New Year, Continued Opportunity for Growth

By: Jenna Harrity

2020 brought changes and challenges to iWorks, including adjusting to a fully remote workspace. Yet, with change came opportunities for growth – and iWorks rose to the occasion. Virtual events like “Virtual Cafes“ and reimagined holiday season traditions changed the way employees interact with each other while maintaining effective communication strategies, and in 2020, employees identified iWorks as a Top Workplace in the Washington, DC area for the fifth time.

Words from our executive team:

When asked to describe iWorks in 2020, the iWorks executive team emphasized the words “resilience,” “dedication,” “commitment,” and “adaptability.”

“No one could have predicted how long COVID-19 would last,” said Charlie Sowell, COO of iWorks. “But in hindsight, we were well prepared and continued our operations unimpeded.”

Further, iWorks President and CEO, Jothi Radhakrishnan said, “we were able to turn the challenge of transitioning to a fully remote workspace into a success primarily through the combination of pre-COVID preparedness and post-COVID scaling-up execution, which happened across our teams.”

“On the preparedness front, our admin teams had well established remote work policies,” Radhakrishnan continued. “And DISS, for example, which is one of our largest teams, is dependent on technology infrastructure such as secure access to servers within our data centers. During the initial days of COVID, our IT infrastructure team proactively identified the need to scale-up our VPN capability and implemented this within the first two weeks.”

In addition to employee preparedness, iWorks turned the remote space into wins in other ways. These included hiring employees from outside the DMV area and improving our day–to–day virtual communication.

“We leveraged technology to eliminate the barriers of remote work,” said Sowell. “For example, we used video teleconferencing to not simply have conversations, but to bring teams together visually.”

And this distanced success means iWorks can recruit from outside the DMV; we now have employees across the country. “Physical location is no longer a barrier,” Sowell said.

Physical location is no longer a barrier.

As iWorks looks forward into the new year, undoubtedly one of continued change, the executives are looking forward to continued growth, as well as maintaining iWorks’ order of business, including “establishing human connections, marketing the iWorks services to new customers, attending technology conferences and outreach events in person,” said Raj Kathamuthu, Vice President and CTO.

In addition, Kathamuthu said, “cybersecurity has always been at the forefront of our mission, but in 2021, it is going to be emphasized more at iWorks. We expect the cost of doing business securely will continue to climb for years to come.”

And on the business development end, Sowell said “we expect exponential growth based on our recent DCSA VROC/CAF support win. New business development opportunities will create additional spaces for growth for our employees.”

The keyword is growth.

“For the company, growth is crucial to the long-term survival of a business; it provides a platform for employees to achieve their professional aspirations,” said Radhakrishnan.

“And for the employees, growth refers to gaining new skills and work experience that can help them to reach their short term and long–term professional goals.”

Words to take with you in the new year:

• “Stay strong – you all performed admirably over the past year. Remember your mental health is as important as your physical health. We will get through this temporary crisis together.” – Sowell
• “Let me start with this quote – ‘The future depends on what we do in the present.’ – Mahatma Gandhi

As individuals and a company, our growth depends on what we do in the present. To reach our full potential, let us communicate and work together to assess our passions, skills, and priorities, and let us be proactive and committed to act on them.” – Radhakrishnan