Protecting the Physical and Emotional Well-Being of Technology Industry Employees

[Louisa Desson] Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Looks like we're starting to get a critical mass here we're going to give it just another minute or two to give attendees a chance to join us and we'll get started in just a minute.

Hello and welcome to our webinar. We really appreciate everyone taking the time.

To join us for this important topic today we're talking about insights to protect the physical and emotional wellbeing of technology employees as we navigate code 19

I'm Louisa Desson and I'll be your moderator for today. I'm a senior editor at travelers and integrated marketing where I get to work closely with all the panelists that you'll meet in a moment.

On articles, videos and other content that can help our customers protect their employees and their business and they're really has been no bigger story this year than the response to the pandemic.

So today we're going to talk about the physical and procedural changes. And we'll also discuss social and emotional effects that returning to the office.

And whether your employees are continuing to work remotely or are planning to be back in the office. We'll talk through some potential cyber risks that tech companies might be facing

Or thinking about your questions, you can submit them in the Q AMP a function during this presentation. And we'll take them at the end.

So, we think that today, you're going to come away with some actionable steps for reopening and maintaining a healthy office so panelists. I'll let you introduce yourselves and then we'll get started. Starting with Kirsten.

[Kirstin Simonson] Hi, my name is Kirsten Simonson, and I am the professional liability and cyber insurance product strategy lead for technology companies at Travelers.

[Marcos Iglesias] I am Marcos Iglesias VP and Chief Medical Director and I work in workers compensation.

Group leading a medical innovation and strategy team.

[Courtney Phillips] Hello everyone, my name is Courtney Philips. I am a senior risk control consultant and also the risk control liaison for technology here at travelers.

[Louisa Desson] Thank you all for taking the time today to talk with us.

Look forward to getting started. So let's switch to Dr. Iglesias. We have a question for you as we think about

What are some of the unprecedented challenges that employers are facing as it relates to be mental well-being of employees as we think about going back to the office.

[Marcos Iglesias] Thanks Louisa, we are living in unprecedented times that's, that's for sure. And, you know,

there's a lot of uncertainty, there's fear. There's anxiety.

And I think that both the breadth and also the depth of the thread itself.

But also a confluence of issues. There's the pandemic itself, of course, but an economic downturn at the same time there's social isolation relentless media attention.

And even social unrest. All of these things are contributing to to expose us to mental distress, and I think that no matter who we are. We're all susceptible to it. There was a survey earlier this year that showed that two thirds of us who are employed a reporting higher stress levels since the since the pandemic broke out.

We're also filling more prescriptions for anti anxiety medications for anti insomnia medications and for antidepressants. According to express scripts.

And then we have this study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month. And what it shows it's a comparison of the situation in April of this year to

And what it tells us is that 14% of US OF US adults are reporting serious psychological symptoms in April of this year compared to only about 4% and

Additionally, about 14% of us also are reporting serious levels of loneliness. So we have loneliness. We have stress we have psychological distress in all of these things can seriously affect our company's

Employees and I think it's important to just stay here that it's not just those who are employed, you know, those, those of us who are lucky to still be employed.

But there's a lot of people out there that are underemployed that are unemployed and worklessness can have a serious effect on their mental health and in things like stress and things like suicide mental health conditions. So that's the situation we're facing today.

[Louisa Desson] It's certainly something that is nearly universal in terms of the reaching effects of it so that might be happening at home can certainly come into the office. So how can employers recognize and help alleviate some of these emotional and social issues as employees start reintegrating back into the workforce.

[Marcos Iglesias] Sure.

And I think this is where managers and supervisors have a very important role to play as manager, supervisor interact with employees.

Whether it's in person or maybe even still virtually they're going to have an opportunity to identify those individuals who may need some help.

And I want to underscore here that most of us are going to be fine. Even in a situation like today's

Some of us might even come out of this more, you know, stronger, more resilient, but there are going to be some of us who need that extra help.

We're not doing terribly well socially. We're not doing terribly well emotionally. And I think that's where a supervisor may be able to help that person who needs a little bit of extra

Psychosocial help and I think a very simple way of doing that is simply by asking the question.

Are you okay, so hey, are you okay it just opens the door to better communication more open communication, but it also may help that supervisor.

