For remote work, what staff and technologies are needed?

SINCE the Covid-19 crisis, the morning briefings I get mostly start with a negative report—with infection numbers, bankruptcies or fears of recession. Consequently, I always want to write positive messages. Not to distract from the painful consequences of the pandemic, but to widen our eyes. The fact is that a lot is still going well in the Philippines: with committed employees (from home, or coming to the office, somehow), clever researchers and courageous entrepreneurs.

Let’s talk about the “moving” sectors and their needs in terms of technology and people.

As the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed, IT has never played a more integral role than ever the past few months,helpingcompaniestransition their staff to working remotely. Now, IT hiring is on the rise to support a work-from-home (WFH) plan for the rest of 2020, and possibly beyond.

The greatest demand for tech staff right now is in cyber security, general IT support and systems administration, the latter being responsible for supporting and maintaining systems so remote users have full access to their companies’ networks.

In terms of specific verticals, the biggest uptick has been in essential businesses like logistics and companies that serve our food supply chains and consumer packaged goods. Earlier, there was a surge in financial services, especially IT staff, who provided access between systems that connect to market data feeds and trading exchanges, which were not capable of being fully virtual.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) had to be deployed very rapidly to enable financial professionals to continue their normal day-to-day operations. Consequently, there was a big uptick in system administration and support professionals with remote connectivity and VDI implementation (experience) across Vmware and Citrix and common virtualization technologies.

What are the necessary technologies and skills to stay remote?

Zoom, Webex, and Teams remain among the most predominant technologies companies need to ensure a successful WFH model for the rest of 2020, and beyond. Companies are also interested in business software suites like Microsoft 365, Microsoft Excel, Power Bi, data visualization, data science and analysis.

If you have not “absorbed” either of those, you’re going to have to make some pretty significant strides now as demand is strong for people who have experience in the “three buckets:” teleconferencing apps, cloud-native apps, and networking software that allow for reliable VPN connectivity. We already highlighted that in a webinar of Dataone and EITSC, and continue to offer webinars along these “buckets.”

Additionally, the emphasis on soft skills is more important than ever like organizational skills and customer service. Companies want people who are good communicators and who will be proactive—the important “customer first” attitude.

In terms of security that is needed now more than ever, it shouldnothavetakenhigh-profile breaches of personal and identifiable information for companies to wake up and say, “We need to invest more money in it.” People in security leadership have to sell their vision on steps they need to take to systematically ensure systems are safe and companies are protected from threats!

With WFH—IN the city, or in suburbia—going to continue beyond the coronavirus, companies will have to invest more into security infrastructure and in the training of employees on the operational level so that data breaches can be avoided.