Why Virtual Workplaces Work
In an age of uncertainty, some things are certain. Virtual Workplaces can and do work. CODY has been a virtual company since inception. We are innovators, not just in the marketplace, but in how we operate internally. Our culture embraces automation and we are constantly increasing our productivity. We believe in bottom line ROI results both for our clients and our own unique business model.
CODY has never had a traditional brick and mortar headquarters. We don’t believe in it. Our entrepreneurial spirit can be seen throughout our organization. Our employees still have a start-up mentality, with an attitude of “whatever it takes to get the job done” that drives our culture.
Here are some tips that have worked for us on how to successfully staff virtual workplaces:
- Hire the best employees regardless of where they live. Physical location doesn’t matter. Don’t limit yourself to seeking staff in your hometown. Search the entire country and indeed the world for the best talent. This “get the best of the best” model will provide a few surprising benefits:
- No employee relocations
- The workforce is immediately flexible and adaptable
- For support issues, you’ll have instant coverage across many time zones
- Look for employees who are self-starters with the self-discipline to work from home
- Empower your employees with all the equipment they need to do their jobs. Backup PCs for those in critical job roles will provide immediate recovery if needed.
Being early adopters of online meeting software–GoToMeeting, RingCentral, and Cloud Storage/File sharing systems like Syncplicity has enabled our employees to work anytime, anywhere. We also believe in cross-training and have redundancy in many workplace aspects. For example, we maintain multiple print vendors in our CodySoft® Communications division so that we can send print jobs to the closest vendor with the shortest lead time for any given job.
A recent CNBC story further documents the changing nature of both education and remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ann Marie Sastry, founder and CEO of Amesite, an AI-enabled remote learning software company, described how “Most workers like the flexibility of being able to work at least in part remote.”
She went on to say that: “The tech for education has been behind the tech in the commercial sectors…The answer is pretty obvious, get better software systems. And that theme runs through all of society, not just education but for remote work…There’s nothing more critical than education. Education is the foundation of the economy. When we look at what happened when workforces have gone remote, a skill gap is now apparent, that people who formerly worked only on ground or maybe only partially online need to move more online and become more autonomous and so the critical thing is to have workforce training and have that delivered in an engaging way so that people can be successful.”
In an article entitled Home Sweet Office by Clive Thompson in the New York Times Magazine of June 14, 2020, the lead-in states that “Remote work has turned out to be more productive than some employers expected.” In the article, author Thompson cites several studies. “For those who chose to work remotely, productivity rose by 4.4 percent, according to a study by Prithwiraj Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School, and two colleagues.”
The article concludes by suggesting that telecommuting or working at home may be the new model for many kinds of corporate work. CODY plans to conduct “business as usual” in its distinctive virtual workplace model and will continue to be a groundbreaking leader in creating technology-driven solutions for the health plan market.
To learn more about our business model, products, or services, please contact us.
About CODY: CODY works with more than 60 government-funded, commercial and ACA health plans across 45 states and Puerto Rico. We help health plans maximize efficiencies and strategically integrate operations by streamlining marketing communications and improving regulatory compliance. Our proprietary suite of software, CodySoft®, is specifically designed for health plans. www.codyconsulting.com.