Not every employee works in the IT department, but every employee should have some basic tech skills. This ensures fundamental standards of efficiency and security throughout the organization. And if you are a decision-maker within the IT department, you can advocate for some basic skills training within every part of the company. Here are some specific skillsets that everyone should be familiar with.
Must-Have Tech Skills
Backing up data. Every employee has a responsibility to prevent against data loss—and the simplest way to do so is to back up work files each day, whether with a cloud-based service (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) or an external hard drive.
Maintaining anti-virus software. Again, there’s shared responsibility for keeping devices virus-free—and knowing how to install and update anti-virus programs is key.
Accessing the virtual office from home. Chances are, there’s an office network your employees can tap into even when they are at home. The IT team may have to show the rest of the company how this is done, but from there, everyone should know how to access key files remotely.
Safe Web browsing. Malware and phishing scams are just a couple of potential dangers lurking on the Internet; make sure employees know how to browse the Web without falling into these costly traps.
Safe email use. Along the same lines, some basic email precautions—not opening attachments from unknown senders, etc.—should be common knowledge at your company.
Leading Your Company in Technological Literacy
As a member of the technology team, it falls to you to uphold these standards, and to promote some basic tech literacy whenever you can. Hopefully, these rudimentary skills are already familiar to the members of your organization. If not, there’s no time like now to teach them!