What do you do if your employees are struggling with work-life balance in the Information Security sector?

Map security roles with people's passion. Work becomes draining and frustrating when people enjoy what they do. While not always easy, as far as possible, people should enjoy what they do. Leaders must encourage time off, participation in industry events, and personal well-being. Job responsibilities must be clear, and people must have the tools required to do their jobs.

It all starts with understanding. If you are not open to personal and social communication with your team, recognising any level of imbalance is never going to happen. Action speaks louder than words. Fight for the family personal time your team needs and make sure they take it. Just knowing that your focus is on family and not work crisis can begin to bridge the trust gap. But it is not automatic. You must make comfortable communication happen. Remember though. Even when you are an approachable leader, you too also need family time and support.

The most fundamental aspect is to keep people balanced in their respective jobs. It is necessary to help balance work and professional life in order to have a healthy job. There may be occasional moments of tension and greater effort, as long as they are punctual, reasonable and adapted to the worker. Burning out workers only brings problems to organisations. Information security is a constantly changing and transforming job. Keeping teams motivated with training and proper management, based on real leadership and not authoritarianism, is the best way to get the respect of the teams. It is imperative to achieve a balance for each employee, taking into account their personal needs.

Helping employees maintain a healthy work-life balance in the Information Security sector is essential for their well-being, job satisfaction, and overall productivity. Below are some strategies you can implement to support employees who are struggling with work-life balance: - Promote Flexible Work Arrangements - Set Clear Expectations - Encourage Time Management - Encourage Breaks and Boundaries - Lead by Example - Provide Support Resources - Offer Flexible Benefits - Encourage Self-Care - Promote Work-Life Integration - Seek Feedback and Adapt

Some points are important in this mapping. We must always understand how happy the employee is with performing their role, as this prevents wear and tear from being identified. In addition to this point, we must generate comfort for employees so that their activities do not require the loss of personal interaction and leisure moments, bringing a healthy climate to the environment.

Working in areas of information security requires very restless profiles, who know how to understand the constant need for continuous training, the resilience of having to leave your comfort zones to face new challenges, the effort involved in adapting to new technologies and methods, etc. These skills must be present in workers in this sector, which means that companies must understand this dedication and know how to delegate to them, in their schedules and personal needs, as they are going to dedicate much more effective time than merely professional time to constant retraining. The combination of professional respect and personal effort creates the best teams in Information Security.

On many occasions, the security area requires us to go beyond conventional working hours, to work at night and early in the morning. For these reasons, it is necessary to create freedom for employees so that their free time is respected and they can balance their professional actions with their personal life.

Flexible hours allow employees to make adjustments between their private and professional lives, in the same way that hybrid or remote work allows for a higher quality of life. We must always ensure comfort so that employees can perform satisfactorily in their roles.

Mental health is the main problem encountered within the security area. The pressure exerted and the stress caused by crisis situations can destabilize us if we do not have strong emotional intelligence. Therefore, using leisure time to relax and understand how your mind works is essential for us to have control over our emotions.

Your team need to be in a safe mental health status and if they are struggle mentally, they won't be able to concentrate and even if they work, they might not produce a good output. Sometimes it is god idea to stop and force them to take a break.

There may be organisations where hierarchy is a form of management, but this is not the case in the cyber security sector. As we have already mentioned, this type of profile requires leadership based on the respecto to the leader. If the leader does not get the recognition of his team, it will be difficult to have well-balanced, trained and collaborative teams. Respect is a quality that is given to you by another person, it is not something that can be imposed. Respect is not to be confused with politeness or good manners. Respect is something that each person must earn from their colleagues based on the work they do and the value they bring to others. In cybersecurity, earned professional respect is the basis for effective leadership.

A healthy environment makes it easier for people to work in times of pressure. We must always ensure that our work is productive and relaxed, as the pressure of everyday life already makes us feel a lot. Therefore, a pleasant, fun and professional environment together generates quality in the result.

One of the most important skills when it comes to finding good cybersecurity teams is to find the skills that will allow them to keep progressing, beyond the skills they obtained at a given moment. In other words, looking for constant entrepreneurship on candidates' CVs, the constant search for new training, the achievement of new certifications, the interesting expansion of knowledge outside their comfort zone, will guarantee companies that these teams will be able to keep up to date and resilient with the new changes occurring in the cybersecurity sector. Seeking employees only for what they have had, with no interest in new challenges or learning, will create teams that are unlikely to be resilient to new challenges.

Regular Check-ins: Propose a system of regular check-ins not just for project updates but for managers to gauge the well-being of their team members. These check-ins can provide insights into whether employees are overburdened and help in making timely adjustments to their workload.