How to Improve Cybersecurity Staff Retention
The cybersecurity industry has been struggling with talent retention for years now. The need for niche skills, combined with a talent shortage, makes for the perfect storm of overworked employees.
As companies cannot acquire the workforce needed to maintain their security posture, they are forced to rely heavily on the security analysts they do have. Consequently, these analysts are overworked, leading to alert fatigue, burnout, and eventually - causing them to leave their roles.
The current pressure on security analysts is creating a cycle of dissatisfied employees, deepening the talent shortage. And, as there is no shortage of demand for security analysts, employees have the power to leave for other opportunities as they wish - leaving companies grappling to retain their employees.
To help organizations combat the talent retention crisis, we've created a list of best practices to improve job satisfaction for security analysts, thus improving talent retention. While reading, keep an eye out for one thing these tips and tricks all have in common.
Workload Relief
The most significant contributors to security analysts leaving their jobs are alert fatigue and burnout. Most analysts are on call 24/7/365, leaving them little time to step away from their role. When working, security analysts are surrounded by the constant noise of alerts, upwards of 11,000 per day. With little to no breaks and constant alarms sounding, it's no wonder that security analysts are experiencing burnout.
For this reason, one of the best ways to improve talent retention in security analysts is to ease their workload. By assisting security analysts in some of their tasks, organizations can give analysts hours back of their time - time that can be spent focusing on projects that improve security posture.
So, how do you relieve their workload without onboarding additional analysts? AI. AI-Assisted Cybersecurity solutions such as Arcanna.ai use deep learning (DL) and natural language processing (NLP) to continuously learn from existing cybersecurity experts and scale the SecOps capacity to handle incoming cybersecurity threats. With a lighter workload and more time on their hands, security analysts will feel much greater job satisfaction and be more inclined to stick around.
Improve Work/Life Balance
As mentioned, security analysts are often on call 24/7/365. With a limited staff due to the talent shortage, this means that a handful of analysts are consistently working, which means less time at home - spending time with family, exercising, or simply relaxing. If analysts have no time to do anything but work, they're likely to quit.
Fortunately, when you relieve analysts' workload, you can help them improve their work/life balance. Just as AI-Assisted Cybersecurity provides analysts the time to work on more strategic projects, it also allows them to clock out of work on time.
As the solution leverages analysts’ knowledge, it is able to use this information to assist in decision-making and automate post-decision tasks. As a result, workloads can be addressed faster, even when analyst intervention is required.
With an improved work/life balance, security analysts will be refreshed and more excited to come to work each day. And, with overall happier employees, organizations will face less turnover and likely better performance.
Offer Opportunities for Growth and Upskilling
Another issue that many security analysts face is a lack of growth opportunities. Because organizations rely so heavily on the few analysts they have, these analysts often become vital performers. While this may seem like a positive, employees who are eligible for a promotion can't be promoted, as there would be no one to replace them in their current role due to the cybersecurity skills gap.
Consequently, this analyst is left doing the work of several people without a promotion to reward them for their efforts. This phenomenon occurs for many security analysts, leaving them feeling undervalued and overworked.
Plus, with so much of their time occupied, analysts have little time to develop their skills or learn new ones. Even if a promotion were available, most analysts don't have the time to acquire the skills necessary to be eligible. Many analysts feel stuck and dissatisfied with their role without the opportunity for growth or something to strive for. Sadly, this often results in the loss of this team member altogether - so companies should embrace the internal growth of their employees, not squander it.
That said, many organizations want to help their analysts grow, but they don't have the time to do so. Fortunately, AI-Assisted Cybersecurity can provide this. With AI-Assisted Cybersecurity, analysts can get back the time and capacity needed to upskill and improve security posture. Companies can empower their analysts and open them up to new growth opportunities with this newfound capacity.
With the opportunity to grow internally, employees are more likely to stay within the organization and even be more productive - improving talent retention and performance.
Achieve These with AI
Did you notice the common denominator between each of these tips? AI-Assisted Cybersecurity serves security analysts, assisting them in decision-making, SOAR playbook actions, automating post-decision tasks, and countless other essential yet time-consuming activities.
With Arcanna.ai, our AI-Assisted Cybersecurity solution, security analysts can scale their capacity to regain the time needed for professional development, strategic projects, and a better work/life balance. Our solution can alleviate security analysts' overbearing workloads by accelerating security processes, opening them up to a world of possibilities.
With more time on their hands, security analysts will perform better in their roles and experience greater job satisfaction - making them more inclined to stay with their company and help it flourish.
