Alternative work model, better known as hybrid work or remote work, is fast becoming essential to every business’ survival and continuity post COVID-19.

The acceptance and sustainability of this model is corroborated by a Microsoft 2022 Work Trend Index Report which found that the new work model is still gaining traction as hybrid employees, representing 51% of the workforce, are considering a switch to remote work, while 57% of remote employees are considering a switch to hybrid working models in the years ahead. 

In Nigeria, the emergence of remote, hybrid, and virtual work models have now become sustainable alternatives to the age-long in-office system. The trend is expected to gain more traction with the current economic realities occasioned by the removal of subsidy on fuel, as more and more employers and employees now see flexible models as the future of work, even though most businesses and lifestyles have returned to pre-pandemic status quo.  

According to a Gallup Survey in June 2022, 8 in 10 people are working hybrid or remote, thus demonstrating the enormous pickup of this flexible workplace approach.

This is further buttressed by FlexJobs.com’s Employee Engagement Report, showing 48% of companies are retaining some form of remote work for their workforce. 26% of survey respondents also opined that their employer would follow a hybrid model, and 22% said they’ll be allowed to work remotely when asked about their company’s post-pandemic workplace plans.

So, whilst employees are keen on remote or hybrid work, institutions worldwide are now realising that positive job output is not dependent on being physically present in the office. 

This paradigm shift to the new ways of work is again attested to by the ‘Africa: willingness to remote work by country 2020’ published by Statista earlier this year.

The study reveals that 74% of Nigeria’s working population who participated in the survey would work remotely for an employer with no physical presence in their country. Interestingly, same goes for other employees across Africa, with Benin Republic at 82%, and Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire – each at 80%. In South Africa, 73% of the respondents were of the same opinion. 

The public sector is not left out in this work shift as states like Edo, Kwara, and Kaduna have in addition to providing interventions to cushion the biting effects of the hike in cost of living hinged on increasing petrol prices, have declared flexible work models of three and four working days in a week for staff. The implication here is business continuity. Simple! Regardless, this can only be made possible with good deployment and application of digi-tech devices for seamless output.  

At HP, this flexible work model typifies the way to work now. With a vision to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere, HP is deepening the flexible work concept for more optimized productivity. All that is needed on the part of employees to make it work is to find a balance with working offsite full-time, while still maintaining and building relationships with customers, partners, teams, and ultimately, family. This is most significant, just as communication is important to keep relationships growing regardless of today’s realities which are now virtual.  

So, in essence, technology has a huge role to play in the way we work going forward. It’s now a Zoom or Teams world. With an HP laptop, Poly headphones, a portable bouquet of flowers, sticky notes, and a clean and modest looking table – all preforming sundry critical functions for a fit-to-purpose and tranquil workspace, you are up for a new normal of work productivity. 

Important hybrid work tips 

First, due to the high number of virtual meetings, it is vital to make sure your meetings are short, fruitful and engaging. You must ensure you have an agenda that is simple and brief. Even more important, one must be attentive and meticulous if you’re to achieve your set objectives.  

Secondly, hybrid work employees also have to find ways to balance their home-office routines. For instance, my HP Elite Dragonfly is as much a companion to me in my home workspace, traditional office space as well as on my trips to partners or customers in the busy Lagos traffic. In my morning exercise routine, our Poly headphones seamlessly connect to my device and sync up with my favourite playlist, which also enables me to make and receive critical work calls as necessary.

This way I am able to work and take care of my body simultaneously thus improving my mental well-being. In addition to this, it is equally important to go outdoors and take in the scenery, weather permitting, as this helps put you in the right frame of mind. This really helps than sitting at home all day.  

Finally, find something that makes you happy or gets you inspired. For some, it is a picture frame of their kids, wife, husband or family – a constant reminder of why we do what we do every day. For others, Asake’s ‘Lonely at the top’ or a tune or two from Burnaboy’s or Wizkid’s eclectic collections will get their inspiration juices flowing. For some still, it could be watching the sun rise every day to reset or refresh their mindset.  

Whatever it is, the fact is that the future of work is hybrid, and it is here to stay. We just have to find the best way to make it work for organisations, as employers and as employees.  

The post From Office-Centric to Hybrid: Transforming Work in the Modern Era appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Firstly, it is a thriving business. For instance, according to the FBI, there was a 207% increase in in reported case of cybercrime reports between 2008 and 2021, and almost $7 billion (₦3,223,080,000,000) in losses last year. In Nigeria, the peril of cybercrimes recorded a massive rise in the first six months of 2022, “with phishing and scams hitting 174%”.

