CEO Josh Pickus outlines vision for a truly modern workplace
When COVID-19 shut down normal operations, Net Health needed to reinvent itself as a virtual company overnight. With first-hand experience as to the benefits of the model, Net Health is now moving to a permanent Work from Anywhere (WFA) model. Josh Pickus, the company’s CEO, described the Company’s journey to the new model during a presentation at the National Association of Rehabilitation Providers and Agencies (NARA) Fall Virtual Conference on September 23.
“What started as a reaction to a public health crisis has revealed itself to be a strategic opportunity to reinvent how we operate,” said Pickus. “We have been able to deliver new solutions for our customers, supporting their critical efforts on the front lines of the pandemic, while offering our team much greater flexibility to integrate their professional and personal lives in a truly modern way.”
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Benefits of WFA
Net Health provides cloud-based software for specialty medical providers across the continuum of healthcare – from hospital to home. The company serves over 14,000 facilities, including 98 percent of the largest hospital chains, two-thirds of skilled nursing facilities as well as many leading hospice organizations and private practices.
“As we observed the company operating in the WFA mode, we identified several benefits from continuing it long-term,” said Pickus. Benefits include:
- Recruiting. WFA enables Net Health to hire the most qualified candidates, regardless of location.
- Employee retention. Allowing flexibility for remote work makes employees happy, and happy employees stay longer.
- Reduced costs. Fewer offices mean lower facility costs.
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Technology, Operational and Culture Steps Towards WFA
Net Health’s robust technology infrastructure enabled it to pivot quickly and seamlessly to WFA mode. The next step was closing seven offices after receiving strong support for WFA from the employee base. But without offices, would employees still feel supported and connected to the company—and each other?
“We see WFA as an opportunity to create an even stronger community,” asserted Pickus. “The questions we asked ourselves were ‘How do we ensure we can support the needs of the NH team as we transition from offices?’ and ‘How do we continue to drive culture and community as we decouple from our physical spaces?'”
Financial support is an important piece. Workers with a salary of less than $100,000 will receive a one-time transition payment of $500, and those with a salary of less than $70,000 will receive a monthly stipend of $50 per month beginning in January 2021. “This policy seeks to standardize inconsistent policies that have grown up over the years and treat employees in a fair and reasonable way,” noted Pickus.
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Community-building efforts will include:
- Regular team meetings—Largely virtual now; in-person as conditions permit
- Engaging communication—All-team calls; CEO emails; one-on-ones on camera (with kids and pets)
- Virtual events—Field trips; virtual team lunches, coffee chats and happy hours; game nights; pet sharing
- Local social events— lunch together for All-Team calls, wings and beer or soda “just because”
- Affinity groups around Women in Technology, Black Lives Matter, Company Cultural events and more
Pickus notes that nothing about the Company’s performance-oriented culture will change. “In a WFA world, metrics will matter, but we don’t need offices to monitor any of them,” Pickus maintained. “We will continue to measure key metrics, such as uptime of our applications, software development speed and quality, cycle time for client implementations, time to resolution for support tickets, sales bookings to forecast and cash collections, and monitor performance aggressively.”
“To us, building a remote workplace is about moving toward something better than we had before,” Pickus concluded. “We are creating a stronger, more connected community, unrestricted by geographic location or office walls, where all sorts of valuable connections can be made to enhance productivity, both professionally and personally.
“This is the beginning of a bold, new journey. We’ll learn and evolve as we go.”
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