Identify the individual that needs that help and and I think the important thing here is to remember, don't assume somebody's going to be okay or not. We don't know. The important thing is to ask

And then having asked have the resources available to point that individual to some help that help might need a

An employee assistance program. It might be Community resources, it might be a national resource that helps with the particular problem that they've identified with the employee. So ask, Are you okay, I think it's a it's a great way to

To approach this. And I've had a lot of people say to me, or ask, you know, is it okay to ask, and I think it is. I think it is.

There was a survey done by quality tricks this year that shows us that employees, not only are okay they're comfortable with their managers asking, but a lot of employees actually want managers to ask. So don't be. Don't be shy. Make sure you ask.

[Louisa Desson] I think the beauty of that question is so open ended that the employee can take it.

How would you say employee and mental health and physical health are connected?

[Marcos Iglesias] Well, I think of health or well being in a bio psychosocial context we're biological beings but we're also social and emotional beings.

And our psyche affects our body, our body affects our psyche. So stress can certainly lead to medical issues biological problems like heart disease like gastrointestinal problems.

A lot of other medical problems, we would consider medical problems are caused by stress.

I think that this year, there's an additional concern, and that is that a lot of us have been afraid of the disease. We're afraid of getting the disease. And so we've been avoiding medical

Medical care for things that are chronic conditions and so that's that's an aspect that, you know, again, fear is impacting our medical or biological self.

And I think that. Lastly, we need to be careful because stress mental health conditions can also lead to social and workplace issues interpersonal conflict decreased productivity, things like absenteeism.

Or just negative environment so we really do need employees that are at their best physically, emotionally cognitively and socially.

[Courtney Phillips] Yeah, from a risk control perspective, I would just add, it's important to recognize all of these issues when you're bringing employees back to a work environment that

It might look a little bit different. It might be operating a bit differently than when they left or than what they're accustomed to.

So employers should really try to communicate on the policies and procedures that have been developed in response to code, try to communicate on those early before employees return and then try to train

As soon as possible on those procedures. Upon their return, keeping in mind that you know employees are coming back with varying levels of comfort or discomfort and so

The preparation, the communication is really important as it relates to their health and safety.

And so that is something that you want to keep in mind. Also, I would say, having a contact person.

And making sure that everybody knows who that is. So that if employees do have questions or concerns that they want to talk about, they know who to reach out to and then striving to create an environment where they really feel comfortable doing that if they need to.

[Louisa Desson] That really sounds like that that communication is important both for the physical and know well being, just making sure employees know who they can talk to and then it's safe to do so.

Right.

So as companies or tech companies are preparing for reopening. What are some of the key. Back to business hygiene and safety protocols that employers should be mindful of.

[Courtney Phillips] When there's many considerations to be made when contemplating reopening and bringing, bringing your employees back and that's going to look a little bit different.

For each company, but we really recommend that employers refer to CDC guidelines OSHA, as well as any state and local guidance that is available to help decide when and how to bring your employees back safely.

[Louisa Desson] So the slide that we're looking at right now shows us the travelers path framework and could you tell us a little bit about what that is?

[Courtney Phillips] Sure.

So travelers has developed a framework called path in an effort to really help employers focus their efforts as it relates to their real branding strategies.

So path stands for plan act train and health. So we can go through each of those elements and a little more detail. And I'll talk about some risk management strategies.

And some controls that you can consider to help reduce the risk of transmission in the workplace.

So starting with plan, plan is really about understanding your level of risk as it relates to your operations, but then also as it relates to other factors like the conditions in your community.

Employers should be assessing the work areas and also tasks in the workplace to determine where they can achieve physical distancing between employees and then also identify those areas that are going to be challenging.

Once you have an understanding of the level of risk in your facility, then you can more effectively evaluate potential controls which that brings us to act.

[Louisa Desson] Which is definitely a hierarchy of controls that you need to consider.

[Courtney Phillips] Right. Right. So there's a hierarchy of controls really categorized by level of effectiveness, the bingo through those we would start with

Elimination like eliminating a hazard all the can't eliminate covid-19 but we can remove or reduce some risk, for instance, maybe you could eliminate access to your facility for visitors or vendors or non-critical contractors

And other option to consider would be to reduce remove some rest by maybe having a portion of employees continue working from home just reducing the number of employees in your facility.

