The typical workspace has changed. Instead of commuting into a shared office space to conduct work, any individual who can complete their work on a computer is likely at home, either full-time or as part of a new hybrid workplace model.
For the majority of employees, the move to work-from-home is a welcome change, allowing for less time on the road, less cost associated with transportation and greater work-life balance. In fact, about 80% of workers who recently were moved to a work-from-home model report preferring it over going into the office every day. Employers also win, as they are no longer burdened with renting office space or frequently purchasing office materials and equipment.
While the shift to remote work may be positive for the majority of North American office workers and employers, the amount of office equipment left sitting stagnant, becoming obsolete or being phased out completely as offices close permanently leave a data and environmental risk that the majority of organizations are not prepared for.
Managing Devices
Alongside the growing collection of old and unused electronic devices within abandoned office spaces, employees now have to take equipment upgrades into their own hands. To fit their new space, it is likely that employees are upgrading their home devices or purchasing new technology for the first time if office equipment cannot be taken home.
This leads to the ongoing concern of whether employees are effectively managing their old devices, both in terms of proper recycling and conducting complete secure data destruction before disposal.
As office managers and executives clear out old offices, large, cumbersome desktop computers are being thrown away. If assets are not being sustainability processed by a certified electronic recycling provider, this creates significant environmental risk due to harmful materials, including lead, cadmium, mercury and various plastics that leach into soil and waterways. This also leads to a loss of valuable parts that could be harvested and incorporated into the circular economy to produce new electronic products.
Finally, the loss of these devices into recycling bins also begs the question of whether management is ensuring sufficient data destruction before computers are disposed of. By not properly destroying devices and the information contained within them, highly critical data is left exposed and can have significant consequences for staff, the organization and customers, especially if legal action were to occur in response to this negligence.
Ultimately, office management, as well as employees at home, are not properly educated or prepared for this move to work-from-home, in terms of how to properly manage obsolete electronic devices.
The time to act is now and effective responses to this growing problem must be swift. Office managers, IT teams and organizational executives need to be aware of the impact they have on both the environment and society’s data security. Taking responsibility for this growing issue also means companies need to be prepared to design an official device disposal process that all staff members are required to follow.
Educating staff is also a crucial step, to ensure employees understand the steps they need to take in recycling their products before upgrading to a new device. Providing employees with step-by-step guides on how old devices can be efficiently wiped of data before disposal is key to effectively reducing environmental and data risks.
How to Align Priorities
Ultimately, taking on a project such as this can be extremely overwhelming for both leadership and IT teams. Organizations need to align their IT management princesses with a certified organization that can manage the secure collection of devices, shred or wipe data and disposes of devices in a manner that allows parts to be reused in the production of new devices and ensures harmful chemicals and materials do not go back into the environment.
While the move to work-from-home may seem like a simple and cost-effective move for organizations on a global scale, there is a larger issue looming on the horizon. Now is the time for businesses of all industries to take inventory of their current IT assets and ensure an effective decision is made regarding how to store, destroy and/or support their employees in the management of their tech moving forward.
The onus cannot be on workers to manage this all on their own. With greater education for employers to better support their staff, both potential data security breaches and catastrophic environmental damage can be mitigated for the future.
