Dive Brief:

• While 100% of IT managers in a survey by 1E, an IT services company, said they believe their internal clients are satisfied with their service desk, 44% of remote employees surveyed said they are satisfied, according to the Jan. 12 report.
• Thirty-six percent of employees said they are experiencing more IT issues than ever working from home, and 30% expressed concern for IT’s ability to support them while working remotely. Employees also said IT’s response times were longer than IT managers believed and that response times were a drain on productivity.
• Further underlining the disconnect between IT departments and the workforce, the top employee concerns were preventing IT issues and speed of issue recovery while 53% of IT leaders said they spend most of their time on security for remote workers. IT managers also said tech trends and updates from technology partners like Microsoft drive their technology roadmap over feedback from internal stakeholders.

Dive Insight:

While many employers and employees alike see the expansion of remote work as a success, the threat of cybersecurity issues rose along with technical challenges as every business process moved to the cloud. 

Pre-pandemic research suggests that training was somewhat prevalent at the time. But with the added risks of remote work, and the rapid rate of technology adoption across 2020, HR and IT will need to work together closely to improve the employee experience while ensuring security and performance needs.

"On the plus side, you are going to have a lot more choices and tools to do really nuanced things related to engagement, D&I, learning," Katy Tynan, analyst at Forrester, previously told HR Dive. But challenges remain. "Integrating all of these is going to be hard."

With remote and hybrid work expected to be fixtures of the workplace, even after the pandemic ends, and technology veers toward more automation in the workplace as well, training employees on security and getting IT more attuned to employee needs will be key.