A Smooth Transition to Remote Work for Fairview Health Services
At Fairview Health Services, a major modernization initiative helped drive the introduction of remote work and accounts for its continued popularity today. It has also been key to the health system’s telehealth program and the “eVisits” offered through its virtual clinic.
The Minneapolis-based organization, which has more than 100 physical locations, migrated to Microsoft 365 before the pandemic. The new platform made remote work feasible, says IT Infrastructure Director Jason Garbisch, “but working from home was still very much the exception, something you might do on a snow day.”
Today, the picture is very different for many of Fairview Health Services’ 34,000 employees. The health system uses Windows 11 Enterprise to better leverage the apps and services in M365, and the IT team relies on ServiceNow to optimize remote support and management.
Like other organizations in 2020, Fairview Health Services learned that many business workflows could continue as usual without the full workforce in the office. It found success in remotely connecting people to its networks, and it learned that telehealth (and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams) could enable communication as needed.
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“Looking back, it took a lot of planning and training, but the transition was mostly seamless and happened really fast,” Garbisch says. “I think it set us up for where we are now with hybrid and remote work.”
Fairview Health Services’ remote capabilities should only improve in the future, he adds, especially as it adopts artificial intelligence and automation to further modernize its computing environment.
There’s another consideration that may also boost the long-term prospects for remote work: Organizations can reel in escalating costs by minimizing the unnecessary use of expensive real estate. “Fortunately, what we’re finding is that people can work remotely and be just as productive as they are in the office,” Garbisch says.
He knows this because Fairview Health Services has conducted internal studies, but also because he sometimes gets the chance to work from home himself. “When I don’t go in, I can save an hour to 90 minutes each day just on the commute time. It helps me be more productive right away, and I don’t get frustrated sitting in traffic,” he adds.
Although Garbisch is only responsible for the technologies of remote work and not the organization’s policies governing when it’s permissible, he has a prediction: “I personally think remote work is here to stay.”
