The global pandemic accelerated remote work and the digital transformation of how work gets done. Remote work trends of 2020 impacted almost everyone, forcing IT professionals to scale and flex their support infrastructure as most of the workforce shifted to working from anywhere but the office. Today, work has become even more complex because of RTO (return to office) plans and the emergence of hybrid work, which blends remote work and in-office work.

Remote work trends for 2021 highlight the need for IT support to adapt quickly to working from anywhere, home, the office or hybrid. Will working from home become the norm in 2021? Working remotely statistics offer a mixed response. Only 34% of employees expect to be fully remote post-pandemic (according to NBC), while just 10% of workers expect to return to the office full-time (according to Reuters). That leaves the vast majority of employees, nearly 2 out of 3 (according to NBC) expecting to work within a blended, hybrid work model that involves at least some level of remote work.

Goals for IT Support Remain the Same, Wherever Work Happens

IT support professionals face big challenges in supporting location-agnostic approaches to work, as they simultaneously seek to drive key strategic goals, including:

• Supporting employees and their productivity however and wherever work happens (on corporate and personal devices) including remotely, in the office and in hybrid scenarios
• Ensuring security of apps and data at a time of unprecedented vulnerability and fast-evolving cyberthreats
• Connecting workers with the right tools that support collaboration and productivity in location-agnostic work environments
• Managing budgets, streamlining work-related processes, integrating systems, and consolidating platforms/vendors to drive operational and cost efficiency
• Planning for the future but maintaining operational agility amid evolving, unpredictable conditions (i.e., remaining future-proof)

Built for Supporting Location-Agnostic Work Productivity

How many people work from home now, and how many might work remotely a year from now? Nobody can say for certain since it depends on many factors, such as public health concerns, evolving employee expectations, business regulations, the competitive landscape, family obligations at home, the desire for work-life integration, company policies, and much more. But all signs point to a more permanent blend of remote and in-office work.

Today, where work happens isn’t as important as how work happens. What this means is that IT support must be adaptable enough to navigate multiple work environments – remote, in-office and hybrid. This future-proof agility and “location-agnosticism” is exactly what Rescue solutions are built for. Our solutions are the connective tissue for supporting however work gets done, offering flexible support tools that are purpose-built to address evolving organizational needs.

3 Perennial Needs in all Work Environments

In order to support the present and future of work, here are three key considerations for any remote support solution you adopt.

1. Supporting business continuity is IT’s most important function. If an individual is having problems with their computer or mobile device, they need support fast to get up and running again. Rescue offers different ways to connect employees and your help desk into a remote support session. The best part is you decide which connection method, such as employee initiated or technician initiated, is best suited for each support interaction.
2. Safeguarding remote support sessions and data from malicious actors is essential for reducing the risk of business disruption and potential liability for data/privacy breaches. With the increase in distributed work and BYOD, endpoints are more vulnerable than ever, with mobile cyberattacks growing. Be sure you can prevent malicious actors from gaining access to your support tool.
3. Ensuring flexibility across IT environments is needed now more than ever. We’ve learned that organizations need to be ready for anything. As organizations grow and change, IT needs to be able to scale its remote support capabilities in an instant to support more employees, devices and environments as needed.

Future-Proofing IT Infrastructure & Support

Whatever the future of work might bring (at the beginning of 2020, for example, nobody could have anticipated that a pandemic would strike and radically impact workers globally), you’re going to need flexible IT support tools to navigate contexts of uncertainty to support it. 

Our easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy, cloud-based software, including tools such as Rescue remote support and Rescue Live Lens camera-sharing, empowers your IT support professionals and your end users with a location-agnostic support solutions to deliver business value no matter where work happens.

Is your IT support infrastructure set up for success today and tomorrow? See how Rescue can support you as you support employees and your organization’s strategic goals.