So, what has virtualization meant for employees, customers, and partners? How does the virtual nature of our company affect the way we do business at PSIGEN? Allow us to share our perspective after ten years as a virtual company.
Virtualization Increases Productivity
The national commute time average is about 25 minutes. Taking into account that workers need to get to and from work, that’s about an hour of the day that’s lost commuting for the average American. Other factors like settling in for the day, popping in to chit-chat with coworkers and facing frequent interruptions throughout the day also hamper productivity. Not having to deal with these distractions helps remote employees get focused more quickly and be more productive throughout the day.
Don’t take it from us, a 2-year Stanford University study discovered “astonishing” increases in productivity: “Additionally (and incredibly), employee attrition decreased by 50 percent among the telecommuters, they took shorter breaks, had fewer sick days, and took less time off. Not to mention the reduced carbon emissions from fewer autos clogging up the morning commute.”
“Oh, and by the way, the company saved almost $2,000 per employee on rent by reducing the amount of HQ office space.”
Remote Work Promotes Trust
Since it’s essentially impossible to micro-manage a remote team, each employee is responsible for his or her own tasks. This empowers employees to become leaders and to take ownership of their work in a way that is truly unique to a virtual office. Employees in a virtual environment are less “hours-worked” -oriented and more goal-driven, which fosters a strong team environment and leads to overall more satisfied employees and decreased turnover.
The Company Spends Less on Overhead
At PSIGEN, we’re able to appropriate more money to developing new features, improving our products and hiring the best people to do that, because we’re not spending thousands of dollars each month for office space, utilities, hardware and other typical business expenses.
Virtual Companies Access More Top Talent
Because our company isn’t limited to a particular city or region, we are able to seek out and hire the best people for the job anywhere in the world, who increasingly expect to work remotely for at least part of their week. What that really translates to is looking out for our partners and customers by finding the best possible employees to take care of their needs, solve their problems, and develop software that improves their lives.
Flexibility Benefits Everyone
Flexibility is at the top of every employee’s wish list. Being able to choose their own hours and work from anywhere in the world is a huge perk for employees. But flexibility also benefits the business as a whole, including the company’s partners and customers.
Employees with a healthy work/life balance are generally happier, more productive, and more likely to stay with their companies. This benefits the company as a whole because it leads to having a committed workforce and eliminates the need for constant rehiring. It also benefits the company’s partners and customers, because employees who are more satisfied with their jobs offer better customer service, more innovative ideas, and are more driven to strive for excellence in everything they do.
Taking Our Own Medicine
The dispersion of our team across the country and globally means that while we don’t have one central office, we have offices across the nation and throughout the world, making it easier to serve our customers and partners. Using both our PSIcapture advanced document capture for AP invoice processing and PSIsafe cloud document management for HR allows us to work efficiently and cost-effectively while eliminating grunt work.
And of course, as a virtual company we are experiencing far less disruption as the result of the pandemic and even fewer worries about the health of our employees.
But crises aside, the real argument for our business model is the record growth that we have experienced over the last ten years, expanding into new areas, such as Asia Pacific and Europe, and launching an array of new products that have made us a leader in our field.
While we are all facing a difficult time, we continue to believe in the growth of our company and look forward to the continued creation of new products, new job opportunities, and beneficial partnerships.
In the meantime, we are here for you. Reach out to us if we can help you on your path to a better business model, or simply help you with a solution or two.
Contact us to learn more about document capture and management software