Awareness of crime, and protection against crime is the responsibility of all mobile workers, management and employees onsite. It is necessary for the protection of equipment and jobs. Proprietary information and/or confidential information as well as equipment can be lost if precautions are not taken.
Every employee in a company that has a mobile work programs have their own areas of responsibility.
a) Mobile Worker's Responsibilities
- Record all serial and model numbers of all equipment.
- Engrave with a special #.
- Keep list of this information offsite.
- Ensure correct insurance is in place.
- Consider a security system or burglar alarm for home office.
- Don't advertise you work at home and what type of work you do.
- Keep your schedule private; don't let people know when you are in or out.
- Don't let equipment be visible through doors or windows.
- Have secure storage for work related papers, disks and files.
- Don't leave work out when company is over if you have a shared space office.
- For separate room home offices - lock the door when company is over.
- Keep your vehicle locked when you have to leave mobile gear in it.
b) Employer's Responsibilities
- Keep records of any company owned equipment that mobile workers have in their home offices and keep in their possession.
- Provide crime prevention training for all mobile workers.
- Work with security firms to arrange group discounts for alarm systems for all employees, not just mobile workers.
- Stress the importance of not broadcasting who is a mobile worker and what kind of equipment & information mobile workers may have in their home offices and possession.
c) Other Employee's Responsibilities
- Don't give out personal information about who is a mobile worker.
- Inform management if it appears that there is unusual interest in who may be a mobile worker, this could be from clients or other members of the public.
- Mobile work is a privilege and if employees wish to work remotely at a later point they must learn to be responsible and understand how important the security issues are.
To keep mobile workers and mobile work programs safe it is important to remember that "loose lips sink ships" and this particular ship could be the business. Losses that may be incurred due to lack of caution could result in more serious consequences for all.