It’s been just over three years since a newly discovered virus with a strange name spread panic and fear around the planet.

Organizations that had long resisted remote work over productivity fears suddenly found themselves embracing tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Slack out of panic-driven necessity.

Now that the World Health Organization has reclassified COVID-19 as an ongoing health issue – and it is no longer a public health emergency – IT leaders have some breathing room to review their remote work experiences and strengthen their hybrid work roadmap. In other words, it’s time to refocus on collaboration – and collaboration apps. 

Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic sent millions of knowledge workers home, employers are gradually reopening their offices and carefully filling long-empty cubicles and meeting rooms.

But they’re returning to a permanently changed workplace. Straight-up return-to-office (RTO) is out. Hybrid work styles encompassing varying degrees of in-office and remote work are in. The strategy of choice is increasingly just that, choice, and employees are demanding the ability to choose the locations and work arrangements that make the most sense for them.

And as you’ve likely guessed by now, some organizations get the hybrid thing right. Others, not so much. 

We already know the COVID-19 pandemic has rewritten the rules around where work gets done, and how; but there is a frightening cybersecurity angle to COVID-19 that most organizations fail to recognize.