The Great Resignation

According to Fortune Magazine, 40% of U.S. employees are considering an exit from their current place of business. This trend, which has been termed “The Great Resignation,” creates instability within organizations. High employee turnover increases security risks, making companies more vulnerable to attacks as human infrastructure becomes fragmented, leaving gaps that very often expose an organization.

This problem is compounded by the “Quiet Resignation” or quiet quitting - a trend of employees who feel overworked because of additional responsibilities placed on their shoulders, due in large to today’s employee shortage.

This trend has employees choosing to not go above and beyond in their jobs, such as not checking email in off-hours, passing on assignments outside of their normal duties, and limiting their compliance with security rules and practices.

Because of this employee exodus, the influx of untrained employees, and general malaise, the deployment of a successful security awareness program can be more challenging than ever for security teams.

With new employees entering the organization at every level, the extent of cultural dissonance increases, creating instability. Security professionals need to act quickly in response to security concerns caused by this instability to protect their organizations during these volatile times.  

Issues that commonly arise as employees transition out and enter the organization include the following: 

• Potential data leaks:   When employees leave, there's a high risk of sensitive data leaks. Poor off-boarding processes and lurking emails may lead to data loss.

•  Need for educational leveling:   When new employees join the organization, even if security training is well conducted, they are usually not on par with their peers. Unknown security habits may put the organization at risk, requiring the need for supplemental training.

• Security oversight by employees:   With fewer staff, employees are overburdened and pressured. Security may be "forgotten" or neglected in the process.

• Lack of support for remote work:  To support rapid employee recruitment, working at home is a must. Remote work flexibility helps to attract and retain new employees. 

• Training mobility:   Remote work requires securing remote devices and dealing with new employee behavior for inherent distractions - on the go and at home.

With these challenges confronting organizations, security teams should consider deploying the following strategies:

1.    Continuous Training:   All employees are needed to protect against sophisticated phishing threats and this has become even more complicated in light of The Great Resignation. Because of the fractured and less-trained employee base, companies are at much greater risk. To mitigate that risk, training needs to be frequent - at least once a month and short – to not add additional burden to already burned-out employees. The training must also be positive so employees are motivated to get actively involved in the cybersecurity effort. 

2.    Prioritize New Employees:   Security depends on employee help and cooperation. Therefore, it is important to establish best practices in the workplace. New employees with unknown cybersecurity habits pose a high risk for the organization and need to level up their awareness fast. Start with low difficulty, create a foundation, then continually promote learning to the next level. 

3.    Implement data-driven Training:  For a cyber awareness training program to be successful, security teams must plan, operate, evaluate and adapt the training continuously. With data-driven platforms, security teams can monitor campaign performance to fine-tune employee defenses and build custom high-intensity training campaigns for high-risk groups, while also adapting the training per employee locale - to optimize learning results.     

4.    Maintain Vigilance:   Security itself is a full-time job. Keeping the training unpredictable to maintain employee vigilance is an essential part of the process, such as surprising simulation campaigns in a continuous cycle with the idea of catching employees off-guard – which deliver the best learning experience. To create high engagement, ensure training content is relevant to daily actions. Use short, frequent, and intriguing content in the employees’ own language. Tailor the training content to local references and current news.

5.    Promote long-term results:  Take advantage of the 'golden moment’ of failure to generate a meaningful learning experience. Instead of random enforcement training which can often be irrelevant to employees, make a lasting impression right when mistakes happen. Ensuring that training uses this limited window of time is also known as ‘just-in-time learning and is the key to the most effective results and behavior change. 

Comprehensive integration of the latest security know-how into everyday work is a must to counter the new risks of The Great Resignation and related workforce trends, making it more important than ever for every employee to get up to speed for high cyber resilience quickly.

Until the current state of affairs shifts in a direction more favorable to a stable and secure environment, IT professionals must be proactive in their security awareness training approach.                 

Omer Taran is the Co-Founder and CTO of CybeReady

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