Employers are facing a difficult, incredibly challenging time right now, particularly in financial services and accounting.
It seemed like at the start of summer, we were heading toward a return to normalcy amid the pandemic. People in the U.S. were being vaccinated, and things were looking like a fall return to offices would be reasonable.
Now, we may be seeing that progress reversing because of the Delta variant. Some employers are rethinking whether or not they’re going to reasonably be able to ask their employees to come back, and if they do, it’s going to be tough because they may have to require vaccines, which could lead to some employees quitting.
In financial services, things have been especially difficult to navigate with remote work because of cybersecurity concerns.
The following are some things to know about working remotely.
Shifting from On-Premises to the Cloud
It may be the return to the office employers were hoping and counting on isn’t going to happen, meaning it’s time to make plans to move from on-premises to the cloud in a more permanent way. For example, companies might have to start thinking about identity and access management (IAM) solutions and how to move their infrastructure to something more cloud-based.
Organizations, particularly ones where employees handle a lot of sensitive financial information, will have to deal with the challenges that come with managing multiple platforms and applications.
That is where a cloud-based IAM solution becomes especially relevant. Then, there’s a consolidation of the number of solutions used for identity management, taking some of the burden off your IT admins.
Employers Are Going to Have to Spend Money
If employees are going to keep working from home well past what many employers thought would be the case, that means employers will have to start investing in a new infrastructure. That’s not just going to include things like IAM solutions, but the actual devices themselves.
Your financial services employees may be sharing home computers with other members of their household or using unsecured Wi-Fi connections.
Many remote workers are also tired of taking money from their own pockets to do their jobs.
If remote work is here to stay in a real way, including in the financial industry, the employers are going to have to take this seriously and provide devices that are used exclusively for work, along with things like VPNs.
Employers are also going to need to rethink their security protocols if they’re moving off-premises.
The typical layers of protection like firewall and intrusion prevention systems aren’t relevant when employees work offsite.
Instead, a zero-trust security model is likely needed.
There’s no physical border that can be relied on for cybersecurity in a remote world.
Could Hybrid Be a Solution?
Some employers, particularly in industries where there needs to be some physical presence, like finance, might consider a remote solution.
Hybrid work combines both in-person and remote work, which can sometimes be the best possible outcome.
Employers find that it’s beneficial because, according to recent research, they feel they need their employees at their desks at least three days a week to maintain their culture.
For employees, there may be more opportunities for social distancing and fewer pandemic worries if not everyone is in the office simultaneously.
How you make hybrid work specifically for your team relies on their preferences. Go straight to employees to ask them what they’d most like to see in a hybrid work environment.
You’ll have to evaluate why you need some employees back in the office, who can work from home and how often, and even if there are potential roles that can be 100% remote.
You may find that you’re selling it to your employees why you need them back on at least a partial schedule, and you should expect some reluctance.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only around 7% of U.S. workers had access to a flexible workplace, and they were mostly white-collar, highly paid workers.
Challenges with Coaching and Collaboration
Cybersecurity is probably the number one concern you’ll hear employers cite when it comes to ongoing remote work, particularly in industries with substantial sensitive data being passed back and forth, like accounting or finance.
There are other challenges too.
For example, many employers find that their employees are productive when working remotely, so they’re okay there, but collaboration and coaching are a big struggle.
This can mean that there’s not as much talent coming down the pipeline because people are being lost in the remote shuffle.
Many employees feel like even though there are benefits of working remotely or following a hybrid schedule, it’s going to delay their career progress.
This is something forward-thinking employers will start to address sooner rather than later.
Understanding Human Behaviors
Moving forward, employers are going to have to think deeply about cybersecurity if their employees are working remotely or on a hybrid schedule, as was discussed above.
More than just considering technology and what a shift to a cloud infrastructure is going to look like, employers will also have to think about human behaviors and fallibility that can put cybersecurity at risk.
Cybersecurity awareness and training need to be significantly increased to reflect current threats.
Multi-Factor Authentication
If you’re heading up a financial services team and you’re not already utilizing multi-factor authentication (MFA), you don’t have time to lose.
You need to make sure that you’re using MFA as a way of verifying every employee, customer, and vendor with at least two of three distinctive factors. One of these can be what’s called an inherent factor, like facial recognition or a fingerprint.
If you’re an employer, you have a lot on your plate right now. Things might not be shaping up as you thought they would for the fall, meaning it’s time to get serious about long-term remote and hybrid work plans and all that can bring with it, including cybersecurity concerns.