Employees and employers alike have navigated a swift transition from an office to a remote work environment over the past few months. Coincidentally, the notion of work has been completely altered, as shelter-in-place orders accelerated the adoption of an environment heavily reliant on digital connectivity. Today, there are plenty of considerations as employers assess what the “new normal” of work will look like, and this will likely still entail the physical displacement of employees and location-independent business operations. However, there are three technical considerations that employers must account for as they plan for the future of work – security, productivity and flexibility.
Security
First, it’s imperative that businesses prioritize security in business continuity planning to ensure that employees can be up and running in their new environment as quickly as possible. While many organizations have been quick to announce flexible work options over the past few months, not all organizations currently have the security infrastructure that adapts to this type of work environment. But as workstyles increase in flexibility and technologies like mobile and cloud are more heavily adopted, a Zero Trust model for security must become a facet of everyday business operations. Because it continuously verifies trust across devices, users and apps before granting access to data, this model offers greater flexibility to employees working from anywhere and on any device while ensuring optimal security at all times.
To implement holistic security options for a distributed workforce, VMware Workspace ONE comes with all of the capabilities required to verify trust. By facilitating a Zero Trust environment, the VMware Workspace ONE platform helps businesses enable their remote workforce without compromising security. For example, Workspace ONE Access delivers a more secure experience by providing multi-factor authentication conditional access and single sign-on to SaaS, web and native mobile apps. Because this tool is hosted as SaaS and VMware manages the infrastructure, IT teams can focus on managing devices, applications and security policies.
Productivity
As the state of the world is constantly evolving, it’s important for employers to recognize that employee productivity will likely shift with it. To help enable employees to remain as productive as possible in the new normal, employers must provide an optimal user experience that helps overcome remote work changes and challenges. This includes having everything employees need right at their fingertips. To achieve this type of seamless experience, employers should adopt a solution like Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub. With Intelligent Hub, employees are empowered with single sign-on access to all their corporate resources with the same experience across devices. This includes virtual, web, SaaS and native apps and real-time communication through notifications to meet their evolving remote work needs. Notifications can include new apps and updates, corporate communication and actionable approvals. Additionally, new employees can enjoy a simple onboarding process and a consistent experience across any devices, whether BYO or corporate devices and across mobile, desktop and web platforms.
Flexibility
Gone are the standard 9-5 workdays. Now, many employees are accompanied by new “coworkers” – partners, spouses, roommates and children – throughout the day. As a result, priorities are constantly changing, and the average employee workday is shifting with said priorities. So, when an employee is working on a project late at night or early in the morning, what happens if they hit a technical roadblock and IT is unable to assist until they come online at 9:00 am?
To ensure that employees are able to have the flexibility they require while working remote and avoid the potential bottlenecks of IT support hours, employers must consider the implications that IT support has on productivity. A digital workspace platform like Workspace ONE can help organizations scale to support employees in the new reality and beyond. For example, organizations can configure a custom “support” module within the Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub application for recommending top solutions. Additionally, employees will be free from the burdens of searching for app launchers or remembering multiple passwords with the support of SSO with a unified app catalog. Third, Workspace ONE Remote Support allows IT to remotely access a user’s device wherever they are and help troubleshoot any issues.
To lay the groundwork for long-term, remote-first success, employers must prioritize security, productivity and flexibility. By facilitating a remote work environment with these technicalities at the forefront, employees will feel empowered in the new normal and business can continue as seamlessly as possible.
