Despite our best efforts, human error is unavoidable in the workplace. With the pandemic still in progress, new factors have appeared that psychologists believe have lessened focus and led to an increased susceptibility to human error with regard to security.
These errors can lead to data breaches, decreased trust in your company, and damage your bottom line. But, steps can be taken to minimise their potential to harm your company. Below, we explore some causes of human error, and how to support your teams to reduce its frequency.
Human Error – 2 Primary Causes & Solutions
It’s no secret that the pandemic is still ongoing. With hybrid and remote work, problems like phishing emails have grown far worse in scale and people’s susceptibility to them. 90% of all data breaches are caused by human error. Here are two leading causes and solutions to human error in a work environment.
Exhaustion
Fatigue is a common cause of human errors. Remote and hybrid work makes this error worse by putting employees in a distraction-filled environment and increasing cognitive load. This leads to burnout, stress, and exhaustion, all of which make people more vulnerable to attacks like phishing emails.
This problem is also caused by burnout. Working from home, Zoom calls, and other forms of online communication lead to burnout faster, which is responsible for many other errors.
To avoid this, it’s important to communicate with your team to gauge their comfort with current working conditions, their stress levels, and if they are experiencing burnout. If they are, take steps to alleviate their workload, provide more paid leave, or otherwise communicate to mitigate whatever is causing their exhaustion.
Though it might sound expensive or time-consuming, preventative measures are key in keeping your business free from cyberattacks and other damage that human error can cause.
Working Too Quickly
Working too quickly can also be a cause of human error, like sending an email to the wrong person. This can lead to more security risks if the emails contain sensitive information. Working quickly can also be a symptom of overwork, leading to stress, exhaustion, and many other error causes.
To counter this, communicate with your employees about any overwork they may be experiencing, or if they feel like they work too quickly on certain tasks. If they do, automation with tools like coding may be able to help. Especially with tedious tasks like emails and payroll, the software is often useful in getting work off your employees’ plates.
Minimizing human errors in your workplace is critical to reducing your risk of security breaches. This will protect your business, privacy, reputation, and customers. When a human error does occur in your workplace, be sure to offer support to your employees, not punishment. This will ensure that they’re willing to come to you with potentially harmful behaviours in the future and keep them from happening again.
Causes of Human Error at Workplace Infographic
Also, read: Workplace Health and Safety Hazards Every Employee Needs to Know
