September 2022

SOLUTIONS

Boost Remote Employee Morale with Virtual Team Building

What exactly is Virtual Team Building? Gartner defines it as:

Virtual team building is a set of activities that:

Build trust among team members
Develop team members
Bring unity to the team
Clarify team norms
Foster an understanding of virtual peers’ work
Help conduct effective meetings in a virtual environment.

To keep employees engaged, leaders must regularly reassess their team’s needs and evolve team-building activities accordingly.

What Is Virtual Team Building?

It’s no secret that workplaces are evolving. With numerous companies moving to fully remote work, engaging and creating a sense of belonging within your team is now more important than ever. While there are many ways to cultivate a sense of belonging in your remote workforce, one of the most effective is virtual team building.

Virtual team building is a set of activities that helps develop, unify and build trust among team members. These activities help foster that human connection which makes strong teams so successful. When done correctly, virtual team building has the ability to make remote teams feel just as close-knit as those working in office. This is especially true if you leverage purpose, vision, and enthusiasm to plan crowd-pleasing virtual team building activities.

Expert evaluations of remote work suggest that…

“ . . . communication and shared identity within a team can mediate the effects of physical separation.”

Strategically designed virtual team building activities provide communication while reinforcing a shared team identity. These online team games & activities can also mitigate the engagement-draining challenges of a remote or distributed workforce.

For example…

When remote workers feel lonely, isolated, or unsupported, a virtual team building activity can remind them of all the amazing people they have behind them.
When remote workers feel their excitement slipping, a virtual team building activity can help them rekindle their passion by exposing them to excited co-workers.
When remote workers are craving more autonomy, a virtual team building activity can help them gain trust from their managers and peers.

So what’s the overarching secret to unlocking the benefits of virtual team building?

It’s commitment—commitment and passion from a strong leadership team.

Experts who’ve studied companies found that “transformational and visionary leadership” can get remote engagement levels up to on-site engagement levels.

Why Building a Strong Virtual Team Is So Important

Studies show that virtual team building has many benefits. Some notable outcomes of these activities include:

Stronger Relationships. Virtual team building has been proven to forge better working relationships between colleagues and lead to higher levels of happiness.
Improved Productivity. Virtual team building encourages employees to collaborate and often improves workplace communication. You know what they say: teamwork makes the dream work!
Reduced Loneliness. Let’s face it: remote work can get lonely. Virtual team building helps create a sense of togetherness among teammates and has been shown to improve the mental wellbeing of employees.

What You Need for a Successful Team Building Experience

To ensure your team building works, you’ll want to choose activities that are engaging, insightful and fun. (Otherwise, you may end up with a Zoom meeting full of people aimlessly scrolling through TikTok.) Here’s what you’ll need to have a successful team building session:

1. Equipment

How will you facilitate the exercise? Through Zoom? Skype? You’ll want to ensure all team members have the tools needed to participate. The majority of virtual team buildings utilize web cameras, microphones and speakers, so make sure every participant has these — whether it be a set of individual devices, or an all-in-one combo.

2. Availability

It’s important to consider your team’s schedules when planning these exercises. Remember to be mindful of their time and take note of any important deadlines and projects when scheduling the session. Think about employee time zones and outside obligations, such as picking up children from school or pre-scheduled time off.

3. A Game Plan

Take time and establish your game plan. What do you hope to accomplish by facilitating this exercise? If you’re unsure what to accomplish, you can always request individual feedback from your staff beforehand. Team building is most impactful when it doesn’t feel like a chore to employees, so plan accordingly. You can also have a team building session just for fun!

4. Feedback

Collecting feedback after a team building session is critical to evaluating how impactful it was and whether or not you achieved the objective you intended. Some ways to collect feedback include a post-meeting survey, a set of short questions for participants to answer throughout or perhaps a “raised hands” poll at the end of the event.

When To Do Team Building

To maximize impact, you’ll want to plan the frequency of your team building sessions strategically. Here are four of the best ways to implement virtual team building into your company schedule:

Add-Ons to Team Meetings

To start your weekly team meetings on the right foot, or to spice up Friday’s daily call, try opening with an activity that addresses a challenge in your team (such as communication) or something fun to celebrate the end of the week.

