Unit 7 Organisational Systems Security P5

P5 How staff employment contracts can make IT systems more secure.

Hiring Policies
When a person gets hired by a company, there are numerous things included in the hiring policy which help keep the company secure. Background checks will be done to make sure that the person doesn’t have a criminal record, and they also check the references that the person gives. Most companies have a probation period where a new employee can be fired straight away, without being disciplined or given warnings. This makes sure that the person that they’re hiring is trustworthy and won’t steal from the company or commit other crimes, and this helps keep the systems more secure. 

Separation of duties
separation of duties involves delegation of tasks. When an employee is hired they will be told in their employment contract what jobs and tasks they are expected to do. Some really important duties are shared between a small number of people, this way if someone with a really important job is off sick, then there are still people within the company who can be trusted to do it, otherwise, the job would either not get done which could results in big costs for the company, or someone who is not trusted to do the job might have to do it and this could breech security. 

Ensuring Compliance Including Disciplinary Procedures
If an employee is found doing something punishable, like stealing from the company for example, this has to be dealt with fairly and also confidentially. There are many ways that an incident could be dealt with and they all depend on the severity of the incident. Something small may only require a meeting with a supervisor to discuss what happened; this may be record for future reference. Something bigger may require the employee being suspended with pay while an investigation is ongoing to make sure that they are actually guilty of what they are accused of, as if they are not guilty and get fired, and then there could be legal issues at great cost to the company. Something such as stealing information from the company may lead to instant firing. This is done in order to try and deter people from stealing information and preventing security breaches.

Training and communication with staff as their responsibilities
Making sure that each employee is aware of their responsibilities is really vital to a company, for example if someone wasn't sure what they were supposed to be doing it could impact on the company itself as it could cause a lot of confusion and also security breaches. It is extremely important that all members of staff get appropriate training as it could also impact on health and safety aspects as well as security.