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Introduction to the Study The study in question, published in June of 2021 jointly by think tank Autonomy and Alda, the Association for Democracy and Sustainability, spanned a total of five years and specifically examined workers in Iceland. The trial was split into two parts: one conducted by the city of Reykjav?k and another conducted by the Icelandic government. Both trials involved employees working shorter hours during the work week. It is notable that employees who participated in these trials did not suffer from a reduced salary as a result of working fewer hours during the work week. Employees participating in the program typically worked 35 or 36 hours per week, while the control group worked the typical 40 hours expected of most positions. In the end, the study involved around 2,500 employees from over 100 offices. In both cases, the studies hoped to find out whether or not shortened work hours could address poor work-life balance and improve productivity. Let?s take a look at the results! The Results The results of these studies are quite promising and indicative that a shorter work week has several benefits for employees. According to the study, the results of the trials show that the reductions in working hours maintained or increased productivity and service provision? and ?Improved workers? wellbeing and work-life balance.? The report examines the following: How effectively work time was reduced How service provision and productivity were affected Whether improvements in workers? wellbeing and work-life balance took place One of the big reasons why a shortened workday is such a concern for some is that it could unintentionally lead to overwork as a result of having fewer hours to accomplish tasks, but this was generally not the case with the anecdotal evidence offered by the study. In general, employees found that they were more likely to effectively organize themselves and their work processes as a result of the shorter workday. Even managers were able to work shorter workdays! As for service provision, the idea was to look for if shorter work hours had an impact on the availability of goods and services. As evidenced by the study, ?On the whole, indicators of service provision and productivity either stayed within expected levels of variation, or rose during the period of the trial.? Finally, we get to wellbeing and work-life balance, the big one that a lot of employees think shorter work days might address. The indicators for this part of the study took place toward the tail end of the study, where stress levels and energy levels were measured. As for work-life balance, employees in the shorter work day group found that they had more time with their families and were less inclined to say no to overtime when it was needed and were less likely to take on a part-time job. Other benefits included easier-to-do errands, more balance in participation in home duties, more time for oneself, less stress at home, more exercise, and so many others. It is clear that work-life balance saw major improvements in participating employees. What are your thoughts on this study? Do you think it might benefit your office to shorten the number of hours worked by your employees? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Hard Disk Drives When most people think of hard drives, this is the type of component they are thinking of. They are mechanical devices that feature platters that spin at high rates of speed. Since they feature these moving parts, they are more prone to failure than solid state drives, but they do have benefits inside business hardware. HDDs are sometimes less expensive when you need to store a lot of data, especially when we?re talking about multiple terabytes. This allows businesses to get more bang for their proverbial buck as the price per gigabyte can be substantially lower than that of their faster counterpart. As mentioned though, these drives tend to have a limited lifespan and will fail eventually. That might be a year or a decade, but the mechanical nature really limits how long a hard-working HDD will last. Solid State Drives Solid state drives don?t feature any moving parts, as their makeup is wholly digital. This not only makes them faster to read and write data, but the lack of moving parts substantially reduces failure, making them more reliable than HDDs. Early on with SSD technology, there were problems with how much use an SSD could endure before failing, but modern SSD drives are designed to be workhorses?fast, reliable, and stable. They are available with large storage capacities, but the higher end does start to get expensive. Even with prices dropping you can expect to pay more money for an SSD than you would for an HDD with similar storage capacities on the higher end.  Which Hard Drive Makes Sense for My Needs? Ultimately, deciding what kind of hard drive to put in your workstation will depend on what you need the computer for. If you are purchasing workstations for your company, you usually want to stick with solid state drives because they are faster, and you don?t tend to need a lot of storage on the workstation itself since you should be storing most of your data on the server.  In fact, one of the most reliable ways to speed up an older workstation is to swap out the older HDD and replace it with a new SSD. That tends to make the PC feel brand new again. At White Mountain IT Services, we work with companies of all types to get them the technology they need to function in the most efficient manner possible. If you would like to talk to one of our IT experts about getting the right hardware in place for your company?s needs, give us a call today at (603) 889-0800.

