Hybrid Working and The Many Types of Workplace

by | May 13, 2021

The workplace has changed. Hybrid working is here to stay.

 

The BBC found that nearly all 50 of the UK’s biggest employers questioned by the news outlet’s reporters have no plans to bring staff back to the office full-time.

In contrast, you had Google which recently announced that from September, employees wishing to work from home for more than 14 days would have to apply to do so, only to quickly backtrack on the policy.

Every business will have its own approach, but they tend to fall into five categories.

  1. Traditional office (5 days a week)

  2. Hybrid (2-4 days a week in the office)

  3. Working from home full-time

  4. Remote – anywhere is a workspace

  5. No office (e.g. manufacturing, healthcare, etc.)

Changing Priorities
How does this affect IT and data protection?

The past year has forced the C-suite to rapidly address the IT demands of remote and hybrid working, eschewing the usual 12-month project plans for the rapid deployment of solutions and services to maintain productivity.

Inevitably, cyber attackers have been waiting in the wings, eager to spot an unmanaged laptop or home PC that could open the door to valuable corporate data.

In fact, The National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey found 39% of businesses reported having a breach or attack in the last year, 65% of which were medium sized and 64% were large businesses.

And those are only the breaches that were reported.

Combatting Risk
Hybrid working is all about flexibility, and a company’s IT needs to match that ethos.

Enter managed services.

With their ability to specify, monitor and support everything from connectivity, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure, to SaaS, business continuity, disaster recovery and Microsoft Teams, managed service providers are the answer to today’s complex workplace needs.

Managed services make it easy to adapt to every workplace model.

Providers offer a broad portfolio of services and the deep involvement of a team of experts on an ongoing basis.

Crucially, part of this remit is service monitoring. A managed service provider’s primary objective is to lighten the IT load so businesses can focus on what’s important – growth, people and adapting to whatever the future holds.

In a world where the workplace can be anywhere, managed services are a proven and cost-effective way to guarantee business continuity and keep processes running smoothly, even in the most unusual times.

Please contact us if you need help with hybrid working.