We believe hybrid work is something new, enabled by remote technologies and strong networks. Yet already, the concept of remote work is old. Hyper-flex is the new reality.
Hyper-flex is not just the ability for workers and stakeholders to shift between home and office with minimal friction. It’s the power to allow any team member to work anywhere, anytime, across multiple places with multiple devices without missing a thing. Not just here or there, in other words, but literally without realistic limitation.
This new reality is supporting employees who must, or simply choose to, contribute at odd hours – when opportunity or inspiration strikes. They take a few hours on the gym wi-fi network before heading to the office for a meeting, then back to their home office for a few hours before dinner and again late at night, maybe on their mobile devices.
These aren’t email-checking sessions, either. They work in concentrated bursts, often at hyper-speed and with great intensity and productivity. No enterprise – large or small — wants to miss out on the worker who thrives this way simply because the tools aren’t in place or aren’t good enough. Increasingly, it’s not even a matter of whether businesses want to miss those productive bursts; it’s whether they can afford not to.
The new hyper-flex reality is placing a heavy burden on already burdened IT teams, though, impacting IT teams like nothing else since the pandemic. At least in the early stages of the pandemic, we had a bit more grace with our shared misery and worry. Now, the expectations of speed and growth stress every worker and manager tasked with meeting deliverables, often in the face of declining headcounts.
For the honor of having a flexible workplace, employees know they need to deliver. They feel the pressure, but workers these days realize other options exist elsewhere. So, if their technology isn’t working well, there is a risk of losing them. Few things are more frustrating or more likely to lead to burnout than wanting to do work but being unable to or having the process being so taxing as to debate whether it’s worth it even to try.
Seventy-one percent of employees surveyed by Adobe last year said that “poor digital organization interferes with their ability to work effectively.” We’ve all seen this play out at our workplace. Inconsistent naming conventions (or, worse yet, no conventions) make it difficult to find files. In some cases, procedures are so unwieldy that it stymies collaborative work. In fact, this same Adobe survey asked baby boomers, millennials, Gen Z and Gen X’ers if poor digital organization might lead them to quitting. Twenty percent of respondents said it would, with 30% of Gen Z reporting they have considered quitting for this reason alone.
For the IT teams tasked with keeping tech functioning optimally in today’s workplace, they can do some comparatively easy things to minimize the chance that computing troubles drive them out the door.
File structure and storage
Having trouble accessing files is annoying at the least and utterly disruptive at worst. Problems accessing files are often the result of inadequate storage and file bloat, two problems that for smaller companies can be managed much more quickly than for large ones. For those larger companies, employing a tiered storage solution keeps the most critical files in high-performance storage tiers. Files of lesser importance are stored in slower tiers. Moving files between the two tiers and respective retention policies, can be automated based on parameters set by the IT department, which also improves the speed of access. However, this alone is not a substitute for having sound file naming conventions and enforcing related staff accountability — policies that do not require specialty software.
These days, the average person assumes that cloud-based storage systems are the fastest and easiest solution to file storage and access, but for sensitive data, cloud-based systems are not always the best and most secure. Sometimes, it’s best to protect sensitive data in dedicated, secure local storage.
Sometimes, the answer to where to store files includes both the cloud and local servers. Some information is best secured and best accessed locally, while other data and software must be more accessible and stored differently. IT departments and CIOs will make those decisions. But what is essential is making access to tools and information seamless for the employee – no matter where the data lives.
Versioning and software updates
In order for tech to work well, it has to be up-to-date. The critical nature of rolling out updates is front-and-center right now, given the recent global technology crash due to a software update by CloudStrike. It is embarrassing and damaging when updates don’t go well.
Yet updates are vital. Server speeds are impacted not only by the volume of data on a network but also by software versioning and the quality of the tech accessing the network. It is critical to keep both ends up to date. Out-of-date firmware and software may isolate poor performance to the individual’s computer or tablet, which might not be damaging to the entire company but can frustrate the individual worker. It is also difficult for the IT team to recognize that outdated software exists unless remote device management software is in place.
Network sign-on procedures to eliminate multiple logins
Having to log in to multiple company-supplied platforms, especially when shifting between tasks rapidly, causes significant frustration. For most people, using their personal tech is much easier than using what the company provides. Companies have to install software and protocols to protect the network, files and data. However, most individuals expect company resources to at least not drive them crazy due to unnecessary sign-ons and verifications when they have already sorted out those bottlenecks with their tech. The mismatch between speed and ease of their personal tech is a significant reason why employees get frustrated so easily with password snarls on company tech.
To make it easier to log in, some companies turn to Password Access Management tools. However, using PAM is a complex decision that needs to be carefully evaluated by the IT teams. No two companies will make the same decision. Centralized Identity Management solutions like Okta, Azure and Ping Identity streamline authentication, but as with any software, these tools require attention to settings, frequent updates and user training.
Additional best practices include implementing MFA (multi-factor authentication) with SSO, regular patches and customized access controls that make sure employees only have access to the right tools and resources. Consult Gartner’s guide to single sign-on best practices for more advice.
Managing server bandwidth during high-demand
Load balancers and bandwidth monitoring tools help IT staff recognize peak work times so they can distribute traffic around the company servers. Equally important is adopting best practices for using such tools and having insight into when employees are accessing resources. It should be easy to quickly and easily see the work trends and heaviest usage periods, which, with the hyper-flex worker and a highly distributed workforce, could be 24/7. The only universal pattern of work hours is that workers could be demanding heavy computing power in the middle of the night as quickly as in the middle of the day.
Remote device management
There are two sides to providing technical support. The first is having staff available to address the problem, and the second is being able to work on the device itself, which is difficult in remote settings. Desktop management software like NetSupport Manager enables IT staff to keep remote devices operating. IT teams need to be able to access a user’s device and have complete control – able to troubleshoot, adjust settings and install software. Furthermore, sometimes, the problem experienced by one user could be experienced by others. The right desktop management platform functions as well on 1:1 as it does on 1:many and can connect across a mix of environments.
Technical support availability, knowledge base delivered quickly, accurately
Most of the time, the high-flex worker is accustomed to using a knowledge base to solve tech problems. It is usually faster, and from personal experience, they’ve used it to solve issues with their own devices. It’s far faster than making a phone call or issuing a support ticket. This means they expect their company support also to have a robust knowledge base. In many cases, they expect bend-over-backward stepped-up technical support, too. If they can’t find the answer in a matter of minutes, they expect a rapid response from the IT support team.
IT support staff also need a robust knowledge base for problems to help them when they need to resolve issues for end-users. NetSupport ServiceDesk can be used to manage ticketing systems, chats and workflows. Furthermore, the trend information provided can show gaps in the knowledge base, places where more content is needed to help users.
Unfortunately, the challenges won’t end there. Log-in security, peak demand hours, security of remote devices and remote networks, universal support expectations and seamless software integrations will continue to trigger headaches as hyper-flex becomes the new, most basic expectation.
The good news is that the companies that get hyper-flex right will be unconstrained, now and into the future. While we cannot say that hyper-flex is the final frontier of work productivity, it feels like the next and most significant step. Ready or not, no one will have much choice but to meet it.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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