Augmenting Technical Support Teams During Strikes
Posted on: 12 June 2017
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When productivity grinds to a halt during a strike, a powerful tool in any business' contingency plan is a strike staffing plan. Although it's an unfortunate transition that requires some adjustment, handling at least a percentage of your business' workload is better than nothing at all--and can even be an opportunity to test new talent in a situation that could be worse. Here are a few strike staffing concerns when it comes to technical support and other technical staff positions.
Technical Support Dominates Training
Many technical support departments are often behind any training system, and are often skilled at the organization needed to learn a new system as a normal part of their job.
Whether a tech team is learning the needs of a new system of their current business or staffing another business, the task is the same: perform a walkdown of technical spaces, assemble a training plan, and perform system drills with lower level technicians.
High-level technicians at the administrator and senior engineer level are necessary for the task, but they may opt to bring a few of their mid-level and junior technicians to observe how they perform certain walkdown tasks. Every business network and tech system follows a specific diagram, and walking through the entire system that isn't operational is a rare chance limited to new installations and renovations.
If your business has existing diagrams, that makes everything easier. Still, a new technical team will need to verify the diagrams and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for accuracy to be the best team for you during a strike transition.
Information Security Changes And Strike Access
Technical systems have one big risk in the event of a strike: strikers gaining access. Especially in Information Technology (IT) systems, a team that knows your system and goes on strike has every reason to hack into the system and make trouble for your strikers.
It's illegal and you can press charges if you have proof, but your business shouldn't rely on that threat alone. A technical strike staffing team should expect resistance and consider changing--and documenting--passwords and other security access assets. Biometrics should be disabled, and any remote login attempts should be disabled. Don't allow work from home unless absolutely necessary, because it's too easy for an IT on strike to blend in with legitimate remote workers.
Contact a strike staffing company, like Modern Staffing & Security, to discuss bringing in technicians and engineers during a strike with security risks.