Are you planning a trip to Vegas anytime soon? I would like to give you a few tips and share my insights. Normally, we stick to security in our blog but Las Vegas is one of our featured cities we provide service for and we love Vegas here at PRS. So, we are taking a minute to help you navigate concerns from a firsthand experience.
You can see the effects of the pandemic in almost every city in America. That includes Sin City. One of the biggest things I noticed during my recent trip was around employment. Like many businesses, restaurants in Vegas are having a hard time finding enough employees to fully staff a restaurant. So what does that look like? Not as many restaurants are open and some of those are not at full capacity. That means you will likely have to wait longer to receive food or some of your longtime favorites may not even have the doors open (or, if you’re lucky, simply have reduced operating hours). Choices are obviously limited and hours vary greatly. This was especially noticeable during the breakfast hours. I could only find one restaurant open before 9am in the vicinity of my hotel, Vdara, on a Tuesday morning.
We provide security for large events/conventions in Vegas, so I went to look at the new addition to the Convention Center. If you are planning on attending a conference or similar event there, you should know to expect it to be a mostly similar experience to what it was like pre-COVID. Mask mandates are minimal (only if you have not been vaccinated yet). There are no temperature checks. Attendees are ample; perhaps not at the level of pre-COVID yet but more than you might think for not being out of the pandemic just yet.
Rideshare services, while available, cost more than before (expect about double) as there is large demand but reduced drivers than pre-COVID. For instance, a taxicab ride for an equal distance on the strip to that of a rideshare service on a Sunday afternoon was half the price of the rideshare service.
If you’re used to walking the Las Vegas strip and seeing entertainment and people all around, you will find them however not as plentiful as before COVID. In fact, you are apt to see an equal number or more of undesirables walking the strip.
I enjoyed returning to Las Vegas and to what is mostly considered a return to normal however temper your expectations for a full return to normal for likely a few more months time at least.
Please feel free to connect if you have any questions, security or otherwise, michael@premierrisksolutions.com!
It is now in the hands of companies across the U.S. to ensure their employees feel safe when they return to the office. Stasha Wyskiel is the Senior Director of Resilience, Global Safety and Security at Salesforce and sat down with us this week for our series, “Strong, Safe & True.”
Wyskiel says at Salesforce they are taking their time and slowly bringing vaccinated employees back in through phases. They are also implementing new policies, simple things that help people stay safe. Things like no more community candy jars, instead offering individually wrapped portions of all foods, including in the lunchroom. They also have a clean desk policy. Cubbies instead are offered, and everything must be cleared off a desk and placed in a cubby at the end of the day. Wyskiel says the last thing they want to do is to force employees back into the office if they’re uncomfortable. That’s why the majority of employees are given the choice to stay at home through the end of the year.
At Salesforce, Wyskiel is being proactive with her management style. She is focusing not only on employees’ physical safety but also their mental health. Recognizing the stress the pandemic has placed on so many, she has started a guided meditation before meetings and has more contact than ever with employees working from home.
Since the pandemic has had profound changes on how companies do business and the needs for certain areas of service have changed, Wyskiel talks about how they are looking at how roles will be redefined. Watch the video to hear that and be sure to continue to visit our website for weekly videos!
Here are the Top 5 areas that businesses (employers) should be concerned about with the increase in working-from-home.
1. Breaches of Confidentiality & Proprietary Information
This can be either through an intentional or unintentional means. Intentional: Certain nation-states have spies that have infiltrated employers/companies through legitimate avenues of employment (either direct employment or via a staffing agency). These actors are present to attempt to steal trade secrets (more often than not) to cause economic espionage. This practice has been occurring for years, it is not new, and the FBI estimates that American businesses lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year from trade secret theft. A nosy visitor to one’s residence could also exacerbate this issue if computer screens are left open & unlocked and/or the Wi-Fi utilized is unsecured. Any printed or written documents left out in the open or in an unsecured area are also susceptible.
Unintentional: With sensitive business conversations occurring in the home instead of the office or other off-site locations, the employee’s partner and/or children, household staff, or other transient visitors could inadvertently eavesdrop on a conversation they were not meant to. The information could be mistakenly shared with someone outside of the household in casual conversation and be utilized by that third party for unintended consequences (insider trading, gray market sales, etc).
What to do? Keep work data contained to work computers (do not share devices with anyone else). Ensure employees or contingent staff are utilizing secured Wi-Fi connections at all times; consider supplying a private (personal) hotspot as well as enhancing any level of encryption services that may normally be offered. Have a “clean desk” policy that extends to the work environment at home. Ensure sensitive or confidential documents are shredded properly and not left in regular recycle pickup bins; consider scheduling a private contractor (like Iron Mountain for instance) for weekly pickup for company key personnel.
2. Email & Text Messaging Scams
Phishing: Most of us have received those emails that appear to be from a reputable partner or company we do business with that are veiled (masked) as that entity but they are NOT. They are actually from a bad actor who is seeking your personal identifying information (username, password, or other similar data) and requesting you to take an action often associated with clicking on a link or other document they are sharing in the email. Once you click on that link or open the document they are providing, a virus of some sort is typically installed on your device for their monitoring or tracking of data input (keystrokes) or obtaining copies of what’s on your hard drive.
