Being familiar with everyday technology is no longer something only specialists and enthusiasts need to worry about. In today’s technology-centric world, your employees need basic IT skills to perform well in the workplace and keep up with modern businesses’ fast-paced changes.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the top five basic IT skills in the workplace and how they affect your business. When it comes to more complex IT support, however, Truewater has you covered. Contact our professionals today to learn more.
Basic IT Skills
The five basic IT skills that can help your team thrive in a fast-paced environment include the following:
1. Word Processing
Creating and editing business documents without any word-processing skills will lead to hours of frustration and lost productivity. Fortunately, there aren’t many different applications to learn since Microsoft Word has long been the industry standard. Thanks to its familiar interface, a basic working knowledge of Google Docs is also essential, although the learning curve is minimal.
While learning how to use everyday word-processing functions such as spellcheckers, header and footer editing, and inserting graphics is vital, the top skill is typing. Good touch-typing skills continue declining in everyday use because of speech recognition and touchscreen devices, but they remain essential in business.
2. Data Entry
It might not sound like the most glamorous of computing skills, but the ability to enter data quickly and efficiently is something every business relies on. No company is complete without databases of payroll information and customer contact details. While it might only sometimes be necessary to learn advanced spreadsheet functions, a basic knowledge of data entry is a must for most business software.
Learning to create, edit, and use spreadsheets is one of the most basic data entry skills. Microsoft Excel, being the go-to software, is where most people start. Google’s web-based offering Sheets is also popular due to its collaborative features, allowing anyone with a Google account to work on the same spreadsheet simultaneously.
3. Security & Privacy
Online security and privacy should be at the forefront of any business IT strategy and employee training process. With so much critical business data stored on your company computers and cloud-based systems, it’s imperative that your employees fully understand the risks facing your company and how to mitigate them. Ongoing training is critical for anyone on your team who uses computers.
Many people already know the more common online threats, such as phishing scams and malicious software. However, many other security threats will go unnoticed among the uninformed. For this reason, it’s essential to raise awareness of IT security threats and create a culture of learning and accountability in your business.
Thankfully, Truewater has a solution. We provide professional IT security services in Houston, TX, that safeguard your private information. We’ll protect you from data breaches, malware, ransomware, crypto-lockers, phishing, and more.
4. Email Clients
Most people use web-based email clients like Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail for personal use, but desktop email clients still dominate in the workplace. Business email clients offer several extra features, such as archiving, offline functionality, and better security features. However, they’re pretty different from web-based clients, and many options are on the market.
Some popular email clients include Windows Mail, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Mail. While they’re all similar in core functionality, they have subtle differences. Familiarity with your company’s email clients is critical for maintaining clear communications and avoiding mishaps.
Truewater offers expert assistance with Microsoft products like Office 365, SharePoint, OneDrive, and more. We are experts in cloud computing and can recommend the best vendors, products, software, hardware, and programs for your business.
5. Search Engines
Virtually everyone who has ever used the internet knows how to use a search engine, but there’s a lot more to Google than you might think. While modern search engines are designed with ease of use in mind, they still offer some advanced functions that can be useful in the workplace. Employees who know how to use these functions will be much better at finding results quickly.
The ability to finetune search results using operators such as * for wildcards and Boolean commands like AND, OR and NOT can save a lot of time in certain situations. However, Google also provides more user-friendly functions in its advanced search section, allowing users to search for results by time, relevance, location, and more.
Why Choose Truewater for Additional IT Support?
For over 20 years, Truewater has been helping small and medium-sized businesses with reliable, affordable IT support in Houston, TX. We offer a wide selection of IT services, including designing, building, and maintaining computer networks, IT security, backup and IT disaster recovery, Office 365, SharePoint, and cloud computing.
We know that technology changes rapidly, and we stay up-to-date with every best practice and emerging program. You need a partner who understands your IT service needs and completes the job correctly. We’ll scale our IT services as your needs change so that you’re always up and running.
We’ve helped small to medium-sized businesses grow with smart technology decisions, and we can do the same for you. Truewater has the advanced tools, knowledge, and workforce that successful companies need to maintain their IT infrastructure.
Contact Truewater for the Not-So-Basic IT Skills
There’s much more to IT than meets the eye. Although employees must have basic IT skills, your business needs a team of experienced and skilled professionals to oversee your technology infrastructure’s inner workings.
Don’t leave your business’ critical information unattended. If you’re looking for IT support services in Houston you can trust, contact Truewater today.
