83% of IT leaders believe the hybrid workforce is here to stay

3 years ago 259

The immense bulk of concern and IT leaders spot hybrid enactment successful their future, and 42% deliberation that implicit fractional of their workforce volition beryllium hybrid post-pandemic, according to a 2021 survey of IT pros.

The modulation to the hybrid workplace, acceptable successful question earlier COVID-19, kicked into precocious cogwheel astatine the dawn of the planetary pandemic—and has shown nary signs of slowing down. The benefits see the obvious—decreased hazard of spreading the deadly microorganism among coworkers and clients—with immoderate unintended benefits arsenic well: Employees study greater restitution moving from home. If you see the information that distant enactment tin payment employees arsenic well, by reducing overhead, question expenses and expanding productivity, it seems wide that the hybrid enactment exemplary has a long-lasting appeal.

SEE: Hybrid enactment policy (TechRepublic Premium)

On Wednesday, a Hybrid Work Global Survey released by Riverbed and Aternity highlighted this fact. According to a survey of 1,500 IT and concern leaders crossed the globe, 83% judge that astatine slightest 25% of their workplace volition stay hybrid post-pandemic, up from lone 30% successful 2020. And astir fractional (42%) deliberation that the bulk of the workplace volition beryllium hybrid aft COVID-19.

The survey looks deeper into the reasons for these findings and wherefore IT leaders should wage attention. According to the results, a main payment of hybrid enactment (according to 94% of respondents) is that the hybrid exemplary tin beryllium a boon for attracting endowment and remaining competitive; and 84% of those surveyed expect that the enactment model, broadly, volition person a affirmative interaction connected society.

How to execute a palmy hybrid enactment model? According to the survey, organizations should wage attraction to quality and tech barriers. These include:

Employee information and well-being (35%)
Technology disruptions (32%)
Poor home/remote web show (31%)
Collaboration and virtual narration gathering (31%)
Expanded information risks (31%)

Additionally, end-to-end visibility and cybersecurity should beryllium a apical priority: 57% of respondents spot this is an adjacent bigger situation successful the hybrid workplace. A whopping 93% of IT and concern leaders accidental afloat end-to-end is simply a captious portion of their cybersecurity strategy, and 64% spot a cybersecurity breach caused by lapses successful this country arsenic "seriously disruptive oregon concern destroying."

According to IT leaders, present are the apical 5 challenges to monitoring security:

Multiple tools that springiness conflicting data, delaying basal origin investigation and contented solution (42%)
Lack of visibility into the availability, show and usage of unreality resources (37%)
Too overmuch information and not capable discourse oregon actionable penetration (35%)
Lack of unified visibility crossed the full exertion infrastructure (34%)
Data is not accessible oregon usable by each who request it (33%)

Technology investments implicit the adjacent 12 to 18 months, according to IT leaders, see everything from amended visibility of web and exertion show (38%) to Investing successful exertion oregon web acceleration solutions (37%) to investing successful end-user acquisition and integer acquisition monitoring solutions (35%).

When networks and apps work, truthful does business, according to respondents. The benefits see redeeming clip and wealth (38%); accrued quality to connection captious services to employees and customers (35%); enabling hybrid enactment models (32%); decreasing downtime (31%); spurring innovation (29%); and boosting collaboration (28%).

By contrast, underinvesting tin pb to much accent (37%); decreased information (33%); a driblet successful productivity (33%); little collaboration among co-workers (32%); and little work-life equilibrium (30%).

SEE: The aboriginal of work: Tools and strategies for the integer workplace (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

"We've reached that captious constituent successful clip erstwhile a high-performing hybrid workplace is required for organizations to propulsion to the adjacent level of worker and lawsuit restitution and sustainable fiscal success," said Dan Smoot, president and CEO of Riverbed | Aternity.

Although the hybrid exemplary seems to beryllium the mode of the future, not each employees are prepared—less than a 3rd (32%) spot themselves arsenic afloat prepared for the caller model. And the hybrid enactment exemplary is not without challenges.As TechRepublic has antecedently reported, immoderate employees who enactment astatine location could look antagonistic repercussions, creating a two-tiered hierarchy astatine the office. The existent survey highlights this point—88% of respondents are disquieted astir "digital disparity betwixt in-office and distant employees."

Still, adjacent those who are presently unprepared to connection a seamless hybrid enactment situation accidental they program to spell this route—89% of IT leaders expect to summation concern successful exertion that tin enactment their hybrid employees implicit the adjacent year.

"What's precise wide is that to summation the maximum benefits from hybrid work, organizations indispensable put successful technologies to modernize their IT environments, and underinvesting tin person terrible consequences," Smoot cautioned.

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