Why security leaders are also employee experience specialists

The majority of Australia’s workforce now have the option to work from “anywhere” and it goes without saying, businesses that have built-in secure flexibility will gain the most over their peers as they ensure their operations run smoothly.

IT security leaders need to address challenges ranging from maintaining control over corporate network access from employees’ managed and unmanaged devices, to addressing the complexities of authentication and compliance, while adopting a strong cyber risk and governance policy.

In addition to this, IT teams need to ensure a holistic security approach that includes the optimisation of user and customer experience while managing identity at a digital scale to enable digital transformation. This means integrating identity management to support operational excellence, manage enterprise risk and improve productivity.

Unfortunately, the IT department is often seen as the department of “no”. Forward-thinking security leaders are aware of the challenge that lies ahead — that work needs to be done to change this perception, especially with the board and employees. To cater to the needs of today’s multigenerational workforce, from mobile-first millennials to the less technology savvy workers, security leaders have to move towards the individuals to get them to participate in their journey, in order to drive a positive employee experience that is also a secure one.

Consumerisation drives expectation of personalised access

Employees can’t perform their best in a security model where only a few people have access to tools that support identity and authentication and the associated best practices. Such tools should be available to everyone. Given the right solutions, employees will be more empowered at work and have a better relationship with the company.

More than ever the lines between personal and work are blurred, so hurdles when using tools will lead to employees taking things into their own hands, potentially increasing risk for the organisation. According to a recent Forrester report, 54% of employees believe that their business has the right technology in place to work remotely. However, that means 46% of employees believe that businesses don’t. If an organisation does not have easy-to-use tools in place, employees will find a way around them to get their job done. The last thing they need is to be bogged down by additional IT challenges that will impact their performance or productivity.

Consumerisation has set the expectation for a personalised-everything, including Identity Management. What employees want is a simple and elegant solution for accessing multiple secure accounts across both on- and off-premise resources. At the same time, IT needs an approach that ensures security and user friendliness whilst scaling and requiring minimal intervention.

Ultimately security leaders must ensure the experience for the employee is seamless. A growing number of organisations are adopting multi-factor authentication (MFA) and the trend is expected to continue as MFA options become easier to use, quicker to integrate with existing systems, and overall more budget-friendly — thus increasing employee satisfaction with IT while reducing risk.

Authentication goes hand-in-hand with secure access. For example, single sign-on (SSO) enables IT to delegate access to applications and password management offers employees a secure location to store credentials for applications not covered by SSO. MFA adds an additional layer on top based on the risk profile of the access attempt, such as location, devices or time of day.

With an identity solution to holistically manage access and authentication, security leaders can facilitate a work-from-anywhere policy that doesn’t sacrifice security or productivity, while driving a positive employee experience.

Building the right Identity Access Management (IAM) strategy

Employees are accessing business resources from anywhere and organisations need to determine an IAM strategy that offers access and security for everyone, while also remaining easy to use. Managing access and authentication means securing every entry point to the business yet giving employees a frictionless way to connect to work.

Discover how to keep your business secure and employees productive through an IAM strategy that enables employees to securely work from anywhere.

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