More than half of businesses are planning to increase the amount of permanent homeworking in their organisation, according to research from employment specialists XpertHR.

A survey of 148 HR professionals published today shows that 54.7% of those already using homeworking plan to increase the proportion of time or number of employees working from home on a permanent basis. And 35.1% of organisations that didn’t use homeworking prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic plan to now have at least some permanent homeworking arrangements.

Options for workplaces

With effect from 22 September, Government guidance has reverted to a recommendation that employees should work from home if they can. A quarter of our respondents’ workplaces were already open to all employees, with many others open for some, although with limited plans to move everyone back to their premises. Asked how they would describe the current situation at their organisation’s premises, it is clear that the majority of businesses had at least some employees attending in person – just one in 20 had no current plans to reopen.

As a result of the reversal in Government guidance from returning to the workplace to working from home if possible, many organisations are having to quickly re-think their plans on employees returning to the workplace. A charity has just done a U-turn on its plans to reopen, while a training provider is currently deciding whether to close the offices they had only recently re-opened. A logistics company had been in the midst of making “plans to encourage employees back to work in stages”, which are now on hold.

What is clear is that employers are taking the lead from employees – one in four (24.1%) survey respondents said that any return to the workplace would be based on employee choice. Where specified, organisations are not looking to have employees return to the workplace before the New Year, although one thought it would “most likely [be] next March [2021]” and another that there would be “no formal return until June 2021”.

Where employers are introducing more flexibility on work location, the following practices mentioned offer useful guidance to others:

• “Carrying out a risk assessment on staff working from home.”
• “Seeking feedback from all staff via a survey on how much time they wish to home-work in future.”
• “Plans communicated to staff following engagement activities to assess wider workforce opinions.”
• “The future mix of office/home working will be trialled.”
• “We have an internal project group focused on future ways of working to review what will work for all employees.”
• “We have engaged an external consultant to support us on the implications of implementation of agile working.”
• “Working through the policies and changes needed to allow more flexibility and working from home.”

Commenting on the findings, XpertHR managing editor Sheila Attwood said:

“The flexibility around working hours and location that became a necessity almost overnight is not going to disappear with the same speed at which it arrived. Many employers are now looking to retain some semblance of these arrangements on a more permanent basis. Any new working arrangements should be carefully planned, with the needs of both the business and employees in mind.”

For more information on XpertHR visit: www.xperthr.co.uk

Written by Adrian Taylor, Regional Vice President Of Sales, at A10 Networks

The financial services sector is experiencing significant commercial disruption coupled with rapid innovation as established institutions strive to become more agile and meet evolving customer demand. As a result, financial services organisations are undergoing rapid digital transformation to meet changing customer needs and preferences, and to compete with a new generation of digital-native competitors. Hybrid cloud environments play a key role in this strategy, allowing greater speed, flexibility, and visibility over application delivery than on-premises data centres while also reducing costs.

But the move to hybrid cloud introduces new challenges as well. So, as financial services organisations plot their strategy for transformation, firms must make critical technical decisions about the clouds and form factors best suited to host their hybrid environment. They also need to consider how they will secure web applications against evolving threats such as ransomware, data theft, and DDoS attacks through measures such as DDoS protection and using a Zero Trust model. At the same time, they must also maintain regulatory compliance, governance, and auditability across complex, fast-evolving infrastructures.

To understand more about these challenges, we recently conducted a survey with Gatepoint Research involving senior decision-makers to gain insight into the current state of financial services technology and the future direction for organisations in this sector. Here are some of the key findings:

Today’s Financial Services Technology Landscape

Although financial services businesses are making a steady move to the cloud for application delivery, on-premises data centres continue to play an important role.

While adoption of public cloud infrastructure is strong, with almost half of those surveyed hosting applications primarily in the cloud, most respondents (58 percent) continue to rely primarily on their private on-premises data centre for application delivery. 35 percent of organisations described their environment as a hybrid cloud, though with an emphasis on their own private data centre. This shows that even as transformation continues, the traditional data centre remains prominent in the technology strategy of financial services organisations.

That said, the balance between on-premises and cloud infrastructure may well shift soon. When respondents were asked about their plans for the coming year, 57 percent of decision-makers reported that they intend to move more applications to the cloud.

Ransomware and PII Lead Security Concerns

Today, financial services organisations face a broad spectrum of security threats, including many being targeted at sensitive customer data. The survey highlighted that organisations’ biggest security concerns or consequences were ransomware (57 percent); personally identifiable information (PII) data theft (55 percent); and phishing or fake sites (49 percent).

While threats to customers and their data are seen as the highest risk, dangers to the company’s brand image and reputation were not far behind. 38 percent of leaders cited concerns about hacking and cyber defacement, tied with brand damage and loss of confidence. Nearly as many (37 percent) were concerned about DDoS attacks, which can undermine a firm’s perception among customers through impaired service quality and customer experience. Meanwhile, insider attacks remain an issue, named by 28 percent of respondents, if not quite at the same level as most external threats.

To address the changing security landscape, many organisations have started initiatives around the Zero Trust model, in which traditional concepts of secured zones, perimeters, and network segments are updated with a new understanding that a threat can come from anywhere or anyone inside or outside the organisation. As of June 2020, 41 percent of respondents had already established a timeline for their Zero Trust model initiative with 15 percent having projects currently underway. Still, nearly two-thirds have no current plans or initiatives around the Zero Trust model.

