As the world closely monitors and tracks the spread and impact of the new corona virus, business leaders are making decisions about how to mitigate the risk and keep everyone safe and healthy. In the government contracting community, executives are enacting procedures and policies to protect employees, customers and partners while continuing to provide government agencies with the services, solutions and mission-critical support they need.
In this series, WashingtonExec will highlight these leaders and how they are tackling this crisis, in an effort to share best practices in industry and shed light on the virus’ impact on the nation.
1901 Group
1901 Group, led by founder and CEO Sonu Singh and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, employs more than 350 people and subject matter experts, and serves all areas of the federal government and beyond — including federal civilian, defense agencies, law enforcement, commercial markets and national security.
The company provides services and solutions in cloud, cybersecurity, engineering and application development at the federal level, so WashingtonExec asked the 1901 Group team as a whole how it’s adapting with a employee-care approach during COVID-19.
What innovative workplace policies/practices has your company embraced to minimize the impact of COVID-19?
During this unique time in our history, we have prioritized employee care, customer service and community stewardship. To protect themselves and the larger communities, our employees have all been assigned to telework status.
We have ensured that all of our employees have the necessary tools, connectivity and capability to fully perform their duties via a secure telework status. In light of the current world health crisis, we know we have to expect the unexpected with regard to family and personal circumstances. We’ve been able to implement a PTO bank, additional modes of communication and have developed telework guidance for these unique circumstances.
As an established provider of remote information technology managed services, 1901 Group is well-poised to shift seamlessly to telework status. Our FedRAMP-authorized support infrastructure has been designed, established, tested and externally validated to ensure that we will continue to support our customers in a highly secure and fully effective manner, regardless of the location of our staff.
To accentuate this point, we have seen spikes in remote support requirements as our customers enact their own telework policies, yet our teams continue to provide seamless, effective and efficient support despite the unfolding national crisis. 1901 Group is functioning and will continue to function at 100% operational capability, capacity and efficiency.
What has your company done to keep morale up internally for employees?
Living through a global pandemic is stressful, and things are changing almost on an hourly basis. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that we stay in daily and continuous communication with our employees to let them know what we are doing to help them, and not add to their stress.
We are sending positive messages, assuring our employees we’re here to help and emphasizing additional offerings from some of our vendors, including insurance and employee assistance program benefits for managing increased anxiety and depression.
How has the policy for travel or attending large conferences changed?
Consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization guidance, our employees have been provided instruction on recommended and mandatory quarantine. All nonessential work travel has been restricted.