The perks of working from home
Companies worldwide have experienced significant reductions in the fixed costs of supporting a workplace environment, while upper management levels have gained confidence in their employees’ home office performance. Aside from a more flexible schedule and the possibility of working from anywhere, employees stated that home office environments were also better for them from a financial perspective. As of 2023, large and medium tech organizations worldwide tended to require their employees to work from the office three days per week.Drafting appropriate policies and regulations governing home office environments remains the main struggle for companies across the world. However, concerns have been raised over the past year regarding remote work risks, particularly related to keeping remote workforce secure.
Technology tools enable remote work
Collaboration tools are proof of the important role played by modern technologies in enabling different remote work concepts. Since 2020, information technology decision-makers have allocated significant resources to improve their company’s IT infrastructure, security technologies and work from home (WFH) capabilities. Collaboration software became an essential pillar in supporting remote and hybrid workforce environments, by enabling new communication channels and improving team cohesion. As of the second quarter of 2022, Microsoft accounted for nearly 40 percent of the global unified communications and collaboration market.In 2021, companies’ main IT investment priorities to support WFH were cloud-enabled technologies and digital collaboration tools. Despite the many advantages of video conferencing software, improvements still need to be made, as remote work is rapidly turning into the new standard set-up. By the end of 2022, companies switched their approach from enabling home office, to securing it.
Keeping remote workforce secure
From unsecured wi-fi connections to unattended computers and data breaches, IT professionals have found it more challenging to address company vulnerabilities nowadays than before. However, the most critical threat remains the human factor. Employees often breach security policies and controls to get their job done efficiently. For the past year, employees all over the world began to benefit from a formal education process for new and updated security policies, as well as from a thorough education on security procedures. Some of the most important topics covered in security awareness programs provided by companies include email-based phishing, malware and wi-fi security.Additionally, companies in Europe and North America have dedicated significantly higher time and resources to implementing security training tools for their employees. Organizations are responsible for normalizing security training and workshops within the workplace culture. Ensuring employees can properly identify phishing emails, and other cyber threats, such as malware or credential theft, brings companies one step closer to reducing the success rate of a cyber breach.