Recurring Team Building Meetings

One good way to ensure you have time designated for team building is to schedule a recurring meeting dedicated solely to this. These meetings can last around an hour and should consist of no more than one to three activities. Sessions like these are most effective when implemented bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly.

Recurring Team Building Days

Consider holding a bi-annual or annual “Team Building Day.” You can try assessing your team’s challenges and facilitate some exercises to address them — squeezed between an icebreaker and one or two activities that are just for fun.

When New Hires Join the Team

Icebreaker and just for fun activities are great for making new team members comfortable and can go a long way in helping start them off on the right foot. Try to schedule these within a new employee’s first three days.

For some Virtual Team Building activities, check out this site:

Greenhat Games

Source: Gartner Glossary, SnackNation, eddy

FDIC Issues Guidance On Multiple Re-Presentment NSF Fees

The FDIC has issued new supervisory guidance (FIL-40-2022) on multiple non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees arising from the re-presentment of the same unpaid transaction. The guidance directly applies only to state-chartered banks and thrifts that are not members of the Federal Reserve System. National banks and federal thrifts are supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System are supervised by the Federal Reserve Board (FRB).

In the guidance, the FDIC addresses potential risks arising from multiple re-presentment NSF fees, risk mitigation practices, and the FDIC’s supervisory approach.

Potential risks. The FDIC discusses the following three categories of risk:

Consumer compliance risk. The failure of a financial institution to clearly and conspicuously provide information that adequately advises customers that it assesses multiple NSF fees arising from the same transaction is considered to be deceptive pursuant to Section 5 of the FTC Act. In certain circumstances, a risk of unfairness may also be present if multiple NSF fees are charged for the same transaction in a short period of time without giving customers sufficient notice or opportunity to bring their accounts to a positive balance in order to avoid the assessment of additional NSF fees. The FDIC warns that “while revising disclosures may address the risk of deception, doing so may not fully address the unfairness risks.”
Third-party risk. The FDIC highlights the potential risks that can arise from arrangements with third parties, including core processors, that play significant roles in processing payments, identifying and tracking re-presented items, and providing systems that determine when NSF fees are assessed. Institutions (1) are expected to maintain adequate oversight of third-party activities and appropriate quality control over products and services provided through third-party arrangements, and (2) are responsible for identifying and controlling risks arising from third-party relationships to the same extent as if the third-party activity was handled within the institution. The FDIC encourages institutions “to review and understand the risks presented from their core processing systems related to multiple NSF fees, as well as understand the capabilities of their core processing system(s), such as identifying and tracking re-presented items and maintaining data on such transactions.” We understand that many core processors do not have the capability to identify when a presentment is a multiple presentment. While that limitation does not relieve a bank from compliance with the guidance, the FDIC does recognize that software changes require time for implementation and, accordingly, will show some leniency to banks and thrifts that have self-reported a problem and provided a remedial plan to the FDIC before their next compliance examination.
Litigation risk. The FDIC notes that financial institutions have faced class action lawsuits alleging breach of contract and other claims, some of which have resulted in substantial settlements, based on the failure to adequately disclose re-presentment NSF fee practices. We have handled and are presently defending several of these types of class actions. Banks and thrifts that are subject to FDIC supervision (and lack a binding arbitration provision with a class action waiver in their deposit account agreements) and are named a defendant in a class action involving re-presentment NSF fee practices need to ensure that any settlement will address both the concerns of the FDIC and the plaintiffs’ attorneys bringing the class action.

Risk mitigation practices. The FDIC lists risk-mitigating activities that financial institutions can take to reduce the risk of consumer harm and avoid potential violations arising from multiple re-presentment NSF fee practices. In addition to eliminating NSF fees or not charging more than one NSF fee for the same transaction, such activities consist of: (1) conducting a comprehensive review of policies, practices, and monitoring activities related to re-presentments and making appropriate changes and clarifications, (2) clearly and conspicuously disclosing the amount of NSF fees and when and how such fees will be imposed, and (3) reviewing customer notification or alert practices related to NSF transactions and the timing of fees to ensure customers have the ability to avoid multiple fees for re-presented items. We are currently assisting several clients in conducting these reviews.