Disasters can be generally defined as any situation where your business suffers from an event that disrupts operations in an impactful way. Some of the following examples of disasters might not be the first ones you think of, but they are important to prepare for all the same. Natural Disasters Nobody likes to think about a flood or a hurricane wiping out your business? infrastructure, but depending on your location, it is a possibility that must be seriously entertained. No matter where you are in the world, chances are that you are susceptible to at least some type of natural disaster, be it a fire, electrical storm, or snowstorm. Make sure you do your research and plan for the worst. Hardware Failures Technology does not last forever, so you cannot expect it to. Depending on the age of your hardware and the amount of maintenance you administer to it, you might find yourself more susceptible to hardware failure than you might think. Thankfully, hardware failure can be predicted somewhat thanks to remote monitoring and maintenance tools, but it is still something that must be considered for any disaster planning scenario. User Error People make mistakes, and the simple fact of the matter is that these mistakes can often have disastrous consequences. Imagine someone deleting Windows registry files or other important operating system files, or accidentally leaking credentials to hackers due to a phishing attack. These things happen, so be prepared to train your employees on how to adequately respond to such issues. The important thing is that they don?t sweep these issues under the rug; make it clear that you expect them to own up to mistakes, and instead of punishing them for being human, respond by helping them become better as a result of it. Hacking Attacks You see the headlines every day: ?New Ransomware Strikes So-and-So,? or ?Millions of Records Leaked in Massive Cyberattack.? These things happen, even to small businesses like yours. The best thing you can do is be prepared for them with proper network security solutions. In the case of ransomware in particular you want to have a contingency plan in place, as these threats lock down files and essentially shut down operations until the ransom is paid. Sometimes threats can just straight-up destroy or corrupt data, too, meaning that you are really stuck if you don?t have a plan in place. Get Started with Data Backup and Disaster Recovery One thing you might notice about all of the above is that they can generally be prepared for with enough proactive thought. If you find your business is underprepared for any of the above, a great way to cover all of your bases is to implement a data backup and disaster recovery solution from White Mountain IT Services. Our solution, called a backup and disaster recovery tool, or BDR, is designed to minimize downtime and expedite the recovery process in the event of any disaster, natural or otherwise. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

How Often Should You Train and Evaluate Your Team in Cybersecurity Practices? Security threats are all over the place these days, so you need to make sure that your security is covering as much as possible. You can certainly implement strong security measures that can resolve many of the common issues you might encounter, but without a solid understanding on your staff?s part, they won?t be as useful as they can be. Your team should be prepared to handle cybersecurity events in a way that doesn?t risk your company?s data infrastructure and network integrity. Here are some ways you can make sure your cybersecurity training keeps up with this expectation. Regularity How often do you share training or security information with your staff? The frequency at which you do this can make or break your experience. If you only meet to discuss security measures once a year, your staff will not have the knowledge or experience to apply their training as often as it must be. More frequent training can be more effective for keeping your network security in tip-top shape, and informing your team periodically throughout the year can help them do their jobs more effectively. Reinforcement Reinforcement in particular means using what is learned during these training sessions and applying it to a real-life situation. People tend to learn better when they are shown how to do something in a hands-on fashion rather than being told what to do. If you simulate cyberattacks in real life, you can then accurately test your employees? abilities to react to them. How Often Should You Train, and Test, Your Team? Proper security training is something that is reinforced periodically throughout your employees? time at the company, not a one-and-done event that happens upon hire. Remember, with today?s ever-changing threat landscape, you will want to be as prepared as possible. Failing to do so is putting your organization at risk for no good reason. White Mountain IT Services can help you take your organization?s network security as seriously as it must be taken. We can help you establish powerful security standards and safeguards coupled with the security training needed to understand them. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Keep Your Phone Locked and Protected You might know some people who don?t lock their smartphones, and it?s a huge mistake to leave something so simple out of your mobile device travel strategy. What would happen if you were to lose your device? What if it were stolen by someone hoping to make a quick buck off your device or the data it holds? We recommend using multi-factor authentication for your phone, including a passcode and a biometric measure of some kind. In fact, you should be using multi-factor authentication for just about any device or account where it?s available. Use a Virtual Private Network Businesses need to keep connected to a wireless network in order to stay connected to their home base, but the problem is that a lot of the wireless connections out there are unsecured and dangerous for devices with sensitive information on them. When you use a virtual private network, you can encrypt data that is sent to and from your device, allowing for the secure transmission of information while out of the office. Turn Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth When Not in Use Many people tend to keep their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled at all times, even when they are not actively being used. This is dangerous, as devices can automatically connect to networks that might be considered risky. We recommend just disabling these connections when not in use. Your battery will also last longer, as your devices will not be actively seeking out connections while out and about. Use a Mobile Device Management System Any number of issues could occur when you are on the road. Even if you just set down your device for a moment, someone could pick it up and walk away with it, putting the data on it at risk. A mobile device management tool can help mitigate these dangers somewhat. It won?t help you get your device back, but it will protect the data stored on it in the event of theft. Your mobile device management solution should include the whitelisting and blacklisting of applications, remote wiping of lost or stolen devices, and device location services. White Mountain IT Services can work with your business to ensure that mobile devices are not the reason why your employees fear traveling. To learn more about how we can help you stay safe while on the go, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.