Last updated at Wed, 06 Mar 2024 18:46:18 GMT

Anyone involved in hiring security analysts in the last few years is likely painfully aware of the cybersecurity skills shortage – but the talent hasn’t “gone anywhere” so much as it’s been bouncing around all over the place, looking for the highest bidder and most impactful work environment. Particularly since the advent of the pandemic, more highly skilled cybersecurity talent has been able to take advantage of work-from-anywhere opportunities, as well as other factors like work/life balance, the desire to avoid negative office politics – and, of course, potentially higher wages elsewhere.  

Retain where it counts

Money isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. An awful lot. That’s what it may seem like to an experienced analyst who’s been working in the security operations center (SOC) for long hours over years, who doesn’t feel like they can really take time off, and who perhaps has been on LinkedIn of late just to “see what’s out there.” Having casual conversations with a recruiter can quickly turn into a conversation with you, their manager, that begins, “I need to put in my two-week notice.”

There are simply companies out there that will pay more and hire away your talent faster than you can say “onboarding.” You can attempt to shore up some budget to retain talent, but if money isn’t just one prong of a larger mix to keep your best and brightest, they’ll slowly start to join the quiet-quitting club and look elsewhere.

The balance shouldn’t be an act

It’s true that life – especially as we become adults – becomes a delicate balancing act. But for companies pitching a great work/life balance to prospective cybersecurity talent, that pitch needs to be genuine. A 2021 Gartner survey saw 43% of respondents say that flexibility in work hours helped them achieve greater productivity. And if the attempt is to woo talent with longer, more illustrious resumes, that attempt should highlight a meaningful work/life balance that’s able to coexist with the company’s values and mission – not to mention one that fits in well with the team dynamic that talent is entering or helping to build.

After all, you’re asking potential employees to sit in the trenches with their peers, fending off threats from some of the most ruthless attackers and organizations in the world. That can sometimes be a dark place to spend your days. Thus, the pervading environment around that function should be one of positivity, camaraderie, inclusivity, and celebration.

The pandemic took work/life balance to another level, one in which companies were forced to adopt work-from-home measures at least semi-permanently. In that scenario, the employee gained the ability to demand a better balance. And that’s something that can’t be taken away, even in part. Because talent loves a good party – and they can always leave yours.

Burn(out) ban in effect

One of the major reasons talent might decide that the party at your SOC has come to an end? Burnout. Currently, around 71% of SOC analysts say they feel burned out on the job. Reasons for this may have nothing to do with the environment in your SOC shop or greater organization. Burnout could be the result of a seasonal uptick in incident-response activities (end-of-year or holiday retail activities come to mind) or in response to the latest emergent threat. However, it’s good to be vigilant of how talent churn might become a common occurrence and how you can institute a ban on burnout.

  • It takes a team: To build out a fully operational SOC and achieve something close to 24x7 coverage, it takes several people. So, if you’re placing the hopes of round-the-clock coverage on the shoulders of, say, six analysts, they’re likely to burn bright for a short period of time and then leave the party.  
  • The same thing, over and over: Your workday expectations may be music to the ears of prospective talent: 9 to 5, and then you log off and go home. That kind of schedule can be great for work/life balance. But is it pretty much the same thing, every day, year in and year out? Is there a heavy amount of alert fatigue that could be offset by a more efficient solution? Are you leveraging automation to its fullest, so that your SOC doesn’t become full of expert talent spending their days doing mundane tasks?
  • Burnout may come back to bite you: Glassdoor… it’s a thing. And people will talk. Your SOC may have developed a reputation for burnout without you even realizing it. It’s called social media, and you can sink or succeed by it – especially if it isn’t just one former analyst on Glassdoor talking about your security organization in relation to burnout. What if you find out it’s 50 people over the span of five years? Sure, it’s actionable data, but by then it may be too late.

The soul of your SOC

Think about it from their point of view. What do your employees consider a positive work environment? What would constitute a brain-drain culture? Taking proactive measures like sending out a survey and soliciting anonymous responses is an easy way of taking the temperature of the culture.

And if burnout is becoming a real thing, maybe it’s time to think about a managed services partner who can take on some of the more mundane security tasks and free up your in-house talent to innovate.

You can also read our recent ebook, "13 Tips for Overcoming the Cybersecurity Talent Shortage," for a deeper dive into how your organization might take steps to overcome its own cybersecurity skills gap.

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