So that would be some examples of elimination. And then we would move on to substitution and a couple of simple examples there would be holding virtual meetings, instead of in person meetings.

More possibility of using electronic signatures instead of written signatures for deliveries, for example, just to reduce some contact. So it would be substitutions.

[Louisa Desson] That can help cut down on unnecessary Contact between people.

[Courtney Phillips] Yep. And then next one in the hierarchy, we'd moved to engineering controls and many people are familiar with engineering controls which

Really sort of interrupts that transmission pathway. So that would include things like partitions are barriers between employees, maybe reconfiguring a work area to, you know, achieve more distance between people.

Sensor activated doors water fountains sinks, those would be considered engineering controls and then next on the hierarchy remove to administrative controls which

Require a bit more participation in general, these would be the policies and procedures that you've developed in response to cove it and then also the communication and training around those procedures.

So that is what is involved there. So that could include signage on hand hygiene, for example, might also include training on your, you know, cleaning disinfecting protocol or your, your screening protocol and so on.

And then once you've considered all of these controls. And we'd also want to consider face coverings.

[Louisa Desson] I think it's interesting that many employers when they and employees and they think about returning to work these cameras might be the first thing that comes to mind, but

Sure. Notice there's a lot of preparation that needs to happen first.

[Courtney Phillips] Right, right. Um, you know, if we think about like personal protective equipment in general.

Generally speaking, we would recommend PPE when other controls are not feasible or when they're not effectively reducing

Exposures not generally as a first line of defense so you know DP. He doesn't remove a hazard. It also just is dependent on the were to use it correctly. So there's room for human error there so

Similarly, when we think about face coverings we would want to consider that in addition to the other controls that we've talked about. And then of course you know just keeping in mind any state or local requirements. Some states might be recommending face coverings while others, it might be mandatory.

[Louisa Desson] Interesting. So training. I know is, is next on the list. And I think some of it really speaks to what we were talking about earlier with employees so they know what to expect, especially now that times are so uncertain that. That's right.

[Courtney Phillips] Yeah, right. That's right.

So training is the next element in the in the path framework and you want to just train as early as you can.

When employees return and that can be challenging. And it's hard. We can all probably sit in a conference room together, you know, shoulder to shoulder and go through training so

Employers might have to get a bit creative when it comes to their training solutions, but certainly we want to train, train early you stand to have better

Buy in and adherence to policies. When employees are really clear and understand what the policies are and understand the expectations are all those

[Louisa Desson] That make sense, you know, cleaning and distance here also top of mind, both at home and at work.

[Courtney Phillips] Health is the final elements that we'll talk about in this framework that can include your cleaning and disinfecting protocols. So cleaning according to CDC guidelines and with recommended products is really important.

As we talk about, you know, interrupting that that transmission pathway.

Also in health that would include things like wellness screening. So if you are doing any screening for employees or vendors visitors as they come into your facility.

Doing that screening might be one way to gauge work readiness for employees as they're as they're coming back and each day into the workplace might include temperature monitoring could include having them fill out a questionnaire answer some questions.

Around symptoms around having contact with individuals who have symptoms or who've been diagnosed with covered 19 so that would fall into that health category to like with face covering. So we don't want to, you know, overreliance screening we want to do that in addition to

All of the controls that we talked about earlier. And then also, you know, consult with a medical professional and legal counsel before you implement

The screening policies and procedures. So that's sort of all of all of the elements of of the path framework. And then once you you've got a plan in place and you're following that path. You really just want to monitor and make adjustments or revise as necessary from there.

[Louisa Desson] It seems like a really comprehensive way of looking at things as we look at the the physical space.

Certainly, as we've alluded to earlier, there may be tech firms that choose to maintain remote work going forward. So, Kristen, how can we, how can employers prevent and recover from cyber threats introduced by these new

[Kirstin Simonson] As more employees have been working remotely, the more importance of maintaining good cyber hygiene continues to be important and might be a good time for some updates.

You know, similar to what Courtney talked about preparation prevention and training continue to be the key components to managing cyber threats.

