Small Business
Recovery Survey

Whether due to employees’ health concerns, caregiving responsibilities or shifting career perspectives, many small and midsize businesses report they are concerned about ongoing difficulties in hiring or retaining staff. 

To compensate, most business decision makers now see work flexibility as important as other benefits to improve hiring and retain employees.

In many cases, strong broadband and more robust digital collaboration tools mean roles can be filled and duties can be performed regardless of physical location.

Key stats

• Security is a top concern: Security tools for phones and devices (48% vs. 23%), secure cloud backup (46% vs. 26%), and devices for employee connectivity (45% vs. 28%) followed suit. 50% of respondents believe that endpoint vulnerabilities are a business risk, and 59% will require multi-factor logins to access systems within the next year, while 56% are training employees on best cybersecurity practices.
• Optimism: 68% say their business will be better off a year from now than it is today. Most respondents (53%) agreed that the overall state of their business is much (17%) or somewhat better off (36%) now compared to August of 2020, while 27% say it's about the same.
• Technology adoption on the rise: Nearly 2 in 3 decision makers (63%) say they are using digital tools and technologies to enhance customer experiences and create new business opportunities, compared to just over half who were doing so this time last year (53%). Technology adoption grew rapidly since August 2020, as more small businesses purchased and implemented new connectivity solutions with strong bandwidth (52% vs. 27% in the previous survey).
• Flexible schedules as important as healthcare: 74% of respondents said flexibility was as equally important as health insurance for attracting and retaining talent at their business.

Technology adoption driven by COVID-19 remains a significant focus for small and midsize businesses as social distancing and remote working forces them to seek stronger bandwidth and more robust digital tools and technologies to keep things running. 

About a third of decision makers say their business purchased or upgraded antivirus software, implemented multi-factor authentication for accounts and upgraded network security practices in response to cybersecurity threats.

Following the heavy growth in technology, business decision makers are now becoming more concerned about ensuring the security of transactions and company networks.