As organizations continue to work from anywhere in 2021, it’s critical to invest in core technology to ensure workplace happiness and productivity, agility in the wake of disruption, and security from bad actors trying to take advantage of vulnerable workforces working across multiple locations. Andrew Gilman, Head of Marketing & Alliances, NWN Corporation, discusses three specific actions leaders need to pursue during a time of hybrid work. Â
If 2020 has taught business leaders anything, it is that sudden and dramatic business changes and disruptions should be treated as the new normal. Organizations of all shapes and sizes have been forced to quickly adapt to — and are now embracing — a dynamic and distributed workplace. The notion of “Working from Anywhere†has now become the norm for organizations across every industry. Embracing and supporting this new workstyle can unlock employees’ creativity, deliver new innovations, and transform the customer experience.
We saw this dramatic change in workstyle most dramatically impact organizations who have looked more like “The Office†than “The Google.†Many public sector organizations and agencies across the country, who because of COVID-19 had to go remote and digitally transform, were compelled to transition entire contact centers to the cloud and provide thousands of devices to employees—some of whom had never worked from home or used new cloud-based messaging, meetings, or security technologies like VPNs, Cisco WebEx or other communications tools.
To prepare for the next worst or best case scenario, in 2021 organizational leaders should refine the ways they support their “Work from Anywhere†workforce and invest in core technology to ensure their organization is agile and secure in the wake of disruption, as well as happier and more productive.
Learn More: Working Through COVID-19: Best Practices for Remote Workforce
Invest in a Dynamic Workforce Culture
Non-essential organizations are not expected to return to the office right away – and a distributed work style really is here to stay. This is driven by the desire and effectiveness for newfound flexibility—a recent report by ManpowerGroup found people prefer to work two to three days in an office and remote the rest of the time—but also a healthy dose of caution. A recent CNBC surveyOpens a new window found that the majority of U.S. workers would support a requirement for all their colleagues to be vaccinated before returning to the office.
Whether employees are working at home, (safely) in the office, or in a hybrid model, leaders will be incumbent to understand the changing needs and expectations of their teams and support a productive work environment and culture. Leadership should ensure employees have the training and tools they need to succeed—whether it’s new call center technology that enables them to do their job remotely or as simple as a training session so they feel comfortable using tools like Cisco WebEx.Â
“Work from Anywhere†has also brought to light the different ways employees prefer to communicate with colleagues or customers: some prefer Instant Messaging on Microsoft Teams, while others prefer email or picking up the phone. Either way, leadership must ensure employees have all the proper communications tools to work effectively with others.
Invest in Moving Communication to the CloudÂ
The business challenges brought on by the pandemic has brought to light the need for IT departments to move organizations to the cloud and integrate communications services.
Migrating communications to the cloud has been a priority for nearly every CIO for the past few years. However, the economic downturn and “Work from Anywhere†reality brought on by the pandemic has made the agility, continuity, and scalability benefits of the cloud more enticing for organizations. COVID- 19 is the final catalyst for cloud communications adoption.
In addition, today’s workplace requires collaboration and involves teams from all over the world. To make employee engagement and the customer experience stronger, especially in light of remote work, in 2021, organizations will increasingly prioritize integrating communications tools and services to increase productivity and agility. Even back in 2018, a study from PlanGrid found that poor communications—which forced work to be re-done due to inaccurate and inaccessible information—cost the U.S. construction industry alone more than $31 billion. By unifying communications and integrating real-time, reliable collaboration capabilities, organizations of all sizes can be nimbler and more productive in 2021 and beyond.
Learn More: 3 Ways Collaboration Tools Can Help Pandemic-Era Managers Level UpÂ
Invest in Cybersecurity to Secure Remote Work
Bad actors are taking advantage of more vulnerable IT networks amongst employees working remotely. Because of that, cloud security and ransomware will remain top issues in 2021. Criminal hackers will continue to exploit ransomware—in fact, there’s been 20,000 + new vulnerability reports according to the mid-year update of the 2020 Vulnerability and Threat TrendOpens a new window report that shattered previous records.
Cloud and device-level security are other important issues that CIOs and CISOs can’t overlook, especially in the era of work-from-anywhere. These cybersecurity measures may seem basic, but the pandemic was a stark reminder that security fundamentals are tremendously important. Further, we’ll see organizations increasingly adopt identity and access management (IAM) solutions and Zero Trust Security this year. With the rollout of 5G, there’s more data than ever being gathered from the IoT.Â
Threat actors will dedicate more effort to hijacking IoT devices for botnets for DDOS, malware distribution, and recognizance of the target organization. To protect access to those devices, IAM solutions for IoT is critical. Activity around Zero Trust Security has grown rapidly over the past six months and will continue in 2021 to scale and secure network connections for people working remotely. Zero Trust segmentation can also granularly control what information assets remote users can access when they connect to a network.
The way we work will be forever changed—whether it’s a monumental shift toward closing offices entirely in favor of 100% remote work or a less dramatic change in limiting business travel once the world returns to normal. Either way, the key to unlocking employee potential and bettering the customer experience lies in ensuring they have the secure technologies and training they need to succeed.
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