Companies should have prepared or be prepared to respond to a cyber event by developing a cyber incident response plan if they haven't already done so, or reviewing their existing incident response plan.

Like I said, this is a good time to test that existing incident response plan against the new normal. Despite all the measures taken to manage information and network security.

It is still quite possible that an employee may inadvertently bring a compromise device into the network.

Or be snagged by a phishing attack especially working under unusual conditions.

And when you think back to what Dr. Iglesias was talking about earlier.

You know if people are feeling more stress or more depressed or they're in a job that they're unfamiliar with.

That may open them up to not recognizing some of those simple things to look out for.

Some of the proactive security measures that should be reviewed include strengthening or establishing a strong Remote Access Protocol.

Including things like requiring connection to a secure network and use of a company issued virtual private network or VPN to access any work related accounts limiting access to the company network.

To only the company approved or vetted devices and applications and and not allowing individuals to substitute tools or applications that have not been vetted with their own preferred tools or applications and further require multifactor authentication for all remote access

We talked a lot about training and is just as important here to continue to engage and train employees to maintain diligence.

Now that they're not working in the corporate setting and connected directly to the network, they become a more critical part of the cyber security team.

We know that cyber criminals have been taking advantage of covered 19 and everything that's going on and crafting tactics to target these remote workers so additional training on how to spot phishing emails or respond, other forms of social engineering may be warranted.

Some additional steps, the individual working remotely can take is to make sure their home Wi Fi network is secure.

And if other members of the family are also at home spending their time on the internet educating employees on how to create a virtual network may be a great option for keeping work separate from the rest of the homes internet traffic.

And if they haven't already. At some point, we expect employees will begin to come back into the corporate environment. So it's just as important to have a plan in place to make sure the devices they bring back into the workplace.

Are clean and one option to think about to increase defenses is deploying an endpoint detection and response solution.

Which can help protect and monitor every asset on the enterprise network by identifying suspicious activity.

Before the rest of the corporate network is exposed to unnecessary risk. You know, we've heard this or said this many, many times over the past few months, we are all in this together and cyber hygiene is just another critical part of that conversation.

[Louisa Desson] So interesting I think the idea of coming back to work. Presenting risks. Right.

That's when you're safe is when you have everyone back in within the walls of your organization, but just being aware that there can still be threats that process.

[Kirstin Simonson] Yeah we you know we don't always know what the employee is connecting to if it's a public Wi Fi or just everyone in the family is on the network. And so who knows what is lurking in that laptop. When you bring it back into the office.

[Louisa Desson] Good advice.

So this next question, certainly for all of you.

From a social, emotional, physical perspective, how do you think that COVID-19 has changed the way that employers will think about maintaining healthy offices, going forward, and in. Are there any new practices that will become part of the new business as usual?

[Marcos Iglesias] Really good. Go ahead.

[Courtney Phillips] Oh, I was just gonna say from the physical environment.

Standpoint physical workplace. We talked a bit about cleaning and disinfecting protocol and I think probably just an overall heightened awareness as it relates to general housekeeping and cleaning and it's possible that we may see some of these revised procedures or increase in frequency of cleaning, that type of thing we might see some of that stick.

[Marcos Iglesias] You know according even along those lines.

We're going to be more careful. But those things are going to change. I think that that for me, one of the one of the very encouraging signs that I've seen is this emphasis on psychosocial well being right off something that we've talked a lot about before.

But now we're introducing into our language, things like, you know, a social call that's okay to do in the workplace, it's okay for an employer for a manager for supervisor to ask questions. It's okay to beef up the mental health resources that we have and that might be just through mental health benefits for insurance plans, all the way to, you know, making things available in

An employee assistance program lunch and learns that deal with managing stress with building resilience apps that help us to sleep better that helped us to deal with stress.

So I think that the focus on those things. In addition to all the physical is something that I think is very encouraging. And again, I hope, and I'm pretty confident that this will be something that remains with us for a very long time.

[Louisa Desson] That focus on the whole employee and really we've gotten a chance to get to know people in a deeper way. In some sense, and it stands to reason that as people were trying to the office that some of that.

Connection can remain, it can be a healthy thing.

[Marcos Iglesias] Or even right now we're coming in through each other's homes, we wouldn't have done that six months ago and I think that's good. Mm hmm.

