FEATURE : CYBERSECURITY

Will Teevan , CEO , Recast Softwareon balancing employee experience with security .

Here ’ s why : On the one hand , businesses want remote workers to be productive , which requires them to be able to install and run whichever digital tools they need to excel at their jobs . But on the other hand , businesses want to minimize security risks for the IT systems that power remote workers ’ productivity .

Unfortunately , this isn ’ t always an easy circle to square . Too often , remote employee productivity – not to mention the employee experience of remote workers – comes at the expense of IT security , or vice versa .

The good news is that it ’ s possible to strike a healthy balance between productivity and security . But doing so requires businesses to deploy tools and processes that many have not traditionally had in place .

Allow me to explain by discussing why it can be challenging to balance productivity and security and what IT organizations can do to ensure that productivity and a positive remote work experience don ’ t become casualties of IT security .

The Catch-22 of remote worker productivity and security

The main reason why it can be hard to keep remote workers productive while also securing the IT systems they depend on is simple enough : To install and run software on most operating systems , employees need administrator-level privileges . However , granting every employee such privileges is a security nightmare .

Without admin privileges , workers must ask IT support staff to install software for them – a practice that is just not scalable and sustainable at companies with hundreds or thousands of employees . And even if IT technicians are available to install apps on demand , it may take them hours or days to get around to fulfilling each request . In the meantime , employees are left without the tools they need to get their jobs done .

This not only lowers employee productivity , but also undercuts morale and employee experience . As Chi Tran of Autonomous puts it in an article for Forbes : “ If we don ’ t provide the right tools , we may set our employees up for failure ” – especially , the piece adds , in a world where motivating and rewarding employees using in-office perks is not always viable . When it comes to remote workers , giving employees the digital tools they need to excel at their jobs is one of the only truly impactful measures employers can take to optimize the employee experience .

Meanwhile , if companies do grant all employees admin-level privileges so that workers can install software themselves , the risk of cyberattacks increases dramatically . If the user accounts of ordinary employees have admin rights , attackers who compromise those accounts by exploiting software vulnerabilities or who trick employees into performing malicious activities via phishing , can wreak much greater havoc .

46 INTELLIGENTCIO LATAM www . intelligentcio . com