Moving to Improve Flexibility, Agility, Scalability and Security

Technologies and strategies planned for the coming year reflect a key focus on the competitive requirements of fast-paced digital markets. The top-two initiatives included moving from hardware appliances to more flexible software form factors and deploying hybrid cloud automation, management, and analytics to increase operational efficiency.

With DDoS attacks a prime concern, 29 percent of respondents planned to deploy or replace an existing web application firewall (WAF) or DDoS protection solution. Surprisingly, even several years after the introduction of modern Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) and Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) encryption standards for enhanced security, 29 percent of organisations are only now working to upgrade their Transport Layer Security (TLS) capabilities to support these technologies.

Even as cloud adoption continues to be strong, five percent of decision makers intend to repatriate applications from private cloud environments to their private data centre. While not a high number, this is not entirely insignificant. Given the diversity of form factors, architectures, and deployment methods to choose from, it is important to make sure that the approach fits the organisation’s needs before proceeding.

Addressing the Requirements of Hybrid Cloud and Rising Demand

Moving forward, decision-makers view capabilities related to risk as especially important for their financial platforms. When it comes to the most important capabilities for financial platforms running in hybrid cloud environments, regulatory compliance, comprehensive application security and redundancy/disaster recovery are top must-haves.

In addition to the importance placed on redundancy/disaster recovery, many respondents (43 percent) named centralised management and analytics as important capabilities. Along with elastic scale for variable/seasonal demands (25 percent), this shows a recognition of the requirements to provide effective service through redundancy, scalability, and a sound infrastructure.

Compared with risk-related and operational priorities, cost saw considerably less emphasis in the survey. While 28 percent of respondents placed importance on automation for operational efficiency and reduced costs, just 18 percent prioritised flexible licensing and pricing.

Desired Benefits from New Technology Investments

As they plan new technology investments, decision-makers are motivated foremost by risk reduction—far outpacing business factors such as revenue, customer experience, and competitive advantage.

By a large majority, security was the most likely benefit to spur funding for new technology. Operational considerations followed, including operational improvements (65 percent) and cost savings (63 percent). Regulatory compliance, emphasised earlier in the survey as a priority for a hybrid cloud requirement, was not necessarily top-of-mind in the technology funding stage—but still of high importance (57 percent). Revenue generation was named as a highly important benefit by only 35 percent, followed by customer satisfaction at 32 percent. Even in an industry undergoing rapid digital transformation, just 32 percent of decision-makers cited business advantage from new technology as a prime factor—and only 17 percent were moved by the ability to accelerate development speed.

The results of the survey offer a snapshot of an industry in transition, as decision-makers seek to keep control over security and compliance and maintain operational consistency, as they look to tap into the agility and scalability of the cloud. It is clear that, while security is important for digital transformation initiatives, application delivery and managing multi-cloud environments are of equal importance.  Above all financial services organisations must maintain their good reputation and ensure customer trust. Firms must demonstrate that they are protecting customer assets, providing an ultra-reliable service, working with trustworthy partners and reducing risk to the business.

Data from the UK and Ireland’s leading health and wellbeing provider, Health Assured has revealed that the number of people calling for stress and anxiety support on their EAP (employee assistance programme) helpline increased by 22% in the first three weeks of September compared to the first three weeks in August. In comparison to the same time last year, calls regarding stress and anxiety had nearly doubled with an increase year on year of 44%.

The coronavirus pandemic has been an emotional rollercoaster for many. Unsurprisingly, rapidly increasing coronavirus cases and rumours of a second lockdown have unnerved lots of people.

If employees are stressed and anxious right now, it’s the job of an employer to provide reassurance. So, how can they provide reassurance for staff who are feeling worried?

David Price, workplace wellbeing expert and CEO of Health Assured, issued some advice on how businesses can support employees who are struggling with anxiety and stress during this challenging time:

“With the coronavirus pandemic rumbling on, it’s more important than ever to look after ourselves and each other.

“Adapting to the situation is a daily process, everyone is doing their best. Employers need to adapt, too— honouring their duty of care to their employees as best they can, and keeping an eye on how people are coping.

“Spotting the signs of stress can be easy when dealing with an employee face-to-face. However, with many staff working remotely this can be harder. Considering this, employers should be arranging regular video calls. This could be with an entire team or on a one-to-one basis. If video calls are a no-go, an email or text will also suffice. Talking people through their worries can help them work through and overcome those worries.

“It’s also important to remind them that it is natural to be stressed and anxious at a time like this. In fact, some experts suggest people should set aside time each day to allow themselves to worry. By freeing their thoughts, they will rid their system of worry and feel better for the rest of the day.

“Meditation and mindfulness, which is paying attention to the present moment, are relaxing options that can improve mental wellbeing.

“Meanwhile, recommend that they limit the amount of news they read and watch and aim for a daily roundup as constant negative headlines can have a detrimental effect on people’s mental health.

“Finally, a stress management policy will help your business tackle stress at work. Include information on all potential workplace stressors and state the steps you’ll take to cut out or control them. For example, you could include that you regularly monitor your remote employees’ hours and overtime to ensure they aren’t overworking. Remember, the policy will apply to everyone in your company. In the end, it’s up to you to enforce it and stay within the rules of the Health and Safety at Work Order 1978.

“If you don’t have a policy, it’s a good idea to make one soon to support any workers still on your premises—as well as those working from home. If it’s helpful, think about talking it through with a health & safety expert.

“At the moment, the world is quickly changing. It’s best to deal with it one day at a time.”