[Louisa Desson] So I know some of you have been submitting questions as we've been chatting here, certainly you can still submit some and we'll, we'll get to them here. The first one looks like it's for Courtney. So, a significant number of our employees continue to work from home. What type of guidance should be providing an ergonomics.

[Courtney Phillips] Okay. Um, one thing I would suggest is to try to encourage employees to have a designated workspace in their home if at all possible. And then another thing I think is if you can provide information around just working with neutral postures.

As a general awareness, but then also to help them set up their workstations accordingly at home with some with some simple tips, a couple of things.

You know, just on how to adjust or their seated height at their workstation and being able to key and mouse with their shoulders relaxed and at their natural elbow hide and with their restraints.

Other tips like, you know, raising your laptop screen if you don't have a monitor, so that you're not, you know, neck, bending looking down at the screen and then using an external keyboard and mouse.

To maintain the neutral posture senior just a couple of examples or suggestions, but we actually have quite a bit of information travelers just published information on our, on our website on just managing remote workforce and there's lots of tips on there for

Home Office workstation. So I would recommend just taking a look at those if you get the opportunity at travelers.com

[Louisa Desson] That's great. Thank you. Yeah. And, and certainly folks maybe that worked from home one day a week, you know, you might have been able to get away.

[Courtney Phillips] Right.

[Louisa Desson] Your kitchen counter. But as your setup really and can help.

[Courtney Phillips] It can make a big difference. Yeah.

[Louisa Desson] So Dr. Iglesias, this question is for you. You mentioned the health consequences of unemployment, because you tell us a little bit more about that.

[Marcos Iglesias] Yeah. So, think of it this way when you compare two different populations one who's employed.

One who is not there are significant differences. And obviously, you know, financial, economic, social, we talked a little bit about emotional differences and

In psychological or psychiatric illness, much more prevalent in the worthless population, but there are also physical consequences medical consequences.

We know that the unemployed or worthless population has an increased risk of poor health, roughly about two to three-fold increase in risk of

Conditions, like respiratory infections, one that we're dealing with right now, but also things like lung cancer and heart disease.

We talked about the mental health disorders. There's about a six-fold increase in suicide rates that number is actually much, much higher in young males who are unemployed.

And there's increased risk of substance abuse of alcohol abuse. We have a shortened life expectancy. If we belong to that or plus population.

So, so these things are not insignificant. And I think it's something that we're going to need to be watching out for, especially as a large

Portion of our population today is not working. There was a study a few years ago that compared the physical consequences of worklessness

To smoking and it would take a 10 pack per day smoking habit to equal the risk the medical risk of worthlessness, so it's significant. And it's something that I think we need to pay more attention to.

[Louisa Desson] Certainly questions like asking it implies that they're okay and helping them stay engaged in the workforce become you know more important. And, you know, potentially life saving questions.

This next question.

Cyber question. Do you have any examples of the slickest phishing scams that have come out of the covid-19 environment, Kirsten this’s for you.

[Kirstin Simonson] Probably the most the slickest one I've seen recently is the Twitter hack where you know Bill Gates and others were allegedly asking us to donate Bitcoin.

But I don't know about slickness as much as criminals understand human behavior and they understand that we all want help, or we want to feel better or whatever it is.

And so you would see phishing scams from that would report to be from the World Health Organization or local governments or whatever it might be. Hey, help us donate money donate this click here for the most up to date covert information.

You know, when you think about the pressures that employees are under as they've been scrambling to readjust to this new lifestyle. If they're not paying attention. It's very easy to click on one of those or and get snagged by them and

You know, I remember in the old days when we were trained the old days, a decade ago, we would train people to watch for the typos.

The typos really don't happen unless you're very close to paying attention to the URLs.

They look very, very legit and you know I get some and I recognize that it's coming from an external party and that it's not legit. But I'm will sit here and stare at it for quite a long time. Just impressed at how easy with

Me for so many people to buy into the message that they're sending.

[Louisa Desson] Right, and so that that being in a rush, certainly can be a costly mistake.

To training employees to slow down and be cautious.

[Kirstin Simonson] And even recognizing the simple things, you know, when you're doing business with a certain vendor and you get an invoice and they've changed bank routing numbers.

