IT Help or Therapist? Survey Finds IT Workers Providing Emotional Support Amid Cybersecurity Issues
In an eye-opening survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of LogMeIn Rescue (a GoTo product), it was revealed that three out of five IT workers frequently provide emotional support to users when they encounter cybersecurity issues. The study, which included 2,000 employees and IT workers in the US, shed light on some of the most common accidents and mishaps experienced by employees with their work computers. Surprisingly, spillages like coffee or water (63%) and alcohol (63%), as well as accidental drops (45%) and falling for phishing attempts (37%) topped the list.
As a result of these incidents, 59% of IT workers find themselves having to constantly calm down users so they can effectively explain what happened. However, despite the increasing prevalence of cybersecurity threats, a staggering 79% of IT workers have a high level of trust in their organization’s users’ ability to identify and prevent these threats. Likewise, 81% of employees believe their IT team is well-prepared to handle cybersecurity issues whenever they arise.
Regular cybersecurity education plays a significant role in fostering this mutual trust. The study found that 40% of IT respondents require monthly training, with an additional 25% offering it quarterly. However, despite this readiness, a significant number of employees still hesitate to reach out to IT for assistance. A whopping 94% admitted to delaying contacting IT, resorting to their own basic troubleshooting (62%) or feeling too embarrassed to admit their mistake (52%).
The survey also uncovered common reasons employees contact their IT support team, including being locked out of their email or computer (60%), phishing attempts (48%), and internet issues (46%). Interestingly, IT workers reported that in over 60% of troubleshooting situations, they rely on remote support or remote access tools to resolve user issues. Among the most frequently encountered problems, IT workers cited email and computer lockouts (54%), forgotten passwords (41%), and complex in-house software issues (30%).
The study further highlighted that 48% of employees have witnessed phishing attempts, while 39% have had to seek IT assistance for virus or malware issues on their computers. On the flip side, the majority of employees find their IT department helpful (84%) and believe that their IT team makes resolving tech-related issues easy (76%). They also perceive their IT team as fast in fixing issues, with 31% reporting a response time of within an hour.
IT workers revealed that they typically resolve raised tickets within an hour (22%) or by the end of the workday (42%). Communication channels with the IT department vary, with employees commonly reaching out through direct messaging (70%), phone calls (49%), emails (45%), or physically visiting the department (40%).
Attila Törok, CISO at GoTo, emphasized the crucial partnership between employees and IT departments, highlighting the necessity to understand and effectively work together. Törok stressed the importance of investing in a strong IT infrastructure while fostering positive relationships with the IT team to solve problems efficiently and avoid disruptive incidents.
The survey concluded with the top 10 reasons employees delay contacting IT, including attempting their own troubleshooting (62%), embarrassment (52%), the need to determine if the issue is replicable or a one-off glitch (40%), doubts about IT’s helpfulness (39%), uncertainty about how to reach IT (38%), hoping the problem resolves itself (38%), failure to follow IT guidelines (37%), a busy schedule (32%), low priority (24%), and attempting self-solution (22%).
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