The author of this article is Bahaa Abdul Hadi. As an Identity Management expert, Bahaa Abdul Hadi always shares his experience on various platforms. This time he talks about how to manage temporary worker access in an organization.
If you are a part of the human resources (HR), facilities, administration, or security teams of any MSME or large enterprise, you must have faced this situation for sure. The nuances which are posed due to access violations by temporary or permanent employees, might have created multiple unpleasant situations wherein you had to take disciplinary action against the employee.
Extra hands are needed if your company hires temporary employees to handle the seasonal rush, such as in educational institutions, during the admission times. In a holiday home or vacation spot, the festive season is a rush time, etc. It is very important that the temporary employees record their attendance every day so that their productivity can be measured. Most importantly, they should not have access to any data (physical or electronic) which are prohibited for them.
Strong background screening
Organizations should not try to do cost-cutting when it comes to background screening of temporary employees. Employ a trustworthy agency which will do proper screening of the employee to ensure that the wrong person does not manage to get the offer letter. If the employee had performed any fraudulent activity or was charged with theft or sexual harassment, in his/her previous organization, ensure you do not hire such individuals.
Ease of access along with strong security
If an organization is too cautious and installs multiple checkpoints for an employee, it might end up hampering productivity and creating frustration amongst employees. If an employee feels that he/she is constantly being monitored, it will not be a great feeling for him/her.
There should be information security teams checking the outgoing mails and all other types of information that leave the workstation of an employee. Selective printer access should be given so that the temporary employee cannot take printouts of crucial customer data and misuse them. The employees should not be allowed to carry pen drives, or any storing gadgets including smartphones in areas where they can have access to confidential company information.
Implement a cloud-based identity management solution and make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)
Migrating to the cloud will optimize your processes and help you work seamlessly at a low-risk environment. Take the help of a capable IT solutions company, which will create a security-centric and cost-optimized solution to make the best out of your processes. It will lay solid security and cost-effective foundation for continuous performance improvements and help you to identify any security breaches within your company premises.
If a temporary employee, who does not have access to some production areas, IT rooms, server rooms, etc. knowingly or unknowingly enters those premises, a robust cloud-based identity management solution will identify the intruder.
Tailgating can happen in an environment wherein the employee is physically present. However, in today’s scenario wherein the employees are working remotely, their movements need to be tracked very carefully. If a temporary employee tries to hack some other systems, bypasses the security norms, or tries to muddle client data, AI-driven systems should be robust enough to catch him/her immediately.
When the contract period of the temporary employee expires, immediately all physical access should be revoked along with revoking all IDs and passwords he/she was using.
The article has been published by the editorial board of the Identity Herald and authored by Bahaa Abdul Hadi. For more information please visit www.identityherald.com