Don't just take that as being correct. You have to really question, things like that. And, you know, talk to the source. If you can to make sure yeah this is legit.

[Louisa Desson] We had another related cyber question, are there cyber risks for tapping into personal hardware? Like using your TV is a monitor what's happening to a separate streaming device like a Roku or Apple TV.

[Kirstin Simonson] There's certainly can be, I mean, a lot of that will depend on how well that particular device is updated to the most secure

You know, I see often times that people don't change the default passwords when they get a new device.

Well, your default password is basically out there for anybody to look up and if you haven't changed that.

The criminals can have access right into your devices. So all of these internet of things as we call them IoT devices can be an access point for the criminal if they're not managed correctly. Absolutely.

[Louisa Desson] This question just came about the difference between a face covering and a respirator, could you help folks understand the difference between two?

[Courtney Phillips] Sure.

Respirators are NIOSH approved I'm for protecting employees from inhalation hazards potential inhalation hazard. So for instance, an N95 is approved to filter airborne particulates, you might see that used in the workplace for maybe reducing exposure to like what duster maybe welding fumes and right now as it relates to code CDC is only recommending Mills for healthcare workers.

Other face coverings. Like for instance, like a cloth face covering or surgical mask, then they're not approved respirators.

CDC still recommends them know because what they can do is possibly interrupt that travel path for the larger respiratory droplets and hopefully help you know prevent someone who may have coven 19 from spreading it to others around them.

[Louisa Desson] That's better. Thank you.

Really related question to that to do we need to have a more respiratory protection program in order to require employees to wear face coverings?

[Courtney Phillips] So as I mentioned, like, but the N95 being an approved respirator, you would need a program in place for those. But again, currently, those are recommended for healthcare workers.

The other face covering so face covering this is kind of a broad term, it can, it could include and 95 respirator, but also could include cloth face covering surgical masks, maybe even a plastic shield

So, so those other face coverings are not approved respirators. Like I mentioned, and they fall outside of the requirements OSHA requirements for our respiratory protection program.

Thank you.

[Louisa Desson] Dr. Iglesias. We have a question here about the, what happens if the are you will pay increase ends there so you can sense that things might not be. But the employee is not willing to open up. Yeah.

[Marcos Iglesias] Great question, Lisa.

You know, when whenever we ask a question like this, it's, it's one that we need to do with a lot of sensitivity and respect.

We are asking something that is personal. And some of us may respond very well to that some of us may not for a number of reasons. Maybe it's who we are, maybe it's our background.

And so I think that whenever we ask that question, we need to understand that, first of all,

And be willing to just say, Hey, I understand that you don't want to talk about this and that's okay. But if you ever do I want to leave the door open.

And if it's not me. Maybe it's someone else. Maybe it's a, you know, maybe it's one of your co workers, maybe it's somebody in HR or just

Point that person to, you know, to leaving the door open to this conversation continuing and I think that's important. It will still make that person more comfortable with the idea that you are there, that your company's there in order to help them.

But don't shy away because you might get that type of response in fact that expect that response from some people and welcome at because it's still advancing the communication.

[Louisa Desson] I think that's a good point. We've talked some of the articles that we've written about training managers and supervisors to recognize signs of stress and

And even preparing them to get that kind of reaction, right, and that's a that if people aren't ready to talk to us to take it personally and not to have that be have a chilling effect from asking that question of others and future.

[Marcos Iglesias] Yeah, like you said earlier, it is a very open ended question and you may get no response or you may get something that you're just not prepared for. So, you know, think, think it through, have the resources available at your fingertips or know where to look for them.

And then just be a friend. I think that's great.

[Louisa Desson] So it looks like we are nearing time and those were our questions for today. We had, I think, a very helpful and wide ranging discussion. So I think all three of you for your excellent suggestions and  insights, the conversation continues on travelers com we have a lot of articles and

Other content there that can be helpful. You can contact your travelers rep for more information. And we will be sending a copy of this presentation.

Soon to anyone that was registered for this. So we thank you all for joining and good luck to everyone, as we all navigate Covid-19 and look forward to seeing when another person in the office soon. So thank you. Take care.