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HR’s Origin Story
To better get a grasp of the intentions behind the HR department, it will help to look back to how it was created. Back in the early 1900s, companies had two concerns that needed to be addressed: first, understanding why their employees were dissatisfied enough to leave their positions, and second, resisting the rise of the labor union.

It was ultimately this resistance to unions that gave rise to the idea that HR was to serve as the advocate of the employee. By providing the workforce with someone to express their grievances and complaints to, the union was effectively rendered redundant. As a result, HR was seen as a champion of the employee, their internal representative to upper management. This impression lasted clear from the 1930s to the ‘70s. In the ‘80s, things began to shift again.

HR Today
In the 1980s, a few things changed: new worker protection laws were being passed, and union membership dipped. This caused a major shift in the mission of HR departments. Instead of serving as a worker’s representative, Human Resources quickly became more committed to protecting the company from government retribution due to company problems.

However, by acting in the company’s best interest, many employee issues were also attended to. Even though organizations were acting out of self-interest, employees were better protected against workplace issues like discrimination and sexual harassment - and if these issues did arise, the company was fully prepared to settle out-of-court in exchange for the signing of a non-disclosure agreement in order to protect their reputation.

Unfortunately, issues like this don’t always pan out so smoothly.

What Happens When Human Resources Aren’t a Good Resource
Since the mission of HR shifted in the 1980s, there have been a few negative impacts that should not be ignored. If one still is of the opinion that HR is there to be an employee’s advocate, some workplace bullying and harassment cases would be very surprising.

For instance, if the bullying and/or harassment is coming from a superior, many employees may hesitate to report it for fear of retaliation. This retaliation can come from a manager, or even from Human Resources itself. The application Blind, which allows professionals to share their work experience at companies with prospective employees, reports that nearly half of its users felt some kind of blowback after they reported a workplace incident.

An example of such can be found in the story of Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer. During her time at the ridesharing company (which Blind reported as having a retaliation rate of 34.72%), one of her managers sent her inappropriate and unwanted messages. Fowler went through all of the proper steps, documenting her experience and filing a report with HR. Despite this, she was given two options: find a different team to work with, or put up with it and potentially receive a poor review from the manager harassing her. Fowler left Uber not long after that, and authored a blog that resulted in an internal investigation at Uber that left 20 employees fired in the aftermath.

Susan Fowler’s case only shows that not all HR departments have an employee’s best interests at heart, siding with the business as a whole to try and cover up issues. However, there is still one important question to address: why can’t Human Resources wear both hats, advocating for the employer and the employee?

Striking a Compromise
Based on what has been reviewed thus far, HR seems to have two main functions. The first is to ensure that the company attracts the necessary talent to succeed in its endeavors, the second being to ensure that the work environment sees to the needs of the employees so that the employee doesn’t leave due to a company issue. Achieving this balance can be very difficult for many HR departments. They often just don’t have the necessary resources to see to both the wellbeing of the employees and the requirements that a business demands.

We respect the importance of a well-equipped and efficient HR department here at PacketLogix, which is why we make it a priority to offer services and solutions that can make their jobs easier. With improved technology, much of it offering automation, the full schedule of HR can be eased enough so that all duties can be attended to appropriately.

If your Human Resources department could use some help to serve as a representative of both sides of your business, employee and administration, let us know! The solutions you need could only be a call to (888) 945-9434 away.

Ransomware had really become a major problem as the calendar changed to 2017. No one could imagine what would have happened over the first few months of the year. It seemed as if there was a new ransomware attack in the news every day; and, coupled with all the other hacking attacks such as distributed denial of service, phishing, viruses, trojan horses, spoofing, and more, it made it increasingly difficult for the modern business to avoid these threats.

IT service providers, who not only understand the workings of networking and infrastructure but have proficiency in squelching targeted attacks began to roll out security services. Sure, there have been managed security services for quite a while, but with businesses and other organizations inundated with such profit-killing IT problems coming from outside their own network, more IT businesses began to focus exclusively on higher-end security services.

Why Use a MSSP?
There are a myriad of reasons to utilize outsourced IT services. Whether you want to get comprehensive support for your information technology, you want to cut your support costs, you want help implementing a specific technology, or you simply want a professional technology consultant on retainer, outsourcing your IT management to PacketLogix has substantial value.

The managed security service provider does the same, except instead of focusing on your business’ well-being, the service is focused solely on keeping threats from interrupting your business’ progress. To do so, they meet the complexity of today’s threats with equally sophisticated tools designed to block and eliminate any threat thrown your way. Some of the services your average MSSP will provide include:

• Managed Identity and Access Management
• Managed Encryption (Virtual Private Networks)
• Managed Firewall
• Managed Data Loss Prevention
• Managed Intrusion Detection
• Managed Intrusion Prevention
• Managed Security Information and Event Management
• Managed Unified Threat Management

These services take your typical network security and turn up the volume. The MSSP makes certain that your information systems are completely controlled and not useful to anyone outside your organization. Additionally, the MSSP’s security-focused effort makes compliance to regulatory laws and mandates a priority. By ensuring controls are secure, and reports that show a dedication to keep sensitive data secure, an MSSP is a good investment for any business that relies on regulatory compliance to operate effectively.

With network and cybersecurity becoming essential considerations for every IT department, companies of all sizes are looking to outsourced IT professionals to handle their network security. Does your business need a security firm to overlook your business’ network? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Troubleshooting
We’ve all done it: something is a little bit off, so naturally we try to fix the perceived problem, only to exacerbate things. The problem is that we are clutching at straws. The theory behind troubleshooting is that every problem has a solution, and by eliminating potential problems, you’ll be able to, at the very least, ascertain what is causing the issue so that you can resolve it.

In order to properly troubleshoot a problem, you should have an effective knowledge of the system you are investigating. Chefs don’t typically investigate crime, why should a salesman investigate why their computer isn’t functioning properly? Not to say that a salesperson (or a chef, for that matter) can’t fix a computer issue they have, but typically to go in blind and successfully troubleshoot an issue, you need to have the knowledge required to understand the system you are troubleshooting.

The first key to successfully troubleshooting a computer is to start simple. By starting at the beginning you can quickly rule out certain simple problems. With any luck, it will be some simple adjustment and you’ll get your system up and running quick. To give you a good example of what a successful troubleshoot looks like, we’ll take the simplest problem a user can run into and go through the scenario, and the potential problems you are facing:

You sit down to your computer and press the power button and the machine doesn’t power on.

If the machine isn’t powering on, you can quickly ascertain that it has a connection or hardware issue. First you will want to check the connections.

• Check the power cord on both ends to make sure the system is connected to the power strip or outlet.
• If you are using a power strip to make sure that it is plugged into an outlet.
• Once you’ve determined that the computer is properly connected you’ll need to consider new hardware. If the computer you are troubleshooting was working well previous to adding a piece of hardware onto your machine, you can bet that this piece of hardware has something to do with it.
• If you’ve checked both the connections and haven’t installed any new hardware on the machine, you’ll want to take the cord that powers your monitor and swap it for the one that powers your desktop. If it turns on, then you know you have a bad cord that can be easily replaced.
• If this doesn’t work it is likely a problem with the machine’s power supply.

That is just one example of a basic troubleshoot to a very basic problem. As situations get more complex, more variables are presented making working through advanced issues more time intensive. The IT professionals at PacketLogix are masters at troubleshooting IT-related problems, and can be of great value to organizations that seem to have a near-constant set of technology issues. We have well-documented procedures and processes in place to keep support effective and efficient. If your organization has technology problems that you can’t effectively troubleshoot, reach out to us at (888) 945-9434 today.