The Great Resignation. The Great Talent Migration. The end of work as we know it. No shortage of hot takes are floating around right now about the changing nature of business and careers, and these emerging work trends have an impact on how we work. How you use this knowledge could help you build the best workforce possible.
Together with my team at Rewind, creators of the Rewind Backup app for backing up Trello boards, we’re seeing four key work trends right now:
- Heightened security and cyber resilience
- Asynchronous collaboration
- Remote office stipends
- Cloud as the new normal
1. Heightened security and cyber resilience
Along with sourdough starter and home workout gear, cybercriminals had a banner year in 2020 and 2021. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, that year saw a 50% increase in attacks per week on corporate networks, even as the total cost of managing a cyber attack rose by 10%.
Along with sourdough starter and home workout gear, cybercriminals had a banner year in 2020 and 2021. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, that year saw a 50% increase in attacks per week on corporate networks, even as the total cost of managing a cyber attack rose by 10%.
As companies scrambled to adopt technological solutions to enable remote work, they unwittingly opened themselves up to hundreds more attacks. After all, every internet-enabled device in your network is a potential attack point, whether it’s your CEO’s phone or your smart doorbell.
In the ongoing shift toward hybrid and remote work at scale, cyber resilience is a hot topic in the cybersecurity landscape.
What is cyber resilience?
No, it’s not the resilient nature of your old Nokia phone. Cyber resilience refers to an organization’s ability to continuously deliver its intended outcome (e.g., serve customers), despite adverse cyber events such as a cyberattack.
If an individual cyberattack is like a cold, cyber resilience can be thought of as the entire healthcare system of doctors, pharmacists, flu shots, and public health officials that help strengthen the immune system against all viruses.
Essentially, cyber resilience represents a shift in perspective in the security landscape: Instead of solely focusing on preventing cyberattacks, cyber resilience calls for companies to examine their security practices holistically. If an individual cyberattack is like a cold, cyber resilience can be thought of as the entire healthcare system of doctors, pharmacists, flu shots, and public health officials that help strengthen the immune system against all viruses. Cyber resilience can be seen as a measure of a company’s security policies, history of responses to threats, employee training, infrastructure, and general attitude toward security and compliance.
How to become cyber resilient
It’s a rather official-sounding term, but cyber resilience is simply a continuation of the good cybersecurity practices you have (hopefully) been following. Things like a password manager, multi-factor authentication, and logging out of your computer in shared spaces all contribute to strengthening cyber resilience.
Human error, not sophisticated targeted attacks, was responsible for 90% of data breach events in the UK in 2019. Microsoft found that 60% of data breaches originate with compromised credentials (e.g., logins and passwords), typically from a successful phishing attack. And about 30% of untrained users regularly fail phishing tests.
The best, most cost-effective cybersecurity tool isn’t a fancy software or firewall: It’s you. Human error, not sophisticated targeted attacks, was responsible for 90% of data breach events in the UK in 2019. Microsoft found that 60% of data breaches originate with compromised credentials (e.g., logins and passwords), typically from a successful phishing attack. And about 30% of untrained users regularly fail phishing tests. Training users to spot and avoid common phishes and frauds is one of the most essential tools in an organization’s cyber resilience arsenal.
For example, at Rewind, all employees have regular security training. We use a third-party platform called KnowBe4 to develop, manage, and provide security training to all employees. While a separate tool isn’t required, it is imperative that all employees, regardless of title, learn to spot and avoid common pitfalls. These include:
- Inadvertently sharing a screen with confidential information.
- Not using a meeting password.
- Allowing untrusted parties to attend meetings.
- Clicking on suspicious or unverified links.
- Not following proper access procedures.
2. Asynchronous collaboration (async)
Asynchronous collaboration (“async” for short) benefits companies and helps them attract better and more diverse employees, boost productivity, and streamline documentation and processes.
What is asynchronous collaboration?
Simply defined, asynchronous collaboration is any collaboration that doesn’t happen at the same time, or in sync. It’s a way to ensure everyone is up to date on projects and feels included, regardless of where they’re working. Asynchronous collaboration can replace the need for lengthy communication in pursuit of new ideas. Instead of requiring team members to work at the same time, asynchronous collaboration lets them work on their own schedule.
