Scaling for long-term telework success; How agencies can focus on mission, not location

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, just 40% of federal employees and only 4% of state and local employees were authorized to telework. When the almost-overnight move to near-total telework happened, organizations and employees were faced with unfamiliar work environments and the need to revisit priorities.

Shifting a workforce from in-office to majority-telework requires more than just adding new collaboration tools, explained Kelsey Nelson of Okta’s Zero Trust division. “It also means adding on new processes and new styles of work, and having the technical components you need to support and enable your teams.”

The key to managing the shift, Nelson said, is the ability to enable security that is “people-centric rather than network-centric. You need to make sure that the right people have the right level of access to the right resources and in the right context— and to assess it all continually.”