Our perception and expectations of the workplace are being tested in real-time as we adjust to a remote work environment. Many industries and companies are having to figure out how to collaborate, stay productive, and support their market and customer positions with a distributed workforce and resource pool.
Nowhere is this more important than in the healthcare industry, where employees and their organizations are on the front lines of responding and supporting us through the COVID-19 pandemic. Managed Care Organizations (MCOs or Health Insurance providers) are a vital part of our healthcare system. Like the rest of us, they are rapidly embracing a new reality of having to support their members and providers from home while ensuring they are even more responsive, customer-facing, and efficient. Some MCOs may have already invested in robust continuity plans and extensive infrastructure to support a remote workplace in case of a disaster. Still, I suspect none considered a disaster of the scale of COVID-19, where everyone is affected so dramatically. As we recover and begin returning to “normal,” MCOs must consider how to prepare for the next wave of COVID-19 or another similar pandemic or unplanned disaster – I review three broad areas of focus below
These areas can collectively lead to an improvement in the service provided to MCO customers – Members and Providers – lasting far beyond our current pandemic.
COVID-19 is forcing us to test the waters of a fully remote workforce, and we should not think of it as a short-term solution. Instead, we should consider this as the start of a new way of collaboration going forward that can dramatically improve the service provided to members and providers if implemented strategically.
While there are challenges with a flexible and remote workforce, recent data show many employee benefits, including enhanced performance, improved morale, and improved effectiveness.
Core operations roles for MCOs – member and provider support as an example – have parallels to other shared-service customer service and call-center functions. Therefore, they have existing use-cases and supporting platforms to enable remote work flexibility. Call-center, and service work, in general, can quickly become isolating without a culture aimed to drive interaction and collaboration. Finding the right balance of flexibility, establishing methods to manage the work, building the sense of a team, and tracking progress for individuals as they grow their careers becomes the challenge is required to foster success in remote work environments.