This is how async work can help boost productivity. Let’s say you’re not a morning person, and a coworker pitches an idea before you’ve had your coffee. If you’re not feeling sharp, you won’t be able to provide the most valuable feedback. Alternatively, if this same coworker sent you a screen-share recording of her walking through the new concept, you could watch it later in the day (after some precious caffeine). Now you can compile more thoughtful feedback and questions. Asynchronous communication lets people do specific tasks when they feel most productive, and helps ensure peace between early birds, night owls, and global teams in different time zones. Speaking of which…
Asynchronous collaboration is ideal for organizations whose remote workers span different time zones. Synchronous communication requires advanced planning and scheduling. To ensure that everyone on a team can attend a meeting at a specific time isn’t always easy, especially when you have people working across different locations and devices. With asynchronous communication, there’s no need to make sure everyone’s schedules are aligned. They can watch on their own time. And since everything is recorded and documented, asynchronous communication also improves clarity around processes and progress across the organization.
For better productivity, hunt like a lion
Async marks a change away from presenteeism and toward actual productivity. “The way people tend to work most effectively, especially in knowledge work, is to sprint as hard as they can while they feel inspired to work, and then rest. It’s more like a lion hunting and less like a marathoner running. You sprint and then you rest. You reassess and then you try again. You end up building a marathon of sprints,” explains productivity guru Naval Ravikant.
“The way people tend to work most effectively, especially in knowledge work, is to sprint as hard as they can while they feel inspired to work, and then rest. It’s more like a lion hunting and less like a marathoner running.”
– Productivity guru Naval Ravikan
“Don’t work like a cow grazing on the field all day. People who say they work 80-hour weeks, or even 120-hour weeks, often are just status signaling. It’s showing off. Nobody really works 80 to 120 hours a week at high output, with mental clarity. Your brain breaks down. You won’t have good ideas.”
Asynchronous work helps your employees find the times when they feel inspired and ready to hunt, and gives them the freedom to rest when there’s no juicy prey on the savannah. With a crew of asynchronous hunters, there’s rarely a shortage of meat.
3. Remote office stipends
In 2021, we heard that employees would rather quit than lose their remote working privileges. And with the loungewear options available these days, who can blame them?
Remote work is now table stakes. In 2022, remote and hybrid collaboration models won’t be enough. To compete for the best talent, companies are leaning into remote work stipends.
A remote work stipend, or remote work allowance, is a sum of money given to employees for them to use to access perks while working remotely. A remote work stipend can be used to purchase home office equipment, a coworking pass, coffee, or anything else that makes a remote work location comfortable. It can be a one-time equipment stipend or an ongoing one.
For example, According to Compt, HubSpot provides a $60/month tax-free monthly stipend to their remote people. Rewind provides a work-from-home stipend for remote workers as well as a health and wellness stipend for all employees.
Remote work stipends help ensure that all employees feel valued, regardless of their location. And remote work benefits help make collaboration not only possible, but comfortable, productive, and successful.
4. Cloud as the new normal
Cloud-based computing is not new, but its popularity for business is another marker of the increased reliance on remote work. Once a convenient method of storing photos online, cloud computing and data storage are increasingly relied on for business. According to an IDC report, over half of business data globally is stored in the cloud. And data stored on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms like Trello make up 94% of that data.
The shift towards remote work—and especially remote collaboration—has also left more business-critical data unprotected. Many companies transitioned from traditional, on-premise networks (think server rooms filled with stacks of CPUs) to cloud-based solutions that allow employees to collaborate remotely, like Trello. While this shift has led to many improvements like employee satisfaction, better work-life balance, and more time at home with our pets, it has introduced a poorly understood security risk.
Cloud and SaaS products follow something called the Shared Responsibility Model. Popularized by AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing platform, the Shared Responsibility Model states that protecting (including backing up) the data stored on SaaS platforms is always the user’s responsibility. While a SaaS platform like Trello performs system-wide backups of all the data on all the Trello boards worldwide, it can’t restore just the information stored in your Trello boards. That would be like searching for a needle in a field of haystacks: it’s just not possible.
As more businesses begin to rely on cloud-based SaaS products (and run into the same data control issues), we predict that data backup and recovery services for SaaS products will become a key part of an organization’s security posture. Automatic data recovery apps like Rewind Backups for Trello will become integral to everyday operations as more business-critical data is stored on cloud-based applications.
These past few years have introduced new challenges and incredible uncertainty. Trends that accommodate employees’ work-life balance, such as asynchronous work, SaaS-enabled remote collaboration, and remote work stipends, will come to define our working culture in 2022 and beyond.