IT Data Center Green Energy Policy

As worldwide energy needs and concerns about climate change continue to increase, environmentally responsible business practices are critical for the successful future of a company and the markets in which it operates. Green energy and sustainability savings in the data center provide not only financial benefits, but also lower organizational power demands and a company’s carbon footprint.

The TechRepublic Premium IT Data Center Green Energy Policy will assist your company with the implementation of these policies. It is even possible to obtain green energy certifications such as the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy & Environmental design (LEED) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star for Data Centers, which can add value to your company by proving you meet the defined criteria for green energy usage.

TechRepublic Premium's IT Data Center Green Energy Policy will help you establish guidelines for your workplace. Simply copy the text from the PDF into your favorite word processor and customize it to fit your needs.

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Hiring Kit: Robotics Engineer

Finding the right person to fill the role of robotics engineer can be tricky because of the combination of skills required. This kit includes a detailed job description, sample interview questions, and basic want ad to simplify the task.

From the job description:

Introduction
For many industries and enterprises, manufacturing of any kind is dependent on robotics in some capacity. Automation and the efficiency it brings to the manufacturing process is the technology that can ultimately make or break an enterprise.

Qualified engineers are required to develop, test, and maintain these robotic machines. Finding the right engineer, with the right experience and qualifications, takes effort, determination, and a detailed description of the job at hand. This sample job description for a robotics engineer will help you form a foundation for your enterprise’s next candidate search.

A robotics engineer designs the plans needed to build robots, codes the processes necessary for the robot to run correctly, and develops the procedures the robot will execute once it is built. Sometimes the robotics engineer will also be tasked with designing and building the machines that actually assemble the robots. Only after the design phase has been completed does the engineer move toward assembling the unit. This means a robotics engineer must be a creative designer, a programmer, and a precise engineer—a rare combination of talents.

The position
The company is seeking a self-motivated individual with creative skills in design as well as impeccable skills in precision engineering and programming. The successful candidate will exhibit passion and enthusiasm about engineering, robotics, programming, and the creative process. Candidates will have qualifications, certifications, and experience commensurate with the open position.

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Internet and Email Usage policy

Internet and email communications are essential for performing modern business tasks, but companies must put rules in place to reduce the risks that come along with those technologies. This policy offers guidelines to help ensure that both IT and users follow safe practices when using electronic communications such as messaging services, social media, and email tools.

From the policy:

Summary
Internet use in the course of conducting business is a foregone conclusion. For most industries, lacking access is an encumbrance, at best, to getting things done. However, significant risk accompanies internet access—viruses, ransomware, and data theft can result from unsafe practices, though infection can occur just from connecting an unsecured system to the network. Likewise, insider threats—such as the improper access or transfer of data—are important considerations when analyzing your security strategy.

Purpose
This policy sets forth guidelines for the use of the internet, as well as internet-powered communication services, including email, proprietary group messaging services (e.g., Slack), and social networking services (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) in business contexts. It also covers Internet of Things (IoT) use, and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practices.

You can customize this policy as needed to fit the requirements of your organization.

Generally, this policy assumes that:

  • Your organization permits personal internet use by employees, within reason.
  • Your organization uses internet content/security filtering software.
  • Backups, including compliance-related data retention, is automated by software.

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Computer Equipment Disposal policy

Computers, laptops, servers, and other IT equipment are regularly replaced and decommissioned. Off-lease systems must be returned to the manufacturer, some equipment is recycled, and other systems are given to employees or donated. Systems must be properly processed, and sensitive, proprietary, and all other organization information must be properly removed prior to discarding the systems.

The Computer Equipment Disposal policy from TechRepublic Premium presents the organization’s policies and procedures for properly disposing, discarding, and decommissioning computer and IT equipment.The policy also specifies which staff members are responsible for which tasks in the equipment decommissioning process.

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Zoom 101: A guidebook for beginners and business pros

Video conferencing has become more important than ever, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom, a popular social platform, has experienced a surge of new users ranging from remote workers to schools. The tool combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration, enabling users to meet locally, nationally, and globally on any device, anywhere, at any time.

But if you don’t take care, you could find your meetings being gatecrashed or Zoom-bombed, potentially causing havoc and mayhem.

This ebook from TechRepublic Premium provides security tips, tricks for using Zoom to improve productivity, advanced features, and how-to’s for both the novice and the expert to enjoy.

In the ebook:

  • How to host a Zoom meeting
  • 5 best Zoom features you must try
  • How to turn on virtual backgrounds in Zoom
  • How to record a Zoom meeting
  • 8 essential Zoom apps for every business user
  • How to hide and unhide video in Zoom
  • How to prevent your Zoom meetings being Zoombombed (gate-crashed) by trolls
  • How to add a Zoom call to a Google Calendar event
  • How to get started with Zoom’s apps for iOS and Android
  • How to share content in Zoom from your mobile device
  • How to record a meeting in Zoom from your mobile device
  • How to allow Zoom meeting attendees to join without installing the app
  • How to transfer files during a Zoom meeting
  • How to share documents on screen in a Zoom meeting
  • 6 best Zoom games for some virtual face time during the coronavirus pandemic
  • Zoom and Comparably leaders share best practices for managing telecommuters
  • 13 things not to do on Zoom
  • 3 tips for lighting a Zoom meeting on a budget
  • The best virtual backgrounds to use on Zoom for your next business meeting
  • How to create a custom Zoom virtual background
  • And more!

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Diversity and Inclusion policy

The importance of diversity and inclusion in any given organization cannot be overstated. It establishes a level playing field, brings together people with different backgrounds, perspectives, traditions, and ideas, and enriches company culture by ensuring fairness and tolerance. This helps build a more effective and collaborative workforce which enables the business to run in a more progressive fashion and attract a broad array of talent.

Having a policy to set guidelines for diversity and inclusion can help companies realize this goal by setting appropriate recommendations and expectations.

The purpose of this Diversity and Inclusion policy from TechRepublic Premium is to establish a strategy for promoting diversity and inclusion in the business.

SCOPE

All employees, whether full-time, part-time, contract workers, consultants, part-time staff, interns and temporary workers, and other personnel are covered by this policy.

EXCEPTIONS

There are no exceptions to this policy except where permitted in writing by the IT department and human resources.

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Hiring Kit: Market Research Analyst

The insight to identify and quantify competitive advantages requires a skilled technician that can transform seemingly random data into actional information. Finding and hiring individuals with the right level of technical expertise, the inherent ability to identify patterns and trends, and with the corresponding communication skills to relay actionable information to stakeholders will require a thorough recruiting process.

This Hiring Kit: Market Research Analyst, from TechRepublic Premium, provides an adjustable framework your business can use to find, recruit, and ultimately hire the right person for the job. This Hiring Kit includes a want advertisement, interview questions, salary range, duties and job responsibilities, necessary skills and education for the position, and more.

Introduction:

Modern business enterprises do not operate in a vacuum. Knowing what your customers want and what they don’t want, knowing what your competition can provide and what they cannot provide, knowing how your markets are acting and anticipating how they will act in the future are all key to establishing a measurable and actionable competitive advantage.

For many businesses, gaining the insights necessary to identify and quantify those competitive advantages requires a skilled technician that can transform seemingly random data into actional marketing information and then effectively communication that actionable information to decision makers. This is the job of the Market Research Analyst.

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