EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

DON BOXLEY , CEO AND CO-FOUNDER , DH2I

However , in the US , the Pew Research Center ( PRC ) reported that : “ The nation ’ s quit rate reached a 20- year high last November .”

PRC ’ s findings agreed with what is being broadly reported by countless other sources . The pandemic , which dramatically changed how virtually the whole world worked , learned and lived , led people across every industry and pay-grade to step-back and re-evaluate .

Those that decided that their job no longer supported how they measured personal and career satisfaction joined what is now known as the continuing Great Resignation .

So , what can an enterprise do to tackle the skills shortage ? PRC ’ s survey findings offer a cheat sheet of sorts .

It is not surprising that along with pay and opportunities for advancement , job flexibility came in at the top of the priority list .

Over the past couple of years , we have proven that not only does a flexible work-from-anywhere model support the same level of work and results , but in many cases it actually improves outcomes . ( Don ’ t just take my word for it . Google ‘ Why job flexibility improves performance ’ and you will be greeted by a plethora of articles that support this statement .)

Certainly , one of the biggest challenges in supporting a work from anywhere arrangement is that of ensuring data

It is not surprising that along with pay and opportunities for advancement , job flexibility came in at the top of the priority list .

and operations security . When people were first sent home virtually overnight to work , many organizations were forced to depend upon their virtual private networks ( VPNs ) for network access and security and learned the hard way that VPNs were not up to the task .

VPNs simply were not designed or intended for the way we work today . External and internal bad actors continue to exploit inherent vulnerabilities in VPNs . ( Again , a quick Google search will serve up today ’ s most notable and public VPN breaches .)

There is an answer to the VPN dilemma . It is a new and reliable approach to networking connectivity – the Software Defined Perimeter ( SDP ).

This approach enables organizations to build a secure software-defined perimeter and use Zero Trust Network Access ( ZTNA ) tunnels to seamlessly connect all applications , servers , IoT devices and users behind any symmetric network address translation ( NAT ) to any full cone NAT : without having to reconfigure networks or set up complicated and problematic VPNs .

With an SDP ensuring safe and easy network access , not only are organizations freed from geographical recruitment limitations , but by offering work from anywhere benefits , they will enjoy a dramatic increase in their ability to attract and retain the highest caliber employees .

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA 33