Are you enabling a resilient workplace?

As a simplified view of how the workplace has evolved over just the past few years, Figure 2 also incorporates a net workplace index – inspired by the net promoter score (NPS) – in which +100 per cent means all respondents are entirely or mostly on-site, -100 per cent means all respondents are entirely or mostly remote, and values of +50 per cent and higher or -50 per cent and lower are generally considered indicators of a strong trend. In this context, the sharp and sudden shift from +42.7 per cent to -7.9 per cent underscores the unprecedented impact of the global pandemic on the modern workplace. Post-pandemic, this index returned to a “new normal” range of +12.9 per cent to +14.9 per cent. Looking forwards, however, the future of the workplace is only slightly skewed towards on-site (+6.7 per cent). Said another way: For most organisations, a remote/hybrid workforce is projected to be here to stay.

 

Aberdeen’s research findings are consistent with empirical tracking of the return-to-office policies of the largest companies, in which 77 of the Fortune 100 continue to support at least some degree of remote/hybrid workforce.

 

Pragmatically, this means that the technologies and capabilities initially put into place on an emergency basis in H1 2020 need to be revisited with an eye toward a more planful and experience-based approach to supporting a highly productive, highly resilient workforce in the future.

 

We can see this happening now. Updated strategies and investments in support of a resilient, remote/hybrid workforce are increasingly being featured in management communications about strategy, operations and financial condition – as in the example of Vodafone’s 2024 Annual Report, which notes that “the shift to hybrid working has redefined the role of the office and inspired us to create a new global office design primarily for collaboration and connection.”

 

How Zscaler drives resilience in hybrid and remote workforces

 

The Zscaler platform leverages Zero Trust architecture and operational excellence to offer continuously high availability and serviceability. Customer-controlled disaster recovery capabilities and robust failover options are designed to help you stay operational even during unplanned application outages.

 

To dive deeper into how Zscaler helps organisations transition from legacy network infrastructure to modern, secure and resilient cloud-native services, watch this conversation between Derek Brink, Vice President and Research Fellow at Aberdeen Group and Kevin Schwarz, Head of CTO from Zscaler as they discuss key technology trends shaping the future of IT. Watch now to learn how Zscaler’s zero trust approach supports a future-proof, resilient workplace.