What to do? The best and easiest way we’ve found to validate or verify the authenticity of communication in email format is to open the header of the email so you can view the email address of the sender. Click on that email address to open it further and it is normally from another sender (they do not match). Delete the email under such circumstances without clicking or opening anything. If you are suspicious of a text message received, contact the known representative of the supposed sending company/entity separately and apart from that communication received (do nothing with the communication until you can verify its authenticity with the actual entity). If you cannot verify its authenticity, delete the text message without clicking on the link provided.
3. Locking Your Doors & Windows
This may sound simple enough but outside of major urban areas there are households that keep doors unlocked (we’ve visited with a couple of them!) whether it be their residence or their personal vehicles. This is the proverbial “low hanging fruit”.
What to do? Be sure to always secure the home and vehicles to keep out prowlers! Roll up windows in cars. For residences that are at ground-level, be sure to secure windows overnight for at least the main/first floor. Encourage employees and contingent staff to do so with gentle reminders as part of an outreach program, company newsletter, company intranet site, or similar.
4. Keeping Staff Feeling Safe
The OSHA General Duty Clause extends the care for employees by the business to when they are on business time, regardless of the physical location of the individual. For example, in the work-from-home environment, if you are on a business call and you slip and fall OSHA has indicated that is a worker’s compensation issue. However, in the same scenario, if you trip over your dog in that same hallway it’s not (unclear as to the exact distinction why one is covered and the other is not but most likely because the dog would most oftentimes not be in the standard workplace). Additionally, society has a certain percentage of its population that participates in cyberbullying on a variety of media platforms. Businesses will need to assist those employees who may be subject to cyberbullying to help them feel supported as well as take steps towards ending it.
What to do? Enact clear policies that have employee buy-in (engage employee representation when developing or enhancing policies). Ensure your company has contracts (or master service agreements) in place with the proper professional resources available on-call for support when it’s needed or to act as a force multiplier to your own internal business support mechanisms.
5. Safety at Home
Following along the lines from the example provided in #4 above where a slip & fall occurs in the home on business time, often providing education and awareness training to staff can help prevent even the smallest of accidents from occurring. Whether it be something as simple as picking up toys left from the kids playing during the daytime to covering stabilizing handrails or enhancing lighting to the exterior to act as a deterrent to the criminal element there is a myriad of such items that can be addressed to help aid the cause.
What to do? Host a “brown bag lunch” speaker series with a professional to allow employees the opportunity to gain more awareness of the issues that each of us can at times be blind to. Doing so also allows the employees to ask questions that they may otherwise not have the opportunity to do or know who to ask.
We are very excited to announce that on Monday, January 11th, 2021 Natasha Ryan joins the Premier Risk Solutions management team as Director of Business Development & Communications! Natasha comes to us after an award-winning career with ~20 years of work in media and communications, spanning time on both coasts of the U.S. Natasha is located in the greater Seattle metropolitan area where the company headquarters of operations is located.
Having been a recipient of protective services in her prior profession as well as a self-professed “military brat”, she has a keen understanding and appreciation for all things in the private security profession. To learn more about Natasha, please see the enclosed snapshot of her bio as well as the email contact information provided. Welcome aboard, Natasha, and please do extend your warm welcome to not only the PRS team but our private security profession! Reach out to Natasha to discuss your executive protection services, travel security, event security, physical security consulting services, or corporate investigation services today!
Al Robinette, President of CareerPath Consulting & Development
Michael Delamere, President of Premier Risk Solutions (Moderator/Host)
Our experts cover:
Why this topic is most important today
What it is (and isn’t)
Its types, barriers to empathy, signs of empathy, as well as its role in conflict resolution and relationship development
It’s Real World Applications
Tips and Strategies
It’s Long-Term Benefits and how you can further develop your empathic skills for the workplace
Learn these identifiable traits and valuable experiences of our panelists as they share what they have learned over the years. The content portion is about 1 hour in duration, with about a 15min Q&A dialogue near the end of the video playback for your reference. Click here to watch the video.
For some additional reference material provided, click hereto review 31 Empathetic Statements For When You Don’t Know What To Say.
You can see the effects of the pandemic in almost every city in America. That includes Sin City. One of the biggest things I noticed during my recent trip was around employment. Like many businesses, restaurants in Vegas are having a hard time finding enough employees to fully staff a restaurant. So what does that look like? Not as many restaurants are open and some of those are not at full capacity. That means you will likely have to wait longer to receive food or some of your longtime favorites may not even have the doors open (or, if you’re lucky, simply have reduced operating hours). Choices are obviously limited and hours vary greatly. This was especially noticeable during the breakfast hours. I could only find one restaurant open before 9am in the vicinity of my hotel, Vdara, on a Tuesday morning.
We provide security for large events/conventions in Vegas, so I went to look at the new addition to the Convention Center. If you are planning on attending a conference or similar event there, you should know to expect it to be a mostly similar experience to what it was like pre-COVID. Mask mandates are minimal (only if you have not been vaccinated yet). There are no temperature checks. Attendees are ample; perhaps not at the level of pre-COVID yet but more than you might think for not being out of the pandemic just yet.
