In March of 2022 alone, 4.5 million workers left their jobs. Pandemic cases and restrictions may have eased, but the changes to the workforce’s expectations seem to be much longer-lived.

The causes of Great Resignation are, no doubt, complex. And there are likely no easy fixes to the problems of recruitment and employee retention in today’s chaotic labor market. That said, there are steps that business leaders can take to make their organizations more attractive—and their positions more fulfilling—to current and prospective employees. And technology may be an important part of the answer.

It’s time for business leaders to start planning to implement another, more advanced, layer of tools to protect their assets from cyberattack. Why?

• It is estimated that 43% of cyberattacks are targeted at small and mid-sized businesses.

• At the same time, only 14% of SMBs are prepared to defend themselves.

It’s an unfortunate fact that SMBs are often easy targets for cyber criminals. Many assume they can fly under the radar of hackers and ransomware. And, until recently, advanced security tools and methodologies were out of reach for those in the SMB space.

Thankfully, the tide is turning. With the right approach SMBs can now protect themselves effectively from a wide array of attacks. And one crucial layer of protection is advanced cyber security tools meant to detect intrusions and threats before they cause damage.

As a managed IT services provider (MSP), Affinity is not in the business of selling insurance. And, at the same time, we find ourselves increasingly recommending that small and mid-sized businesses in every industry consider cyber insurance as part of a comprehensive cyber security strategy. Why? Because, unfortunately, cybercrime is a booming business, and small and mid-sized businesses are increasingly a target.

This year, Microsoft is making significant changes to the pricing and licensing structure of widely-used business software and cloud services, including its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 lines of products. They’ve dubbed it the “New Commerce Experience,” or NCE for short.

As with all things Microsoft licensing, the new model isn’t exactly simple. As a result, business leaders will need to think carefully in order to maximize the efficiency of their spend with Microsoft. (Importantly, nonprofits and government organizations are currently exempt from these changes.)

Below are the most important considerations to think through.