Hybrid work has become the new norm across almost every industry, including financial services. As employees put more value in flexible work options for a better work-life balance, more and more companies in the financial sector have invested in hybrid options for employees. This has become essential for a large number of companies, as a survey of financial services executives from Deloitte found that the top three benefits of remote work were time and money saved commuting, comfort and convenience of remote work, and flexibility to structure daily tasks as needed. In addition, 92 percent of respondents in the same survey reported a high engagement level at work, which could be in part tied to their current hybrid work schedule.

However, hybrid work situations introduce new risks for IT, like expanding attack surfaces. Building a flexible and secure hybrid work environment for employees and third party contractors will allow financial organizations to enable hybrid work for more employees, better control access to applications and data, and help attract and retain top talent through a better employee experience. 

Enable hybrid work

Not all of your employees are in the office all the time. Relationship managers, personal bankers, and roaming branch staff need secure access to applications and data while traveling to meet clients or working at a different location than their local office. These employees might also need to access resources on a variety of devices, including laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, making endpoint device security essential. 

With Citrix, you can implement Zero Trust access and securely deliver applications, desktops, and data anywhere, on any device. This means that employees and contractors have one place to go to access all of the different resources they need to do their work. In addition, contextual security means that Citrix can dynamically adapt the security posture based on the context of the user – how are they connecting and from what type of device.  With Citrix HDX technology, you can deliver high definition images, video, and sound to employees anywhere. Citrix supports the broadest array of peripherals too, so your employees can access the resources they need from any device. 

Control access to applications and data

Most financial organizations will have third party contractors that need access to customer data. However, granting third party access to that sensitive data is risky, as some applications contain more data than a particular user needs, and navigating access to those applications becomes complicated. Restrict that access too much and your third party contractors will have trouble helping customers, increasing wait times for support and leading to frustrated customers. 

Citrix offers solutions for least privilege access for third parties, to ensure contractors have access to only the data they need to help your customers. This solution helps protect your customer data privacy and security by granting access to preselected groups of resources. You can also simplify onboarding and offboarding with this solution, by instantly granting and revoking access to resources. Citrix can even secure your data on unmanaged devices, enabling third party contractors to access your resources from their devices, without leaving a trace of data on the endpoint. Your organization can then save money through allowing contractors to bring their own devices, rather than having to supply them with corporate managed devices, all without compromising on client privacy. 

Improving the employee experience 

According to a Buffer survey, a staggering 98% of respondents would like to work remotely at least some of the time. When organizations aren’t limited by location, hybrid work allows organizations access to a wider talent pool. During a time of increasing difficulty in attracting and retaining employees in financial services, implementing a hybrid work model can make all the difference in the competition for top talent. More employees want a better work-life balance, and flexible work delivers. 

Citrix helps enhance your employee experience by delivering high definition experiences anywhere, on any device, so your employees can work from anywhere, improving work life balance without compromising on customer satisfaction. Hybrid work can also improve your organization’s bottom line, through improved productivity, cost savings, and a reduction in absenteeism. According to a 2023 report by IWG, 79% of workers said they’ve been more productive since switching to hybrid work. 

By increasing flexibility for your employees, you’ll be more likely to retain talent, broaden your talent pool and ensure the long term success of your business. You won’t have to compromise on security either, as secure access is built into Citrix flexible work solutions.

Citrix for financial services

Financial services organizations face profound industry changes driven by evolving customer expectations, emerging technology, and new digital challenges. Powering hybrid work solutions is just one of the ways Citrix technology helps financial organizations build better digital solutions. Our enterprise-grade solutions are purpose built to support secure access and remote work for everyone in your organization. Learn more about how in addition to improving the employee experience, Citrix can help you modernize your enterprise technology and secure your applications and data in our Modernizing Financial Services with Citrix e-book.