistleblowing is actually essential for a transparent and efficient working environment. By encouraging employees to feel safe and confident enough to speak up honestly, having a whistleblowing policy means organizations can safeguard their integrity and reputation.

How whistleblowers could save your business

Australian businesses are currently operating in an increasingly complex risk and compliance landscape – and that’s not set to change any time soon. In fact, upcoming changes to laws around data breaches have been a serious prompt for Aussie companies to get up-to-date with compliance rules.

All organisations, no matter whether you’re a tiny startup or a large multinational corporation, need to be compliant with the regulations of their industry. In 2017, it’s more important than ever for employers to ensure they comply with fast-changing regulations.

Why is this so important? To begin with, there are serious consequences of non-compliance, including legal proceedings, fines and penalties, and the loss of income and reputation. But paying attention to compliance is also a positive step for building your business.

Sarah Bartholomeusz, founder and CEO of You Legal law firm, sums it up well.

“Compliance and risk management don’t sound very sexy but they are crucial to having a sound business and are drivers to achieving business excellence – we call it future-proofing,” she says.

To help you understand more about this topic, we’ve outlined the biggest compliance risks facing Australian organisations right now. This will shed more light on particular areas you need to be compliant in, so you can start future-proofing your business.

Safeguarding against data breaches            

Those changes to data breach laws we just mentioned?

Well, Australian companies could now face paying civil penalties of an amount up to $1.8 million, making it one of the biggest compliance risks for businesses at present.

These changes have been made to increase the level of security for individuals, protecting customer data that companies have access to. Organisations will now have to prove that they are taking this issue seriously. Once enacted into law on 22 February 2018, businesses that fail to show they have the right measures in place – or are at least making efforts to – will face serious fines.

To minimise this risk, make sure you’re educating staff about data security and compliance. Investing some time and money in compliance training is worth the investment, to make sure your business is safeguarding against the event of a data breach.

Protecting your company against cyber attacks 

Throughout 2017, we’ve also seen various countries across the world affected by major cyber attacks involving ransomware. The ransomware, believed to be a malicious computer virus known as Petya, wreaked havoc on more than 200,000 organizations in over 150 countries – including companies, universities, government agencies and hospitals across Britain, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Ukraine.

Since this global ransomware attack hit Australia a couple of months ago, disrupting the operations of a number of Australian businesses, a lot more discussion around cyber attacks and compliance has been generated.

Again, make sure you’re training staff around this issue, as being prepared with increased cyber security is your best line of defense. Learn more about the precautions you can take to protect yourself and your business from malicious ransomware and the risk of cyber attack.

We’ve talked about being compliant with technology, but compliance is also critical when it comes to the human side of things – your employees.

Employees are “one of the most important elements of every business and because they bring with them a host of legal obligations.”

If you run a company or organisation, you’re responsible for providing your employees with a safe workplace, free from any hazards and health risks. Australian companies face considerable fines and business impacts if they fail to be compliant with current safety laws and regulations. Employers also need to provide appropriate workplace safety training, such as PPE awareness, for all staff.

Look also at the policies you have in place around sexual harassment, bullying and all forms of discrimination. Under Australian law, we all have a legal right to live and work free from harassment and discrimination based on gender, age, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Make sure you have strong policies in place around these subjects, and that employee training is ongoing to remind staff of these key messages.

Bartholomeusz recommends all Australian businesses do regular compliance housekeeping, to make sure they’re still up-to-date with all legislation and regulations. This is particularly critical if your business is growing.

“Perhaps your company took on more employees and has a higher turnover?  These are excellent indicators of growth and success but also have the potential to attract new legal obligations,” she says.

There are plenty of compliance training courses available online, if you’d like to learn more about this important issue. You can also click the ‘Compliance’ tag above, to see more articles from Go1 on this topic.

The biggest compliance risks in Australia right now

Sometimes an employee of your organization may request to access the personal data you have about him or her. Such requests are also known as Subject Access Requests. “Personal data” is not just a figure of speech - it’s also a very important legal term when it comes to corporate policy.

For example, you may think that your name is personal data because it’s information that other people and organizations use to identify you. However, by itself, your name is not always personal data because there can be many people in an organization with the same name. At the same time, a combination of your name and other information that makes you uniquely identifiable, for example, you name, address and telephone number, do become personal data.

The Data Protection Act of 1998 is a law in the UK that deals with the issues of personal data collection, protection, and processing. It defines eight principles that organizations need to understand and adhere to in order to ensure lawful handing of personal information.

How organizations collect and use personal data

Your company starts to collect personal data about the employees from the moment they apply to work for the organization.

Personal data is not limited to obvious personal information such as name, address, or date of birth. It also includes employment history with, employee training, disciplinary actions, external website usage and more. This data can be contained in a variety of media - from print to electronic sources.

According to the Data Protection Act of 1998, employees have the right to know what information their employer collects about them and they also have the right to access the information.

