Practicing Good Tech Hygiene In Your Office or Retail Location

Tech hygiene often gets lost in the day-to-day flow of business, as employees get too caught up in operations to take the necessary steps for hardware and software maintenance. Office or retail systems that are neglected for too long can sustain compounded damage. Eventually, you might find yourself staring at a dead computer screen. Here are five essential tech hygiene tips to consider while maintaining your office or retail computers and gadgets.

Temperature

Computers and servers run the risk of overheating, especially as they run a multitude of processes. Ensure that your computer’s fans are operating properly, and consider using software to monitor the internal temperatures of your hardware. Avoid placing computers or servers in warm or humid areas. Air conditioning can be an excellent way to control the climate around your hardware.

Cleanliness

Use electronics cleaner to periodically wipe down keyboards, mice, and touchscreens. You might be surprised and horrified by the types of germs that grow on our gadgets. Which? conducted touchscreen tests, and discovered that they are dirtier than toilet seats. That’s nasty. They discovered a significant amount of Staphylococcus aureaus, which can lead to abdominal issues. Spray the cleaner onto a cloth, and then wipe down your electronics. Never spray liquid directly onto components like keyboards, since this can cause internal liquid damage. Make electronic cleaners accessible to employees, so that they can also address dirty screens and keyboards.

Support Resources

What happens when something goes awry and your computer stop working? Or your point of sale system goes down? Well, your employees should have access to the right tech support channels that can help them during an emergency. Post these numbers in an accessible location, so that staff can make these calls quickly. Also note call tree shortcuts, so that you’re not stuck waiting on hold forever.

Backups

A computer is out of commission, but what happens to the data stored on it? Does your company have a backup of this data to work off of, or are you stuck attempting to do emergency data recovery? Your IT department should be backing up and testing data on a regular basis.

Cable Management

Tripping over a cable in the workplace can lead to disaster. A cord might become damaged, or you might pull hardware off of a table. Your business can organize cables by using heat-shrink bundle tape. Now you won’t have to worry about a mess of unsightly stray cables.

Elevate the standards of tech hygiene in your workplace by implementing these crucial changes in your office or retail location. Proper data and tech hygiene can help your company save money by preserving tech investments for a longer period of time. Taking these steps can streamline your experience and make your daily operations much smoother.

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