Authentication problems cost frontline organizations an average of 32,400 working hours annually, with 37% of frontline workers experiencing issues monthly, losing approximately 2.5 hours each. These friction points force workers to use workarounds and bypass security controls, creating accountability gaps and security risks that modern passwordless authentication methods can address.
- 37% of frontline workers experience authentication issues monthly, averaging 11 interruptions and 2.5 hours lost per worker
- An average organization with 2,800 frontline workers loses 32,400 working hours annually due to authentication delays
- 95% of organizations report workers using workarounds: staying logged in (40%), bypassing multi-factor authentication (36%), and sharing credentials (33%)
- 99% of organizations using passwordless authentication report benefits including faster access (38%), improved productivity (36%), and better visibility (33%)
- 57% of organizations report confirmed or suspected AI-assisted employee impersonation in the past 12 months, with 48% very concerned about AI-enabled threats
Authentication problems for frontline workers are delaying patient care, production and deliveries across industries, according to Frontline Friction: The State of Authentication for Frontline Workers, a new report from Imprivata.
In fact, 34% (rising to 40% in healthcare) report authentication difficulties delaying patient care, production, delivery and/or other frontline work.
“It's easy to underestimate the impact of a few extra authentication steps, but when those interruptions happen repeatedly across thousands of frontline workers, the cost adds up quickly. And the consequences go beyond lost time. When security controls don't match the way people work, they unintentionally create incentives to bypass them,” says Joel Burleson-Davis, chief technology and security officer at Imprivata. “We should be using modern identity and access approaches to remove workflow friction while strengthening our confidence that only appropriate access is getting through to critical systems. That's how we make both the workforce and the organization more secure.”
Key takeaways:
· Organizations estimate that 37% of their frontline workers experience an authentication issue in a typical month. Each affected worker is interrupted around 11 times and loses an average of 2.5 hours of working time a month. For an average organization in this survey with around 2,800 frontline workers, it adds up to 32,400 working hours lost annually.
· Nearly all organizations (95%) have observed frontline workers using workarounds because of authentication difficulties: staying logged in to avoid re-authentication (40%), attempting to bypass multi-factor authentication or other controls (36%) and sharing credentials (33%). The result is an accountability gap: only 40% of decision-makers are very confident that frontline access can be attributed to the correct individual.
· 57% of organizations report confirmed or suspected AI-assisted or deepfake employee impersonation in the past 12 months, with 23% confirming an incident. That sits alongside 62% reporting a confirmed or suspected unauthorized account-recovery, password-reset or unlock attempt, and 60% reporting social-engineering attempts targeting the service desk. This new reality is also reflected in how concerned frontline organizations are: 48% are very or extremely concerned about AI-enabled impersonation, the same proportion as for conventional social engineering.
· To simplify workflows and reduce friction for frontline staff, organizations are turning to passwordless authentication methods, with 99% of those using them reporting at least one benefit. For organizations using passkeys without a password, the most-reported benefits include 38% report faster access; 36% report improved productivity; 33% report improved visibility into who is accessing systems.
· Two-thirds of organizations (67%) remain password-based or inconsistent in their approach, and only 5% describe frontline authentication as fully passwordless. While 28% use passkeys or FIDO credentials, only 15% use them without a traditional password, meaning nearly half of passkey users still keep a password alongside.
