In 2022 Business leaders are facing the likelihood of a distributed, work-from-anywhere workforce, and they need to determine how to best embrace this new framework.
Ping Identity has assessed the impact of what we have learned about how to effectively and securely run our organizations remotely. As we put those learnings into practice in the coming months and years, identity security promises to play a large role. As we see Google searches for remote jobs jump 262 within a week this month, the number of people seeking remote work is increasing annually.
Since 2015 the term Digital Nomad has jumped from an average of 475 searches to over 5,000 searches a month in the UK. Globally it has a search volume of over 55,000 a month. Similarly, searches for Digital Nomad Jobs have jumped 800 since 2015. As of April 2022, two years from the pandemic’s start, just over a third of workers, 34%, had returned to the office full time, according to a study from Slacks research consortium Future Forum.
Even then, less than half were there of their own accord, with 55% of in-person office workers saying they would prefer a more flexible arrangement The Shape of the Next Generation Workforce over the past two years, our existing workforce has adapted to their new work environments and new generations entered the workforce. Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 35% of the global workforce in 2020, with Generation Z will account for 27 percent of the workforce by 2025.
These employees have shown themselves to be strong proponents of remote work, which will pressure businesses to create an environment that will enable the right amount of access and engagement to keep the existing and new digital era of workers productive and happy. Securing the Next Generation Workforce The challenges of the identity and security control space will be happening at a much faster rate, in three main areas of growth and risk Greater ability to work remotely will bring improved connectivity, which will increase greater risk at endpoints.
The realized potential of the new tech will increase functionality but will also increase the attack surface. With the growth of mobile device usage and the enhancement of technology in general, we can predict the increase of risk associated with this growth. Mobile device usage offers opportunities for end-user behaviours that expose a company to risk simply because of an accidental transaction. More productive employees will lower latency but accelerate attack speed.
Given all these factors, we expect the following key security measures to remain and strengthen the future of the workplace. Zero Trust This next-gen workforce will expect companies to continue enabling them to work from anywhere at any time on any device. There’s no sign the bring your device BYOD phenomenon will slow down. With the proliferation of business applications offering mobile app experiences, users of this generation are increasingly likely to answer that Slack message on their phone or quickly input that PTO request while on their daily walk.
Device management, particularly mobile device management, is imperative when securing your next-gen workforce. Employers must recognize the devices used daily and their posture to balance accessibility and security. Zero Trust furthers those goals by helping to secure devices, users, APIs, data and more, no matter where they are located. Zero Trust begins with identity because being able to identify everyone and everything is fundamental to establishing that you or your device or another resource truly are who you say you are.
Single Sign-on Improving the workforce experience while managing the diversity of accounts and data access mandates the necessity for a simple interface. Human behaviour dictates that if users cannot get what they need when they need it, they will find better, faster ways, which may compromise security. Think password reuse, a notoriously risky practice. The reality is that if you’re not creating this type of entry for your workforce, you’re hampering their productivity and increasing risk.
Single sign-on SSO for employees is the beginning point for security and easy, fast access. By allowing a user to sign on with one set of credentials and gain access to multiple applications and services, you ensure a seamless, secure way for them to access resources.SSO increases security and provides a better user experience by reducing the number of required accounts and/or passwords and offering simpler access to all the apps and services employees need. Intelligent Authentication and MFA Making the authentication experience more intelligent is an important factor in employee satisfaction.
Written by: Jill Walsh
