Data backup frequency may represent a new measure of employee engagement, according to research released today from data resilience and governance leader CrashPlan. CrashPlan’s 2024 Work Trend Security Report, based on a survey of over 2,300 U.S. workers, revealed that respondents who said they always back up their work data reported the highest levels of employee satisfaction and engagement. Those reporting the lowest levels of employee engagement were also most likely to admit to a range of risky data security practices.
The research showed stark differences in employee engagement levels between workers who said they always back up data on their dedicated work devices compared with those who admitted they never back up:
The least engaged respondents – those who agreed with none of these positive statements – admitted they backed up their work least frequently, were least likely to see files and data backup as their personal responsibility, and were least concerned about data loss. These unengaged workers spent the least time moving data files and were least likely to save their files within mandated folders on dedicated enterprise file servers.
Across respondents, when asked about their top security concern, losing important files and intellectual property was by far the top worry (47%), compared to business interruption (27%) and data exposure (26%). Despite this, more than half (52%) of respondents admitted that they don’t always back up data on their dedicated work devices.
“Poor backup practices may very well be among the first signs of an unhappy employee,” said Todd Thorsen, Chief Information Security Officer for CrashPlan. “It certainly says something about an employee’s level of commitment when they are no longer concerned about preserving their own work. It’s also a reminder that poor employee engagement doesn’t just diminish performance – unengaged employees pose a real data protection challenge.”
Idea Workers are more engaged at work, care more about backup
By contrast, the Work Trend Security report also uncovered differences in behavior among an emerging group of workers who are more engaged at work and who care more about protecting their data than others, but encounter more challenges in backing up their work. “Idea Workers,” whose roles center on creating new ideas that become valuable intellectual property, include architects, attorneys, designers, data scientists, professors, programmers, researchers, and video production professionals, writers and others.
Idea Workers are more likely to express pride about working at their organizations, more often energized by their work, and even work overtime more often. They also more regularly backup their data.
- 78% of Idea Workers said their work directly generates revenue for their organizations
- 64% of Idea Workers worked overtime or outside normal business hours in the previous month, 25% more often than other workers
- Idea Workers were 25% more likely than others to say they are proud to work at their organization
- Idea Workers were 15% more likely to say they are energized by their work
- Idea Workers were 8% more likely to say they always back up their data
However, Idea Workers also face greater data protection challenges. They work with larger files than others and their data is more distributed. As a result, Idea Workers find backing up their work data more difficult than other workers. Most backup solutions don’t meet their more complex data needs, creating an ever-widening backup gap within enterprises.
- 59% of organizations don’t provide Idea Workers with clear policies to ensure their data is backed up
- 55% of organizations don’t provide Idea Workers with tools to ensure their data is backed up
- Idea Workers are 78% more likely than others to spend three hours or more each day uploading, downloading and moving files and data
- Idea Workers are 46% more likely to deal with very large files (100GB or more)
- Idea Workers are 31% more likely to save work data on a personal computer or other computer that their organization didn’t issue them
- Idea Workers are 28% more likely to spend a long time waiting for file backups to complete
- Idea Workers are 19% more likely to say their employer makes backing up work data very difficult.
“Idea Workers are the growth and innovation engine for many organizations,” added Thorsen. “It’s crucial that businesses understand the unique data resilience challenges Idea Workers face and take proactive steps to protect their valuable data and intellectual property.”