While this may seem easy on the surface, it’s not. For example, during the tenure of an employee, an organization is likely to collect an array of information about external online resources that employees have access to such as website analytics, stock photo websites, news and blogs. This is a TON of information. Access to social media also poses a challenge. The organization may store personal data on central servers, individual computers, USB keys, external hard drives and mobile devices.

Organizations often use personal data to outline a path to accomplishing goals by analyzing personal relationships of their employees with customers, vendors, and employees of other organizations. For example, a sales manager may want to know which sales people have a background and connection in a certain industry before sending them to the industry trade show.

An organization may also use personal data to identify employees that pose risks to the organization or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, are the best candidates for promotions.

Some of the recent issues about the privacy of employee data have appeared because of employer health programs. According to an article in Fast Company Magazine called “How Fitbit Became the Next Big Thing In Corporate Wellness,” employers all around the world are providing their employees with activity trackers to promote exercise and healthy lifestyles, which, in turn, decreases the rates of obesity, diabetes and cancer and boosts employee productivity.

In the United States, FitBit’s corporate customers include BP, Bank of America and IBM. The retail giant Target agreed to offer 335,000 Fitbit trackers to the employees as a part of its health program. Barclays offered the trackers to 75,000 employees.

These are just a few examples that come with sensitive privacy and personal data handling issues. For this reason, you want to be sure that you know what the law states when it comes employee data, subject access requests, and processing them properly. 

IBEC, a business and employer association for organizations based in Ireland, stated in an article from 2016 that the Data Protection Commissioner has observed a steady rise in the number of subject access requests in the recent years. Most of them are regarding complaints from individuals that occur after “relationship breakdowns.” If you want to avoid costly lawsuits and inquiries from the government about the ways your organization handles personal data, you need to make sure that you process all subject data requests as required by law.

Secure your business with data access training

With the ongoing growth of technology and the digital economy, companies are amassing huge amounts of personal information from their customers. Unfortunately, the collection and storage of this data comes with a risk – the risk that the information could be lost, accessed or misused. We’ve recently seen the true scale of the impact that these data breaches can have on businesses, worldwide. Which is why it’s more important than ever for organisations to make sure they’re protecting customer data and reducing their compliance risk.

For Australian businesses, changes to laws around data breaches are a serious prompt to get up-to-date with compliance rules. There are grim consequences of non-compliance, including legal proceedings, fines and penalties, and the loss of income and reputation. In fact, in the case of corporations, you could now be at risk of paying civil penalties of an amount up to $1.8 million.

How would you respond if your organisation discovered a serious data breach? What plan do you have in place to protect your reputation and business operations?

It’s vital that you think about ways to make sure your business is safeguarding against the event of a data breach. Here, we’ll look at how eLearning can be used to educate employees around information and data security, helping to reduce your compliance risk.

Changes to laws around compliance risks and data breaches

With the passing of the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Bill 2016 in Parliament, companies will no longer have the luxury of hiding their breaches.

Once enacted into law on 22 February 2018, businesses that fail to show they have the right measures in place – or are at least making efforts to – will face fines and a big hit to their reputation. So what are these measures?

Companies must notify both the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and affected individuals of any eligible data breaches. This will give individuals the opportunity to re-secure or change their data, while also putting pressure on organisations to improve their data security practices in the first place.

Graham Pyper, in a recent article for Australasian Lawyer, believes that in a year’s time, “we’ll start to get the real picture of how seriously businesses are taking the security of their data – and the number of breaches really taking place.”

Australian companies who aren’t paying proper attention to compliance will be thrown in the spotlight – and you don’t want to be one of them. Educating staff about data security and compliance is key to minimising risks. If you haven’t been taking your compliance training seriously, or treating it like a bit of a ‘tick and flick,’ it might be time to think about approaching it in a new way.

Using eLearning to reduce compliance risk

Earlier, we published an article on how eLearning can reduce your compliance risk, with online courses breaking the “boring mold of compliance risk learning.”

As we explained then, online training is the best way to reduce compliancy risk for companies, due to the huge variety of learning methods available. Through eLearning platforms, you can use “simulations, quizzes, stories, gamification, role-play, audio, video, and almost any other multimedia you can think of! That’s a whole load of ways to take students through the complicated maze of compliance.”

Using methods such as storytelling or gaming to include ‘real world’ scenarios is a far more effective way to help staff understand the important of compliance. In this way, online training can highlight data breach situations that other companies have been faced with – and dealt with successfully or unsuccessfully.

“Rather than explain compliance through a theory-focused, boring textbook-led method, the use of stories in compliance makes lessons relevant, exciting, and practical so that they can be put into practice quickly.”

If you’re an Australian business looking to get things in order before the new data breach laws, it would be wise to step up your employee compliance training now. Investing some time and money in this area is the best way to significantly reduce your compliance risk.

Reduce your compliance risk ahead of new data breach laws

Failing to plan is planning to fail. We’re all aware of that, right? Why then do companies frequently founder when reducing their compliance risk despite it being an issue of such pivotal importance?