Who is the Next Gen Worker?
New workers must be agile and be able to adapt quickly
- By Adam Jaques
- Aug 01, 2016
Today’s workplace is far different from 15, five,
even two years ago. Employees are expected to get
more done, in a shorter amount of time, with more
distractions than ever before. In today’s business
environment, workers are inundated with a constant
barrage of emails, calls, video conferencing
requests and group chats. As such, employees are expected to understand
all different types of technologies, devices, applications
and platforms.
As the workplace has evolved, so have the employees that support
it. This new breed of employee is what we like to call the “the
next generation of workers.” The next-gen worker needs to be
agile and adapt more quickly to different types of tools and devices,
which means successful employers are those that prioritize
seamless tools, training, integration and connectivity for this new
workforce. As one can imagine, this can lead to some interesting
security challenges and even more creative solutions.
Who Exactly is the Next-gen Worker?
Unlike previous generations, this new class of workers are techsavvy
digital-natives that are increasingly on the go and always
connected. Having grown up with a constant stream of technological
innovations, they know exactly what they do and don’t
like in tech. This new labor force is quick to decide what type of
technology works best for them, whether they’re at work, home
or somewhere in between. Although these next-gen workers are
fast to decide what type of tech they prefer, employees lack an
in-depth understanding of the security vulnerabilities that each and every device and application presents.
As employers begin to embrace trends
like the virtual office, the next generation
of workers are no longer chained to their
desk and able to work from home, on the
plane or half way around the world. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
23 percent of employees reported doing
some of their work remotely in 2015, up
from 19 percent in 2003 – and that number
only continues to grow. These employees
no longer subscribe to the notion that being
in the office from 9 to 5 every day is
necessary or produces a better quality of
work. With more employees working from
home and on-the-go, the next-generation
workforce needs reliable and secure access
to the network and corporate resources
from any location.
Connect from Anything…
Along with the uptick in folks working remotely,
employees now rely on their own
devices, like laptops, mobile phones and
tablets, to do much of their work. As such,
the “bring your own device” (BYOD)
movement has become the norm with 60
percent of companies already implementing
a BYOD policy in 2016, according to
recent reports, with estimates from Gartner
suggesting that half of all employees
will be using their own devices by 2017.
Trends like BYOD support the demands
of next gen workers, enabling them to reduce
the overall number of devices they
use and also allow them to choose the
devices that will make them happiest and
most productive. They can use their own
devices to check work email, download
documents and access the corporate VPN
and SaaS applications. Employees also
regularly switch from iOS to Windows
operating systems and need the ability to
easily alternate between the two.
…To Anything
These days, the next-generation workforce
relies more heavily on cloud-based applications,
for their ease of use and consistency
across devices. In addition to the
VPN, enterprise workers need fast and
secure access to regularly used cloud applications
like Office 365 and other non-
Microsoft services such as Salesforce and
Dropbox. Workers want to enjoy and leverage
the apps that they know and love,
all while integrating with the traditional
apps that IT provides. Even with these
cloud applications, it’s important for enterprise
IT to implement strong network
access control (NAC) policies, which allow
the right user with the right device
permission to get on the network. This is
not typically considered for cloud based
applications, but is just as relevant as it is
for datacenter access.
If done well, your employees shouldn’t
even be able to tell the difference. Additionally,
a wide variety of apps that workers
use in their personal lives now have a
utility for work, Evernote, being a great
example. Applications like this let individuals
and teams share and collaborate
on content from anywhere, on any device.
As workers take advantage of cloudbased
applications and platforms, they
will also need access to their organization’s
corporate data centers. Many businesses
continue to employ some legacy IT architectures,
and employees continue to need
to access these systems quickly and efficiently.
Workers need to seamlessly access
important data, media and documents, regardless
of whether it’s on premise, in the
cloud or a hybrid environment.
Keep it Secure
Don’t leave security up to the workers. In
the past, a lot of IT departments sanctioned
uses for personal devices in the
workplace but put the onus on the user to
keep the device secure and current with all
of the necessary updates. But it should actually
be the employer’s responsibility to
provide workers with safe and secure access
to the cloud, the corporate data center
and various applications.
Also, organizations should educate
workers on the various security policies,
procedures and products that have been
put in place to protect employees and corporate
data. Typically, organizations will
deploy corporate workspace solutions to
user’s devices which will ensure a level of
IT control without impeding a worker’s
privacy. Rolling reminders and training
should also be put in place to keep information
security top of mind for new and
existing staff.
Keep it Simple
In addition to providing your employees
with secure access, it’s imperative to make
things easy for this new breed of workers.
Across all devices and applications,
workers today want fast and intuitive access.
Employees simply don’t have time to
download separate applications and set up
complicated logins. They demand uninterrupted,
intuitive and secure access.
The minute things get too complicated
is the minute you risk having an employee
take a shortcut and jeopardize the security
of their device and potentially the entire
company’s infrastructure. Historically,
things like passwords have been a huge
pain point for employees. These days, authentication
to devices should be something
simple and local like a fingerprint.
Identity is quickly becoming the new
password and can lead to a better user experience
for employees. Other small steps
like single sign-on for laptops with device
identity and device compliance will allow
workers to quickly access their devices in
the most secure way possible.
What’s in it for You?
Why take these extra steps to ensure secure
access for your workers? Simple offerings
like seamless VPN connectivity create
a more productive workforce, ensuring
that employees aren’t wasting valuable
time unsuccessfully trying to connect to
the network. Additionally, sophisticated
BYOD policies improve employee satisfaction,
enabling workers to feel secure, all
while knowing their privacy is respected.
Workers are able to balance the ability to
use the device of their choosing with the
security necessary to keep corporate assets
safe and worker’s data private.
Taking the time to better understand
next generation of workers and their
needs is vital to ensuring the security and
productivity of today’s businesses. The
modern enterprise worker needs access
to corporate resources, from any location
and any device. And employers must give
their workers the ability to access these
or lose employees to
other companies that
will.
This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of Security Today.