According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) well over 2,800 persons were convicted of cybercrimes in the country last year, and the Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEI) has projected a $6 trillion loss by 2030 to cybercrime within and outside Nigeria.

Secondly, it has no entry requirement – yes, it is that easy and, quite cheap. Imagine this – the typical cost of compromised remote access credentials costs about ₦2,302 and can simply be bought on the dark web. Cyber crooks use these passes to access their prey’s enterprise networks.

A report, The Evolution of Cybercrime, showed that 75% of advertisements for malware and 91% for exploits  costs less than ₦4,604.40. Some years ago, it was much more expensive. For instance, as of 2009, cybercriminals paid well over ₦3.6 million for a standard malware kit.

Worse still, it has become increasingly easier than ever before for these hackers to work together in a specialized and concerted secretive supply chain.

They have built fortes, proposing unique services like hiring of huge botnets to convey a customer’s preferred malware to thousands of targets, or hackers-for-hire who take full advantage of the destruction caused by ransomware – spreading an invasion of weak points in a network.

The result of all these is that workers in scattered workplaces around the globe are now in more danger than ever before.

The unclear distinction between private and work devices means that hybrid staff are not always shielded by enterprise defenses, thus the risk of attacks is always there.

But there is a way out, and it lies with the employees who are usually the first line of defense, and they must work together. With computer crime now a part of how we do business, and growing, the only way to beat criminals is collaborating with one another to defend ourselves.

Knowing your enemies’ strategy 

Hackers the world over betray trust in daily interfaces and exchanges online, mostly via emails, to gain access to systems. It is a known fact that email remains the most common means for hackers to secure illegal access to networks, and once they are in, they try to monetize their access—deactivating the group’s backups, stealing delicate information, and installing ransomware.

The effect of such violation can be grievous, leading to operational interruption, repairs, affect an organisation’s name, and lead to exposure of trade secrets and loss of intellectual property.

As a result, corporate groups and their employees must work together to fortify their lines in this highly increasing risky atmosphere.

Setting up your protective line  

First, all employees must be conscious of the methods of hackers and promptly report any suspicious behaviour. They must also understand their respective roles in the defense of their organisation’s cyber systems.

The employers, on their part, must back these endeavors by inspiring a positive security culture where employees are given clear instructions to be watchful for phishing and IP protection, ask for help, collaborate on ways to advance cyber safety, and teach coworkers and family members.

As a group, companies and organisations should place emphasis on understanding the basics, constantly working on their resilience, and acting as a team to lessen their risk of exposure.

Quality security begins with IT asset detection – you can only protect the devices, software and systems being used by your workers. The next thing is to adhere to best practices in susceptibility management and multidimensional authentication, while putting in place the personnel, procedures, and know-how to spot, thwart, and recover from likely attacks.

This entails anticipating and planning for the most unpleasant of scenarios, executing procedures to reduce supply chain and insider risks, and rehearsing your response. Such rehearsal drills are not only important in getting you ready for the real attacks when they come, but also helps to expose hitherto unknown problems and inspire process improvements.

An organisation can also exploit the advantages of its security investments by closing known common attack routes, especially malware sent via email and the web, which can be nullified using prevention technologies like the hardware-enforced isolation of HP Sure Click Enterprise.

Such solutions help protect systems not by detecting malicious activity, but by allowing staffs to undertake normal daily routines, including risky undertakings like opening of email attachments safely and shielding IT departments against unidentified threats.

Collaborating with industry peers 

Cybersecurity is a collaborative endeavor. Organisations can confidently strengthen the kind of actions and habits they will like their staff to adopt by vigorous and regular awareness sessions and exercises tailored to their needs. A good example is HP’s recently released noir–inspired cybersecurity training film for its employees.

This will help the organisation build a security culture, with staff encouraged to individually manage risks.

It must be pointed out too that these collaborations should not only be internal (within organisations), but also with other players in the industry. Such external cooperation, including sharing of threat intel, will help the organisation to gauge its cyber security strength and performance, equip it with current information on cybercrime trends and risks, and how best to stay ahead of cybercriminals in the current year, and in years to come.

Emmanuel Asika is the Country Head, HP Nigeria 

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Brands all over the world have a big problem on their hands – dealing with the ugly menace of counterfeit products that are continually flooding the marketplace which are undermining original equipment manufacturers’ (OEM) products.

