In an ever-changing work landscape, here are a few things we know:
- Most employees have made it clear that they want the flexibility to work remotely and/or hybrid. (71%, according to recent research.)
- Despite an uptick in return-to-office mandates, remote and hybrid work is not disappearing entirely—and experts suggest that it’s coming back. Research from AT&T suggests that hybrid work rates will grow to 81% by 2024.
- Remote and hybrid work is a huge drain on IT and security teams unless it’s handled correctly.
Let’s focus on that last one, because it gets a minuscule percentage of news coverage, yet carries enormous stakes.
The downside to remote and hybrid work
Remote and hybrid work offers myriad benefits for employees, but it does mean less oversight. In this environment, employees are no longer working behind perimeters and firewalls, with every action monitored. This adds real risk, with real consequences. When employees work virtually:
- 36% of organizations see an uptick in non-approved devices accessing the network. -26% see an increase in shadow IT (when employees use tools that aren’t sanctioned or protected by the IT/security teams).
- 20% report more missing or lost assets.
Remote and hybrid work means more virtual IT and security support. It means more unmapped, unsecured endpoints. It means trying to ensure that employees are connected, functional and secure—even when they’re on myriad devices and networks. It’s a Sisyphean battle for IT and security workers.
Srinivas Mukkamala is Chief Product Officer for Ivanti.
The mountain facing IT and security
Unsurprisingly, threat actors have eagerly capitalized on that battle. They know that the nascent and ever-changing remote and hybrid work landscape is full of security gaps, and they’re not holding back. The alarming increase in threats adds yet more burden on IT and security teams.
As if that’s not enough, IT and security are among the categories of knowledge workers with the largest shortage in the labor force. In 2023, 86.6% of organizations are experiencing a shortfall of skilled IT security employees, an increase from 2022.
In short (no pun intended), IT and security teams are being asked to do more with less. That’s a recipe for burnout and turnover, not to mention hazardous security gaps. All of those things come with a big price tag. Fully 73% of IT and security professionals report an increased workload due to hybrid/virtual work adoption. Nearly one in three professionals report losing at least one team member due to burnout, and 30% say they’ve participated in “quiet quitting.”
How to fix the problem
The situation is not hopeless, nor does it call for a full-time return to the office. The solution lies squarely in the comfort zone of these over-burdened IT and security professionals. That solution: better tech.
It might sound oversimplistic, but that’s the point. A new work landscape calls for new technology. IT and security workers already know it. Frustration with ineffective tech is one of the key factors driving top talent away from the field. More than one in five (22%) of IT and security professionals admit they’re considering quitting their jobs at least in part due to the apps and other tech tools they’re require to use at work.
If 81% of organizations will be hybrid by 2024, the time to adopt supportive tech is now. Companies that thrive in this next phase will be those that get ahead of the problem by leveraging streamlined, secure, end-to-end platforms for security and collaboration. Ideally, these platforms will automate as much of the routine work as possible—not to replace IT and security jobs but rather to free those roles from mundane tasks so they can focus on strategic work. Right now, there is technology available that can allow endpoints to self-heal, meaning fewer IT tickets. There are also tools that can prioritize, manage, and remediate vulnerabilities based on risk, making for more efficient use of IT resources.
Still skeptical?
The success of your entire organization hinges on the success of your IT and security teams. Breaches are enormously costly, with often incalculable reputation damage. And that doesn’t even begin to tap into the costs of low productivity and high turnover that happen when your non-IT employees are frustrated with their access, connectivity, workflow, collaboration tools, and IT support.
You’re counting on your IT and security teams to help you get where you need to go. Equip them accordingly.
You wouldn’t count on your MVP center back to help you win the Premier League and then leave them with no teammates, overrun by opponents, and with slippers on their feet, would you?
You can’t expect good tech workers to work well with too much work, not enough support, and bad tech.
