The Great Resignation is here! Are you prepared?

What is The Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation is an ongoing global trend wherein a large number of employees are quitting their jobs even as the world is finding its way back to normal. When the pandemic was at its peak, an unsettled job market resulted in massive layoffs. Now, as the economy recovers and career opportunities open up, many professionals are considering switching careers or re-evaluating their professional aspirations.

Top reasons behind The Great Resignation 2021

Researchers attribute several reasons for this phenomenon, but here are the top three.

1. Existential Awakening

The pandemic led to thousands of deaths. This has been a life changing experience for several people and has caused them to revaluate their human relations and career aspirations. IIndustries that demand an extensive labor force such as medical, retail, fast food, etc. are, in particular, have struggled to retain employees who are considering switching careers for better pay, perks, or work-life balance.

2. Financial Security and Stability

One of the major upheavals that the pandemic wrought was a financial crisis. Layoffs and cutbacks in pay during the pandemic’s peak have evoked a sense of financial insecurity and uncertainty in many. As normalcy seeps back in, and the economy recovers, a large portion of this workforce is switching roles and jobs for higher pay or more stability.

3. Demand For Hybrid Model

A number of employees experienced remote working and realized that working from their homes is not only a possibility but an option that offers good work-life balance without compromising on professional commitments. Many are now demanding a work arrangement that is either entirely remote or at least a hybrid model. In fact, a few organizations have gone so far as offering perpetual remote work to their employees.

How is The Great Resignation impacting organizations?

The Great Resignation has led to numerous challenges like:

1. Recruiting and employee retention

Due to the surge in the number of employees leaving jobs, hiring new employees has proved to be expensive and, in some cases, has even pushed existing employees to quit due to the increased work pressure.

2. Issues of low employee morale

An unfortunate side-effect of these recruiting and retaining challenges has been low employee morale. With businesses being understaffed, the unduly high operational and performance pressure that it has placed on workers has increased the sentiment of feeling undervalued and overworked. All of these have invariably led to more days off, missed deadlines, and inevitably – low productivity.

3. Raised concerns about data security

With this sudden surge in the number of employees leaving organizations, there is a lot of pressure on IT departments to ensure that business data is safe and secure. With so many employees working remote and in unsupervised environments, security teams are voicing increased concerns around data theft and malicious deletion. Unhappy or disgruntled employees leaving a company could maliciously delete valuable enterprise data as a retaliatory measure in order to right a perceived wrong. In the absence of structured deprovisioning processes, reliable and automatic data backups, etc., such actions can impact business continuity and lead to operational disruptions.

How can backups ensure data security during The Great Resignation?

In such a climate, a reliable backup solution like Parablu’s BluVault can offer several advantages to businesses looking to protect themselves from data losses.

1. Automated backups

Once BluVault is enabled for a user, it automatically backs up data from the end-user’s devices and stores it securely in the assigned storage target. Unlike asking users to make backup copies, which can be unreliable, automated backups are a reliable process and works like clockwork every day. 

2. Scheduled backups and frequency

Administrators can use BluVault to create policies specifying backup schedules and frequency for identified end-users. This feature can be leveraged to increase the frequency of backups for identified users, especially during times of employee termination, to ensure that the data from employees who are in the process of being terminated are backed up more frequently to avoid missing any important data.

3. Stealth mode

BluVault offers a deployment mode where the backup agent runs on the user’s endpoint device (desktop, laptop, Macbook etc.) in an invisible mode. This significantly reduces the possibility of an end-user trying to forcibly stop the backup agent from running or making any attempts to uninstall it.

4. Email alerts and Reports

With BluVault, Administrators can keep a finger on the pulse of backup operations at all times. A range of reports and alerts which are automatically emailed to Administrators can inform them of any deviation from normal activity. A suspicious restore request, or a system that isn’t backing up for more than a day or so – are highlighted easily for deeper scrutiny.

5. Limit end-user access to self-service portal

By default, BluVault also offers a self-service portal to empower end-users with the ability to perform backup and restore activities by themselves. In the case of some users, this provision can work against the data security and protection stance of the organization – especially if such users are likely to misuse this platform. In such cases, Administrators can create policies to restrict access for such end-users to the portal or even to specific functions like restores, file sharing, and downloads.

6. Block access from unauthorized devices

In cases where an employee is leaving the organization, it may be prudent to ensure that their access to backed-up data is only via a company authorized device. Employees who are in the termination process can be assigned to a special policy where their endpoints are always confirmed as having joined the company domain before allowing any data restore or download activity. BluVault also integrates with Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory Conditional Access feature which automatically disallows authentication into the BluVault portal unless the request is coming from a company authorized device.

7. Backup of Hidden Files

There are chances that a terminated employee with malicious intent, marks files as hidden in order to prevent them from being backed up. Parablu’s BluVault can back up even hidden files – and this feature is easily enabled via policies.

These are just a small handful of the features that an Administrator can utilize to ensure data security during employee terminations. There are several other features in BluVault like User blocking, Data migration, and Device reassignment that have the potential to make a company’s data security strategy effective and efficient during The Great Resignation. Click here to learn more.

If you want to see Parablu’s BluVault in action, ask for a personalized demo here or contact us at info@parablu.com.