The activities of these criminals, worsening by the day, undeniably affect the revenue of brands. But more worrisome for these brands, is the issue of lost consumer trust. In instances, they have been misled into believing that they were buying the original product, only for the product to break down or develop a fault sooner than expected.

In Nigeria, for instance, counterfeiting remains a concern for brands, especially for those in the pharmaceutical industry, with 13% – 15% of drugs in the country said to be fake, according to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

As of January 2022, the prevalence rate of fake drugs was reportedly higher than the global average of 10% and contributes to a sizable number of deaths annually.

In one report, NAFDAC’s director of investigation and enforcement directorate, Kingsley Ejiofor, stated that the agency had seized 2 trillion-naira ($4.8 billion) worth of counterfeit drugs in the past three years.

Aside from pharmaceutical products, other prominent counterfeit items found in Nigeria are: food items, footwear, clothing, leather goods, automotive parts, optical media (CDs and DVDs), cosmetics, alcohol, and jewellery.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also shifted the landscape somewhat, with a greater number of people resorting to online shopping. Unfortunately, as brands embraced e-commerce, so did criminals.

Today, e-commerce platforms offer criminals the anonymity they need to sell products which they present as genuine goods.

Where face-to-face retail offers consumers the opportunity to identify fake products at the point of sale, making those selling the products, liable for the products they sell. With online sales, it becomes easy for illegitimate products to be passed off as original goods to global markets.

As a result, brands like HP, renowned for producing print cartridges for customers around the world, must act fast to stop the spread of fake goods universally, both online and offline.

The biggest profit margins for these crooks lie in the commercial market, but they have also been targeting the consumer market.

Understanding that consumers like a discount, something that is even more true with the rising cost of living, drives customers to look for cheaper deals. In the end, most of these consumers are tricked into buying counterfeits they thought were genuine.

E-commerce requires new tactics

At HP, our strategy for investigating fake products usually entails looking at the entire commercial and retail supply chain, beginning from physical locations to online platforms. This allows us to be able to trace from stores to a distributor, and upwards to the producer.

This strategy tactic has proven beneficial as we saw that between November 2020 and October 2021, HP seized 3.5 million fake print products, including completed goods and component parts, circulating in several regions including in EMEA, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

The growth of e-commerce means that we will need a wider set of tools, tactics and allies. A great percentage of fake-print products are traded in online marketplaces, and HP has been liaising with these platforms and other third-party groups to help spot counterfeit goods, confiscate them, and find their source.

For instance, HP usually carries out virtual Customer Delivery Inspections (CDIs) and Channel Partner Protection Audits (CPPAs). In FY21 alone, we conducted 1,191 CPPAs, representing an 11% increase on FY20.

These virtual checks and reviews have helped the HP Anti-Counterfeit and Fraud (ACF) team in finding and delisting over 224,000 illegitimate HP online offers globally; and we are doubling down, increasing the number of online delisting’s by 19% every year.

Additionally, HP continues to use dynamic security, which ensures chips within our products are kept updated with information that helps customers verify our product’s authenticity.

Why it is important

The anti-counterfeit war requires collaboration with several parties and joint efforts prove to be very effective. Recently, there has been stronger calls for collaboration amongst relevant stakeholders across all supply chains, to join the fight against counterfeit products in Nigeria.

Indeed, it is in everyone’s best interest to stop the use of counterfeit print products. For instance, HP printers work at their optimal levels when genuine print products are used rather than fake ones.

There are however bigger concerns – where fraudulent businesses are not concerned about the working conditions and welfare of their workers. Patronising genuine goods is an important way of supporting fair working conditions for workers around the world.

Buying original products also shows one’s commitment to protecting the environment. HP has created over 3.9 billion original HP ink and toner cartridges mainly from recycled plastic.

Currently, more than 80% of Original HP ink cartridges and 100% of Original HP toner cartridges are made with recycled content.

With the HP Planet Partners, HP’s return and recycling programme, the company has recycled more than 875 million cartridges since the programme began nearly 30 years ago, with expansion to 68 countries around the globe.

Patronising genuine products encourages these kinds of efforts and increases the number of sustainable cartridges in circulation.

For us at HP, we are encouraged and remain committed to halt the manufacturing of counterfeit products at source. We are also on a drive to educate consumers, the main victim in all this, about the need to report any fake products they come across.

It is a collective responsibility that involves all, from manufacturers all the way to the consumers themselves – to discourage the cycle of counterfeit goods and manipulative criminal activities.

We encourage all HP customers to always look out for the holographic security label on their product box, scan the QR code to check if it’s a genuine or not– and report if it’s a counterfeit.

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