The hospitality industry sees many people in its complex structure. From
seasonal guests to career professionals, hotels have many moving parts.
Like any well-maintained machine, they are occasionally going to run
into issues. The hospitality industry not only welcomes an influx of
guests due to environmental circumstances, but they receive eager new
employees looking for seasonal work. At Padgett-Beale, these seasonal
employment opportunities come with several cybersecurity risks and
concerns such as onboarding/offboarding procedures, a modified version
of the Secure Computer user course, and the assignment of
responsibilities of different roles.
Analysis
Onboarding for employers and employees alike bring chances to learn
about one another in many ways. For employers, this gives them a
chance to learn about their candidates as well as delivering safe and
reliable business practice information. Consistency is key when training
new employees. It’s important to keep background check requirements
and vetting processes the same regardless of roles or duties (Bonderud,
2016) By managers doing this, it reinforces unbiased or overlooked
occurrences in the onboarding process. Additionally, when it comes to
offboarding, management needs to establish a well thought-out and
secure plan of action for employees departing the company. Mainly,
management should address digital and informational assets such as IDs,
laptops, keys, uniforms, company credit cards, and company issued
mobile phones. (Lucid Content Team, N/D) Additionally, management
should review with employees items such as non-disclosure agreements
(NDA) and other official Padgett-Beale documentation before leaving.
After reviewing the Secure Computer User course, management may
want to tweak the course into smaller sessions depending on the role of
the employee. For example, someone who works at the front desk
interacts with guests frequently throughout the day. This can be in the
form of a phone call or in-person. A front desk worker may not benefit
from learning about malware and antivirus as much as someone who
handles the network infrastructure as Padgett-Beale. The front desk
worker will need to be pay extra attention to a section such as security
on social networking sites or securing email communications. These are
topics that they will utilize frequently. Additionally, this could save
training costs and resources for the company. (Accenture, 2019)
Finally, the assignment of roles and responsibilities need to be defined
for management and employees alike. Threat actors can compromise a
company by becoming new employees. A lot of potential information is
shared amongst guests and employees. Information as credit card
information, schedules, guest employment information, and addresses are
frequently and openly shared for various purposes. Duties such as night
audit, housekeeping attendants, and valet allow the opportunity to enter
personal spaces all throughout the day and night. (Medina, 2018)
Management, should strive to keep roles and responsibilities rigid to
prevent potential bad actors from accessing important guest and company
information. Cyber incidents can be very costly to not only finances, but
to public reputation and company resources too
Summary
c c c c c c c c c c c In conclusion, Padgett-Beale and its management can
demonstrate strong leadership by properly educating their seasonal
employees on reliable and safe cybersecurity practices. These practices
extend to all the various roles and responsibilities of their employees.
Furthermore, the hiring managers should develop a modified version of
the Secure Computer user course to educate staff about various topics
discussing cybersecurity and information assurance. These modified
versions of the course would be tailor suited to the different jobs
performed at the hotel with regards to their responsibilities.
Cybersecurity incidents can be expensive, but they don’t have to be with
proper vetting and training to new and long-time employees.
References
Accenture. (2019) “The Cost of Cybercrime.” Accenture.
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-96/Accenture-2019-Cost-of-
Cybercrime-Study-Final.pdf
Bonderud, Douglas. (2016) “Seasonal Employee Security Risks: Present
Danger, Proactive Defense.” Security Intelligence.
https://securityintelligence.com/seasonal-employee-security-risks-present-
danger-proactive-defense/
Lucid Content Team. (N/D) “The Offboarding Process: How to
Transition Employees Smoothly.” Lucidchart.
https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/what-is-offboarding-in-human-resources
Media, Kerry. (2018) “10 Popular Seasonal Jobs In Hospitality.”
Hcareers. https://www.hcareers.com/article/job-search-tips/10-popular-
seasonal-jobs-in-hospitality
