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New technologies are an asset for French employees who use them
69% of employees consider that technologies enable them to undergo continuous training to acquire new skills and whet their curiosity as regards new work methods available today
Hub One, an operator of digital technologies for companies, reveals the results of a study on “The impact of technologies in professional environments”, conducted by OpinionWay.
As part of their digital transformation, companies have prepared to adopt new technologies, that are pervading business functions more and more. Today, even if disparities subsist, 60% of French employees think their job has become highly digital. This digitisation has however increased companies’ exposure to cyber attacks, hackers seeing employees as choice “points of entry” due to their ignorance of the threats and techniques used.
Thus, within businesses, digital transformation requires both being aware of cyber risks as well as employees’ adaptability at all hierarchical levels, a process which can take time. They must now adopt good cybersecurity practices and change their work methods, both at organisational and cultural levels.
“The results of our study highlight the benefits provided by new technologies: optimised daily work and increased curiosity. However, they require employees to adapt continuously and keep up to date with the tools offered within their company”, specifies Guillaume de Lavallade, Hub One CEO. “In the context of their digital transformation, companies must quickly become aware that employees are one of the cornerstones for increased productivity, security and competitiveness, and thus offer their employees the solutions and training to meet their expectations. «
Improvement of day-to-day work
Businesses have made a lot of progress in integrating new technologies in their daily operations. However, their implementation takes time, the use of tools such as fax or telex was still widespread for respectively 28% and 12% of respondents.
For 45 % of French employees, information and communication technologies are seen as an ally. They enable them to have quicker access to information in order to:
– Find solution to the problems they encounter (72%);
– Better organise themselves (69%);
– Optimise their productivity (68%);
– Gain flexibility (60%).
Moreover, technologies change constantly and quickly, inciting employees to re-invent themselves every day. 69% undergo continuous training to acquire new skills and consider that technologies whet their curiosity as regards new work methods. Thus, although work quality is improved for 68% of French employees, it comes at a cost.
Employees need to be adaptable
The results of this study highlight the fact that adopting new technologies within businesses has modified work methods and consequently induces a certain need for flexibility from the employees. More specifically, 60% of them have noticed an increase in their work pace and intensity, and over half (55%) feel a constant need to adapt to the new tools, which can hinder the performance of their daily tasks.
This required flexibility is also felt on the cultural level, as adopting new technologies can create a feeling of being at odds: 57% of respondents consider that technologies help widen the generation gap.
Moreover, the use of technologies should go hand in hand with the adoption of good cybersecurity practices. Here again, employees must adapt and change their daily habits and behaviours. Although certain basic measures are applied by most employees, such as not clicking on links or surfing on suspicious websites (80%), or closing their session when leaving their workstation (74%), shortcomings still persist. Over 1/3 employees continue to work in public spaces and connect USB dongles to their computers, 36% do not delete their cookies, 41% do not use a password management system, and 96% do not use any privacy screen / confidentiality filter.
In order to help their employees better grasp these new work habits and organisation methods, while remedying any gaps, companies must implement all means required to conciliate employee satisfaction, productivity and security.
A need for training valued by employees
Training is an especially suitable solution to take advantage of the benefits offered by new technologies. However, employees only rarely benefit from these, as 60% of respondents did not receive during the past three years, any training that would have enabled them to better use the technologies available within their company.
Among the 36% employees that received training, employees of large companies were the most represented as the latter are more aware of its importance and have the suitable structures and resources. These figures can be compared to those of managers, who were 48% to benefit from training.
Organisations must imperatively address this issue if they wish to remain competitive in a world where the digitisation of businesses and jobs will not stop, and where the number of cyber threats are ever increasing.
Indeed, according to CESIN[1], over one in two companies are affected by social engineering – an attack based on the human element. Yet, organisations do not offer their employees enough opportunities to undergo training dedicated to cybersecurity challenges and issues, as only 44% of the people interviewed have had access to this type of training.
Today, training is a non-negligible barrier against the resurgence of cyber attacks and is a simple and effective means of significantly improving work quality, organisation and efficiency, at all levels of a company. Incidentally, this type of training is highly-appreciated by employees: when it is available, 90% of the people interviewed think it enabled them to be more efficient in their daily work.
The 7 everyday cyber behaviours employees must adopt
- Always put your computer into standby when you leave your workstation, and shut it down every night
- Chose a password including special characters, digits, capitals and without any personal links
- Do not connect any dongle to your professional computer
- Never click on a link without first checking the email address of the issuer
- Fit a privacy screen onto your computer’s screen, especially for roaming workers
- Regularly update your software
- Separate professional and personal uses, and make sure your use different passwords
Methodology
This study was conducted from 27 August to 13 September 2018 by OpinionWay on a sample of 1072 employees and company bosses representative of the French population aged 18 and over by means of an online self-administered questionnaire, on a CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) system. The survey was carried out according to the quotas method, taking account of the following criteria: sex, age, socio-professional category, region, and size of town/city.
The survey results are available on request.
[1] Club des Experts de la Sécurité de l’Information et du Numérique (information and digital security experts)]]>
