Three Quarters Of Employees Never Want To Return To Pre-pandemic, Traditional Work Paradigms

New global research commissioned by Kaspersky of 8,000 SMB workers across multiple industries has revealed that three quarters of employees (78%) in South Africa want to rethink pre-COVID-19 ways of working. Instead of returning to business as usual, workers are now shaping a future of business on their terms, whether that’s spending more time with loved ones (65%), saving money (68%), or working remotely (50%).

Suddenly faced with an overwhelmingly remote workforce, business leaders now need to adapt fast to remain secure and resilient, whilst employees are using this moment of change as an opportunity to reassess yesterday’s priorities, and plan a future around what really matters to them. And as work and home lives are transformed, it’s employees who now see themselves in the driving seat.

In casting off the shackles of previously rigid job routines, employees worldwide are rethinking the next normal for work, inspiring more agile, accommodating, and humane work cultures. Moving forward, 52% of workers in South Africa want to leave behind the 9-5 working structure – and 36% are ready to see the back of fixed office desks, while 41% want to end the five-day working week.

The research also highlighted that 50% of employees locally see remote working as the third greatest benefit which comes as a by-product of the novel Coronavirus, after saving money (68%) and spending time with family (65%). In fact, most of the advantages revolve around pursuing new opportunities for personal enrichment outside of work, as getting that work-life balance becomes even more important.

Yet as employees continue to embrace more forward-thinking and flexible ways of working, it is critical that businesses augment and adapt the support they provide. Given that half (50%) of the workforce locally actively seeks more technology support from their organisation when working remotely, the need to provide the tools and technology to keep users productive, connected and secure has never been greater.

Alexander Moiseev, Chief Business Officer at Kaspersky, said: “We are facing a defining moment in time, and this is very exciting. It’s clear this pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and the blending of our work and homes lives. What we’re now seeing is employees using technology to own a new future, and actively taking the lead in embracing changes in pursuit of greater freedom and flexibility. Companies now have a mandate to adapt and remodel the modern workplace into something more productive, sustainable and malleable.”

To help organisations keep their flexible workforces secure, Kaspersky suggests following these recommendations:

• Empower employees to become more cyber-aware. Whether you’re working from home or in a café, remote working inspires a completely new shift in the behaviour and mindset of employees.
• Boost your workforce’s cyber-knowledge with Kaspersky’s Automated Security Awareness Platform, and motivate them to apply the knowledge they’ve gained in everyday life with the [Dis]Connected game.
• Take key data protection measures to safeguard corporate data and devices, including switching on password protection, encrypting work devices, and ensuring data is backed up.
• Build security inside and outside of the office. Securing employees at their desks or on the go regardless of the device they’re using is now easier than ever through solutions such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud.

The full report, ‘Securing the Future of Work’, can be found here. To find out more about Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud and how it can deliver robust protection against evolving threats, visit the website.

Kaspersky commissioned independent research firm Censuswide to conduct a survey of 8,076 employees of small-to-medium businesses (10 – 250 employees) in Brazil, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, UAE, UK, and USA in October 2020.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 250,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.co.za.