The FDIC expects institutions that self-identify re-presentment NSF fee issues to: (1) take full corrective action, including providing full restitution consistent with the guidance; (2) promptly correct NSF fee disclosures and account agreements for both existing and new customers, including providing revised disclosures and agreements to all customers, (3) consider whether additional risk mitigation practices are needed to reduce potential unfairness risk, and (4) monitor ongoing activities and customers feedback to endure full and lasting corrective action. These activities should be conducted carefully with consideration given to how they will impact any class actions in which the bank is a defendant.

FDIC’s supervisory approach. The FDIC advises that it “will recognize an institution’s proactive efforts to self-identify and correct violations.” More specifically, its examiners will generally not cite UDAP violations that have been identified and fully corrected before the start of a consumer compliance examination. In determining the scope of restitution, the FDIC will consider an institution’s record-keeping practices and any challenges it may have in retrieving, reviewing, and analyzing re-presentment data, on a case-by-case basis, when evaluating the time period used for customer remediation.

Source: jdsupra.com

Got Backups?

Overview

If you use a computer or mobile device long enough, sooner or later something will go wrong. You may accidentally delete the wrong files, have a hardware failure, or lose a device. Even worse, malware may infect and wipe or encrypt your files. At times like these, backups are often the only way you can rebuild your digital life.

Backups are copies of your information stored somewhere other than on your computer or mobile device. When you lose, or cannot access, valuable data on your device, you can recover your data from backups. Many of the files we create today are already automatically stored and backed-up in the cloud, such as Microsoft Word documents stored in Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive, or personal photos stored in Apple iCloud. But there may be files you create that are not automatically stored in the cloud; or perhaps you want additional backups for personal use.

What, When, and How

The first step is deciding what you want to back up: (1) specific data that is important to you; or (2) everything, perhaps including your entire operating system. Many backup solutions are configured by default to use the first approach and only back up the most commonly used folders. If you are not sure what to back up or want to be extra careful, consider backing up everything.

Second, decide how frequently to back up the data. Built-in backup programs such as Apple’s Time Machine or Windows Backup and Restore allow you to create an automatic “set it and forget it” schedule. Common scheduling options include hourly, daily, and weekly. Other solutions may offer “continuous protection” in which files are immediately backed up as they are edited or saved. At a minimum, we recommend automated daily backups of critical files.

Finally, decide how you are going to back up. There are two ways: local or cloud-based backups. Local backups rely upon devices you physically control such as external USB drives or network accessible devices. The advantage of local backups is that they enable you to back up and recover large amounts of data quickly. The disadvantage is that if you become infected with malware, it is possible for the infection to spread to your backups. Also, if you have a disaster, such as fire or theft, you could lose your backups as well as your computer. If you use external devices for backups, store a copy offsite in a secure location and make sure your backups are properly labeled. For additional security, consider encrypting your backups.

Cloud-based solutions are online services that back up and store your files on the internet. Typically, you install an application on your computer. The application then automatically backs up your files either on a defined schedule or as you modify or save them. Some advantages of Cloud Solutions are their simplicity, automation of backups, and the access to files from almost anywhere. Also, since your data resides in the cloud, home disasters such as fire or theft will not affect your backup. The main disadvantage is the bandwidth it consumes. Your ability to backup and restore depends on how much data you are backing up and the speed of your network. Not sure if you want to use local or cloud-based backups? Be extra safe and use both.

With mobile devices, most of your data such as emails, text messages, or photos you take are automatically stored in the cloud. However, your mobile app configurations, system preferences, and other files may not be stored in the cloud. By automatically backing up your mobile device, not only do you preserve this information, but it is easier to transfer your data when you upgrade to a new device.

Additional Key Points

Regularly test that your backups are working by retrieving and opening a file.
If you rebuild a system from backup including the operating system, be sure you reapply the latest security patches and updates before using it again.
If you are using a cloud solution, select one that is easy for you to use and research the security options. For example, does your cloud backup vendor support two-step verification to secure your online account?

Backups are a simple and low-cost way to protect your digital life.

Source: SANS OUCH! Newsletter, September 7, 2022, Greg Scheidel, Chief Cybersecurity Officer, Iron Vine Security