How Challenges with Hiring and Retaining Employees May Put Your Business at Harm

Right now, our nation’s businesses are struggling with hiring good candidates and retaining them. With positions going unfilled and high turnover rates, it can put your business at risk for compliance and security issues. 

Top Hiring Challenges

The Great Resignation started in 2020 during the height of the pandemic and has steadily continued with 4.3 million people resigning from their current positions in January 2022. The shocking part is that the hiring rate is HIGHER than the resignation rate. This means employees aren’t leaving the workforce entirely, but instead moving to another position. Thus, making hiring even more competitive, especially for small to medium sized businesses. 

The average employee’s needs are changing. They want more money and many employers have low wages. They also want a company that allows:

• Flexibility
• More benefits
• Remote work

In fact, 55% of candidates on ZipRecruiter want a job where they can work from home due to safety concerns at the office and family needs. 

The pandemic has forever changed the way some businesses operate which is causing workers to refuse employment or resign quickly. Some organizations have fewer employees. Therefore, workers are required to take on more responsibilities and longer hours, like the situation at Twitter. Others are cutting corners when it comes to their products or services as they’ve had to learn to operate with less manpower. 

The Security and Compliance Risks

Regardless of the hiring crisis, hackers continue to attack vulnerable businesses and regulatory entities place more demands when it comes to compliance. Businesses must have reliable IT support, compliance and security professionals to remain compliant and keep cyber criminals at bay. 

Not only does an understaffed IT department pose a huge risk, but a high turnover rate throughout the entire company may leave it exposed to rogue employees. Without proper procedures and someone to manage it, employees who have been fired or resigned may still have access to company credentials and sensitive data. 

Another major concern is cybersecurity training. Typically when the workload becomes too much, one of the first things to go is training. Cybersecurity training is critical for everyone in the entire company as it keeps them alert and able to identify threats. 

Support Alternatives

Businesses simply cannot ignore the need for an advanced, multi-layer cybersecurity and compliance strategy. This has become increasingly more difficult to implement due to the inability of organizations to hire and retain star talent within the IT department. There’s a few options organizations have…

#1: They can continue to try and hire an internal team. With that, may come more responsibility for leaders in the organization as they must retain and effectively manage this department. If they’re not an expert in security or compliance, it is difficult to determine whether or not the internal IT team is doing everything they should.

#2: They can Implement a co-managed approach where an internal IT person works with an outsourced company to balance the workload. Not only does it offload items from the employee, but it instills the proper checks and balances every organization needs to be successful in their cybersecurity and compliance strategy.

#3: They can outsource all of their IT, security and compliance needs to an experienced technology firm. This all-in-one approach lifts the burden of business owners and executives. 

Let’s Talk About Your Options…

If you’re struggling to recruit and retain star talent in your IT department, we can help! We have a variety of options to meet your organization’s exact needs!

Book a time on Phillip’s calendar below to discuss your current cybersecurity and compliance strategy.